Four Indigenous Players Vie for the Stanley Cup

By Miles Morrisseau. ICT.

Four Indigenous players have a chance to hoist the coveted Stanley Cup this year.

Zach Whitecloud, Dakota Sioux, of the Vegas Golden Knights, and Brandon Montour, Mohawk, of the Florida Panthers, will join Métis players Connor Dewar and Calen Addison with the Minnesota Wild in the National Hockey League playoffs beginning Monday, April 17.

The Knights are the odds-on favorite among the clubs as they finished atop the Western Conference. Minnesota finished sixth in the East and will match up against the Dallas Stars.

The Panthers clawed their way into the playoffs as an Eastern Conference wild card, but it's safe to say they're already in playoff mode, with the 29-year-old Montour from the Six Nations of the Grand River leading the way.

"Brandon is an offensive guy who skates very well and has had a fantastic season," former NHL player and APTN analyst John Chabot, Kitigan Zibi Algonquin, told ICT. "People were waiting for the promise of what he could become and he's become that this year. A point guy, a top-four guy, and he's eating up a lot of minutes."

The four are among 10 Indigenous players in the National Hockey League, and, if they make it all the way, would be the first in five years to win the Stanley Cup.

Aggressive styles

The Florida Panthers were going in the wrong direction this season when Montour turned their fortunes around in a matter of minutes.

With eight games left in the season, they were fighting for one of the last two wild card spots in the East and had lost four games in a row. With a minute left in the March 29 game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montour set up player Sam Reinhart to send the game into overtime.

At 1:41 in the overtime period, Montour scored the game-winner and the Panthers set off on a six-game winning streak that put them right back into the 2023 playoffs.

The points put him at the top of two impressive records: he is the highest scoring defenseman in Panthers history and has the most game-winning goals on the team this season.

Montour scored points in every game during that run, including two assists in a 3-2 win over his former team, the Buffalo Sabres, and four points - one goal and three assists - in a 7-2 rout of the Ottawa Senators. The Panthers lost 2-1 to the Leafs in the penultimate game of the season, but still earned a point. That was enough to punch their ticket to the end of the season dance. The goal that got the team into the playoffs was scored by Montour.

Over in the West, the Golden Knights have established themselves as a favorite to bring the cup home to Sin City. They have met expectations so far, finishing at the top of the Western Conference. The franchise was launched in 2017 and is the second youngest in the league. The team benefitted from a very favorable entrance draft and has been competitive since inception.

The Las Vegas team drafted Whitecloud in 2017 out of the Bemidji State University hockey program. He got one game in during the 2017-2018 season and played most of the 2018 season with the American Hockey League-affiliate Chicago Wolves before joining the big leagues full time in 2019.

The defenseman finished the season strong with three points in the last five games and nearly 22 minutes of ice time. Reprinted with permission.