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Trump Hosts the 2024 Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers, Feb. 3, 2025

February 3, 2025 · The White House · 0:18:53

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump hosted the 2024 Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers, at the White House on Feb. 3, 2025, carried on the White House channel (the upload’s description congratulates the Panthers on an unbelievable season). The President recounted the final as he watched it: the Panthers up three games, then losing three, before pulling out the title - a real champion’s comeback, as he described it - and congratulated the team on its first ever Stanley Cup win.

He named team owner Vinnie Viola and his sons, head coach Paul Maurice, general manager Bill Zito, president and CEO Matthew Caldwell, and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman among those in the room, along with Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody and a delegation of Florida House members, as he introduced them. He credited captain Aleksander Barkov, whom he described as crowned the league’s best defensive forward, in the ceremony’s player honors, as the event presented them.

Why it matters

The Panthers visit is the championship-reception tradition resumed in the term’s third week - the first title team honored at this White House, and the template for the champions’ receptions this chronicle records alongside the policy record.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Hosts the 2024 Stanley Cup Champions the Florida Panthers” (YouTube, 2025-02-03) - official description and broadcast transcript as aired.