The Tribe Has Spoken

With the NHL's Stanley Cup Plaoffs wrapping up last night, another postseason of Survivor: NHL Playoffs also came to a close as we looked to crown a winner. Sixteen people started the contest hoping that their randomly-selected team would advance to the Stanley Cup Final before winning the NHL's top trophy, but only one person would get to claim that honour. The prize vault needed emptying, so let's get to who did all the winning this year on Survivor: NHL Playoffs!

We'll start with the Challenge Prizes that were being handed out as teams achieved certain points of greatness. The challenges were:

• First shutout recorded in the playoffs.
• First hat trick recorded in the playoffs.
• First goaltender point recorded in the playoffs.
• First team eliminated from the playoffs.
• First to advance from the second round to the third round.
• First team to score seven goals in one game in the playoffs.
• First upset of the playoffs.

The first shutout went to the Florida Panthers back on April 24 when they shutout the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game Two of their first-round series, so Will earned himself a challenge prize there while also grabbing the first upset as Florida ousted Tampa Bay on April 30.

Ethan put his mark on the Survivor contest when he scored two prizes on the same night when the St. Louis Blues hung seven goals on the Winnipeg Jets on April 24 with Pavel Buchnevich scoring a hat trick.

Derek grabbed himself a prize after the New Jersey Devils were the first team eliminated from the playoffs on April 29, and GM Jared picked up a prize by having the Edmonton Oilers become the first team to advance to the third round. Prizes for all challenges will be organized and we'll be contacting winners in the coming days.

The only challenge that went unclaimed this season was the goaltender point, and that surprises me because of how most of the netminders in these playoffs don't have a problem sending an outlet pass up the ice. I can't remember the last time this prize wasn't handed out, so it's been a while. We'll figure out what to do with this prize, but rest assured we'll give it away as well.

Of course, everyone was gunning for one of the two NHL jerseys we were giving away as the grand prizes. Winning the Stanley Cup allowed the winner to choose between a blue Seattle Kraken jersey and a white Buffalo Sabres buffa-slug jersey, and we'd tack on a few other prizes as well. The finalist who fell short would win the other jersey, but receive no additional accoutrements with that jersey.

Not surprisingly, both finalists won challenges this season as GM Jared and his Edmonton Oilers squared off against Will and his Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final. I don't need to remind you who won, so congratulations to Will as he earns the 2025 Survivor: NHL Playoffs crown! We'll reach out tomorrow, Will, so we can get the grand prize to you, but the random teams worked out well for you!

Jason and I will get everything sorted out and we'll start contacting people tomorrow for prizing. No, we haven't forgotten about anyone - we simply left all the prizing until the end of the contest this year to ensure we have everyone covered. We'll work through all these prizes and make sure everyone has their prizing in-hand by July!

Thanks to everyone who entered the Survivor: NHL Playoffs this season, and we'll do this again next season... assuming The Hockey Show hasn't been cancelled by then. All jokes aside, thanks for making the playoffs fun for Jason and I with the exit interviews and the chatter, and we'll do this all again when we put sixteen more people on Survivor: NHL Playoffs island in 2026!

Until next time, keep yor sticks on the ice!