Lightning’s Pat Maroon wins third straight Stanley Cup title

Pat Maroon has won his third straight Stanley Cup, and second in a row with the Tampa Bay Lightning following their 1-0, Game 5 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

The 33-year-old Maroon played all 23 games of the Lightning’s 2021 Cup run, scoring two goals and recording four points. He is now the first NHL player to win three consecutive titles since multiple New York Islanders players who were part of their four-peat in the early 1980s.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Maroon told NBC Sports’ Pierre McGuire after Game 5. “It’s hard to win one, but to go back-to-back is even harder.”

Maroon now joins Ed Litzenberger (Chicago, Toronto – 1961-63) and Eddie Gerard (Ottawa, Toronto – 1920-22) as the only players to win three Cups in a row with two different teams. Gerard would go on to win four straight titles. The NHL record for consecutive Cups by a player is held by 11 members of the Canadiens dynasty from 1955-56 to 1959-60.

He is now tied with Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin and Jonathan Toews for most Cup wins among active players.

It was two years that Maroon was his first Cup while as a member of his hometown St. Louis Blues. The Blues would beat the Boston Bruins in seven game during the 2019 Stanley Cup Final. He would sign a one-year deal to join the Lightning that summer and helped the franchise to its second ever championship last September while in the Edmonton bubble. 

In a good place, Maroon signed a two-year extension to stay in Tampa Bay last October, and it has proved to be a good decision.

“Once you have that Stanley Cup, there’s no other feeling like it and you just want more of it,” Maroon said.

————

Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.