At the start of 2025, I worked with Eric Stephens on a post that asked the question: Which state has been the NHL’s best of the cap era, California or Florida? It was a fun debate, and at the end, we let you have your say in a reader survey that came out almost exactly 50/50.

Then the Panthers rolled to yet another Stanley Cup, and kind of ruined the bit. Finally, a valid reason to dislike that team.

It’s fine, because now it’s Slow News Summer and we can get a little more eccentric. So today, I’m going to tackle a question originally posted by a Puck Soup listener a few weeks ago: Has the 2020s state of Florida passed the 1980s Alberta dynasty?

It’s a tough one. It’s also, you could argue, four years early, which is a fair point in Florida’s favor. Still, you never know what the future will bring. And it’s not like our arbitrary end points don’t hurt Alberta too, since they lose the 1990 Cup by a few months, the Flames were still in Atlanta until the summer of 1980, and the decade’s first few years are basically a write-off.

So let’s do this. It’s basically a battle of Old School Canada vs. New Era Southern Markets, which means everyone should be very chill and reasonable about it. Off we go …

Championships won

They don’t ask how, they ask how many.

The case for 2020s Florida: They’re sitting at four and counting, with the Lightning winning in 2020 and 2021, while the Panthers won in 2024 and 2025.

The case for 1980s Alberta: They won five — four by the Oilers (in 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988) and one by the Flames (1989). Of course, the Oilers also won in 1990, which doesn’t count for our purposes but still feels like it’s worth mentioning.

Edge: Alberta leads for now, but four Cups in six years is a better percentage than five in 10. With Florida needing only one more title to tie the score, and having four seasons to find it, this one is still in play. For now, let’s call it close to even.

Playoff success

They probably should ask how. Specifically, how close did you come in the year when you weren’t winning?

The case for 2020s Florida: In addition to four titles, the state also has two losses in the final — the Lightning in 2022, and the Panthers in 2023. In other words, the state has been represented in all six Cup finals of the decade so far. The Panthers also won a round in 2022, giving them 12 series wins in the decade. But the Lightning are stuck at 11, having lost in the first round in each of the last three seasons.

The case for 1980s Alberta: Just like Florida, each team has one Stanley Cup Final loss, with the Oilers losing to the Islanders in 1983 and the Flames losing to the Habs in 1986. (Side note: Each team avenged that loss against the same opponent, which maybe shouldn’t count for much but is kind of neat.) All told, the Oilers won 20 rounds, while the Flames add 12.

Edge: Alberta, and this time it’s by enough of a gap that we can’t just assume the Florida teams will catch up over the next four years.

Regular season success

I’m a Leafs fan, humor me by pretending this matters.

The case for 2020s Florida: Our timeline hurts the Lightning here, as their record-breaking 2018-19 regular season misses the cut. In the 2020s, they actually haven’t finished first in their division, peaking with 110 points in 2022, and lately they’ve settled in around the 100-point mark. The Panthers can claim their Presidents’ Trophy-winning 122-point season in 2022, but other than that, they’ve mostly been a good regular-season team that finds a higher gear in the playoffs.

The case for 1980s Alberta: The Presidents’ Trophy was created in the mid-80s, and they might as well have just called it the Alberta Award, as the Oilers and Flames combined to win it the first four years, with Edmonton taking it in 1986 and 1987 while Calgary won in 1988 and 1999. The Oilers also had the best overall record in 1984, and were second-best in 1982 and 1985, and were third-best in 1983.

Edge: Alberta, and it’s not close. If anything, the Florida teams show us how little the regular season matters in the cap era, as both teams seem to have figured out that it’s better to pace yourself during the season rather than push for 120 points and an early exit.

Great players: Forward

Team success is great, but it’s the players who leave a legacy. We’ll break it down by position.

The case for 2020s Florida: Nikita Kucherov’s MVP year came in 2019, but he’s won back-to-back scoring titles and was this year’s Lindsay winner. He’s joined by big names such as Steven Stamkos, Matthew Tkachuk, Brayden Point and Sam Reinhart, but … yeah, this isn’t going to be close.

The case for 1980s Alberta: Peak Wayne Gretzky is probably enough to win this all on his own, but mix in Jari Kurri, Mark Messier, a 66-goal season from Lanny McDonald and Joe Nieuwendyk’s historic rookie year, and I think we can safely call this one.

Edge: Alberta by a mile kilometer.

Great players: Defense

Build from the blue line, as they say.

The case for 2020s Florida: Victor Hedman’s Norris came back in 2018, but he’s in the running pretty much every year and is generally recognized as one of the two or three best defensemen of his era. The Panthers have been more of a strength-by-committee group, with Aaron Ekblad as the cornerstone and Gustav Forsling playing the role of underrated stud.

The case for 1980s Alberta: Paul Coffey won the Norris in 1985 and 1986 and came close in other years. Sure, he was viewed as a defensive liability, but his offensive numbers were eye-popping — when you’re breaking Bobby Orr’s records, you’re pretty good. Mix in Al MacInnis and Gary Suter in Calgary, plus (ugh) Hall of Famer Kevin Lowe, and Alberta’s in good shape here.

Edge: Alberta takes this one too, although it’s closer than the forwards.

Great players: Goaltenders

I’m told it’s the most important position in the sport.

The case for 2020s Florida: Six years into the decade and it’s basically a two-man show. But both Sergei Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy are future Hall of Famers. Their three combined Vezinas all came in the 2010s, but they’ve been finalists four times this decade.

The case for 1980s Alberta: It’s much more of a mix, but the two big names — Grant Fuhr and Mike Vernon — are also Hall of Famers. Fuhr won one Vezina in 1988, while Vernon peaked as a runner-up the next year.

Edge: It’s close, but I think this one goes to Florida. Vernon’s HHOF induction was a surprise, and while Fuhr had a reputation as a big-game goalie, his numbers don’t hold up as well as others from his era.

Local income-tax rates

Just kidding.

Coaching

The man who runs the practices, sets the lineups, and most importantly, delivers the wacky postgame soundbites.

The case for 2020s Florida: The 2020s Panthers have won a ton with Paul Maurice, while also featuring cameos from Andrew Brunette and Joel Quenneville. The Lightning have been all Jon Cooper, and he’ll probably go into the books as the single best coach of his era, even if the Jack Adams voters apparently don’t agree.

The case for 1980s Alberta: The Oilers’ dynasty was basically all Glen Sather (with John Muckler taking over in 1989-90). The Flames were “Badger” Bob Johnson’s team for most of the 1980s, although it was Terry Crisp who won the Cup in 1989.

Edge: Somewhat weirdly, given all the winning these teams have done, Sather is the only one to win a Jack Adams. Still, I feel like this one is close to even, and maybe even tilts toward Florida.

Front offices

In the modern era, this means a GM and his team of dozens of assistants, analysts and miscellaneous hangers-on. In the 1980s, it was one old dude and a six-pack.

The case for 2020s Florida: Bill Zito has been on a hell of a run in Florida since taking over in September 2020, taking big swing after big swing while basically providing the blueprint for how to build a modern contender. In Tampa, Julien BriseBois inherited a largely prebuilt contender from Steve Yzerman in 2018 but has had to walk a tightrope to keep the core together while aggressively swapping in useful depth.

The case for 1980s Alberta: Just two names to know here, with Sather running things in Edmonton for the entire decade, while Cliff Fletcher was in charge in Calgary. If you were going to build a Mount Rushmore of NHL GMs, you could make a solid case that both guys would be on it.

Edge: Florida has been in fantastic hands, but this one has to go to Alberta. The fact that the Zito and BriseBois even make you stop and think about it for a minute is a tribute to the job they’ve done.

Head-to-head

Winning is nice and all, but did you also manage to make the other side feel bad?

The case for 2020s Florida: Both of the Panthers’ Cup wins have come against the Oilers, including a heart-breaking Game 7 loss in 2024 and this year’s anti-climactic rematch. And the Lightning once beat the Flames in the final, although that was back in 2004 and well outside of our time range.

The case for 1980s Alberta: Did not win a single game against a Florida-based team in the entire decade.

Edge: Huge edge to Florida.

Era adjustment

Context matters, so let’s get into it.

The case for 2020s Florida: Look, we can throw all the big names or impressive stats at the case that we want, but the Alberta teams have a massive advantage here. They played in an era where dynasties were the norm, and parity was a pipe dream. If you nailed a few drafts and/or shady personal services contracts with generational superstars, you could build a dream team and then keep that team together. The Alberta era came right after the Habs and Islanders had both won four straight Cups, which is to say that dominance was expected.

Compare that to what the Lightning and Panthers have done, in an era where the hard cap is supposed to force the best teams to shed talent. The league loves to brag about “competitive balance,” which is just fancy corporate speak for forced mediocrity. The degree of difficulty here is almost infinitely higher than it was back in the olden days. If the Panthers and Lightning are even close to the Oilers and Flames, then that should be enough for them to win the debate hands down.

The case for 1980s Alberta: For starters, the Oilers and Flames didn’t run the NHL back then, so it feels unfair to penalize them for the sin of epitomizing excellence in an era that actually celebrated that. Would the Gretzky Oilers have won four Cups in a hard cap era? We have no idea, and never will, because that’s not the era they played in. You can only play by the rules put in front of you, and the Oilers (and Flames) dominated that league. Trying to force some sort of era-adjusted thumb onto that scale feels wrong.

Edge: Florida, clearly. The question is how much of a conversion rate you want to try to apply.

And the winner is …

Up to you, of course.

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(Top photos of Aleksander Barkov and Wayne Gretzky with the Stanley Cup: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images and Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images)