Florida Panthers’ names engraved on Stanley Cup with one notable person missing
Disgraced former executive Doug Cifu did not get name engraved on trophy this year
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With the Stanley Cup set to embark on its summer tour with the Florida Panthers as they celebrate their second straight championship, each member of the team will be able to point to their name on the trophy.
In a video posted on social media Saturday, the Panthers showed off the freshly engraved Cup, featuring all 52 members of the team’s ownership, front office, coaching staff and, of course, player roster.
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The names start with Vincent Viola and members of his family, who make up the ownership group. Then comes front-office and coaching staff, followed by 24 players.
Aleksander Barkov is the first name among the players and is marked with ‘CAPT’ as the team’s captain. His teammates are then listed in alphabetical order, from Uvis Balinskis down to Carter Verhaeghe. Of the 24 players etched into the Cup, 14 also had a place on the roster from the 2023-24 champions.
Among the first-timers are defencemen Balinskis, Seth Jones and Nate Schmidt, forwards Jesper Boqvist, A.J. Greer, Tomas Nosek and Mackie Samoskevich and goalie Vitek Vanecek.
But one name was noticeably absent: Doug Cifu.
Cifu, whose name is included alongside members of the 2023-24 Cup winners as a part-owner and executive, resigned after making several vulgar posts on social media earlier this year.
Cifu, the team’s vice-chairman, partner and alternate governor, appeared to have made several disturbing comments on social media Sunday night after watching his team defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 4 of their NHL playoff series.
The post on X appeared to take shots at a Leafs fan and Canada in general, while commenting on the conflict between Israel and Hamas in screenshots taken of posts that have now been made private.
WARNING: Vulgar language
“Eat s— 51st state anti semite loser. Israel now and forever. Until ever (sic) last Hamas rat is eliminated,” the X account allegedly belonging to Cifu posted.
Cifu later apologized for his “regrettable” comments in a statement to Florida Hockey Now.
“Two days ago, I posted regrettable and inflammatory comments on social media,” Cifu said in the statement. “My behaviour does not reflect the standards of the Florida Panthers organization and the Viola family.
“I sincerely apologize to all those affected by my comments. I am committed to working with the NHL to amend my actions.”
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Cifu’s viral post was a reply to @mrgrozz, a Toronto sports fan account that has bragged about trolling sports team owners in the past.
In the original post, which has been reposted as a screenshot, Dr. Grizzo compared the controversial hits by the NHL team to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“Hey what’s worse, using headshots to win a series or using starvation as a weapon to win a war?” the post on X said.
Cifu allegedly replied, writing: “Actually being a whiny dope anti semite is clearly worse. Loser.”
“Not approving of using starvation as a weapon makes me a bigot? Got it,” Dr. Grizzo replied. “Get some sleep man, market opens early tomorrow. Best of luck frontrunning Robinhood traders you MAGA d— licker.”
After the exchange, the account appearing to belong to Cifu went private and was deactivated.
The NHL came down hard on Cifu, suspending him indefinitely from any and all involvement with the team and the league.
“The NHL has concluded that Mr. Cifu’s X posts were unacceptable and inappropriate. As a result, Mr. Cifu has been suspended indefinitely from any involvement with the club and the NHL,” the league said in a statement to Postmedia. “An in-person meeting will be scheduled with Mr. Cifu and the commissioner at a date to be determined.”
Cifu is still listed on the Panthers’ website as the team’s vice-chairman, partner and alternate governor.
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