Former UMass hockey defenseman Brandon Montour became the fourth UMass player in program history to win the Stanley Cup as a player after the Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Monday night.

Florida scout PJ Fenton, who went to Cathedral High School and played at UMass from 2004 to 2008, also hoisted the Cup.

Florida’s win makes it three straight years a UMass alum has won the Cup – Jonathan Quick won it last year with the Vegas Golden Knights and Cale Makar won it two years ago with the Colorado Avalanche. A UMass player has won the Cup seven times. Quick has won it three times (also for the Los Angeles Kings in 2012 and 2014) and Conor Sheary won it twice with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017.

Montour played one season for UMass in 2014-15 before joining the Anaheim Ducks, who had taken him 55th overall in the 2014 NHL Draft, making him the highest-drafted UMass player in history at the time. He didn’t enroll until December and signed with the Ducks in March, but in his 21 games with the Minutemen he tallied three goals and 17 assists, good for the fourth-most points among all freshmen defenseman despite not playing the full season. He was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie team.

Though he didn’t stay for long, Montour’s commitment to UMass rewarded the Minutemen’s early recruiting efforts. He won USHL Defenseman and Player of the Year in 2013-14 before coming to UMass and NCAA eligibility issues kept him in the USHL for what would have been his freshman fall semester in Amherst.

Montour appeared in all 24 of Florida’s playoff games this season and helped hold Edmonton’s red-hot offense to just one goal in the deciding game after the Oilers rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to force Game 7. He recorded 11 points in the playoffs on three goals and eight assists.

This was Montour’s eighth season in the NHL and fourth with the Panthers after a trade from the  Buffalo Sabres in 2021.