Meet the Broward County native who made history by winning the Stanley Cup
The Florida Panthers’ two-year run as Stanley Cup champions is over, but Broward County has a new NHL champion to celebrate.
Beyond lifting the Cup, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere made history as the third Florida-born player, second Broward County native and first from Pembroke Pines to capture hockey’s ultimate prize.
A product of Broward County’s youth hockey scene, Gostisbehere played for local travel teams and attended Broward County Public Schools before embarking on his professional career.
These days, Gostisbehere, who also has played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Arizona Coyotes and Detroit Red Wings during his 11-year NHL career, makes his in-season home in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina.
But before he was a Stanley Cup champion, the defenseman was “954” through and through.
Here’s what to know about Gostisbehere’s childhood in Broward County.
Broward boy
It could be argued that Gostisbehere was destined for professional hockey. He was born in Pembroke Pines on April 20, 1993, six months before the Florida Panthers’ first game in the NHL.
Though his father was a former professional jai alai player, Gostisbehere took to the ice after tagging along to his older sister’s figure skating lessons at the Florida Panthers’ IceDen in Coral Springs, formerly known as the Incredible Ice Arena.
He joined the Junior Panthers, the team’s youth travel ice hockey program where he earned the nickname “Ghost,” shortly after and moved to nearby Margate, he told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2017.
“The Panthers did a great job of instilling hockey in Florida. It’s not a hockey state per se, but as the game grew they offered kids my age a chance to play it,” Gostisbehere told the Inquirer.
“It’s cool. It’s very unique. People ask me where I’m from, whether I’m from Canada. And I say I’m from Florida and you get a look.’’
Also in Gostisbehere’s Sunshine State resume is BCPS alumni.
The defenseman attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland through his sophomore year before transferring to the South Kent School, a private all-boys boarding school in Connecticut, at age 16.
Though his time as an MSD Eagle was short-lived, he rallied around his alma mater when the school mourned the loss of 17 students after a shooting on Feb. 14, 2018.
“I haven’t really processed it yet and I still can’t believe it. I was just in that school. I was only there for two years,” Gostisbehere told NBC10 Philadelphia in 2018. “I felt safe at that school every day I was there. Just to see something like that happen to those kids and those teachers, it sucks.”
During the 2017-2018 NHL season, Gostisbehere wore a helmet decal reading “MSD Strong.”
He also hosted the high school’s hockey team at Amerant Bank Arena during a 2018 Flyers-Panthers game and chatted with players about their state championship win earlier that year.
“It’s the least I could do,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 2018. “Obviously, it’s just something to take their minds off. They’ve had a rough past couple of weeks here, just something to take their minds off of something and have some laughs.”
Gostisbehere was 19 when selected by the Flyers in the third round of the 2012 draft, and is “the first player born and raised in South Florida to make it to the NHL,” according to the Hurricanes’ website.
Gostisbehere had three goals and nine assists in 19 playoff games as Carolina went 16-3 in the postseason to win the franchise’s second Stanley Cup title. He has 117 goals and 345 assists over 744 regular-season games.
The other native Floridians with their name on the Stanley Cup: Jaycob Megna, who was born in Plantation, won the title with the Panthers in 2025, and Leesburg native Dan Hinote hoisted the trophy with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001.
This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 9:21 AM with the headline "Meet the Broward County native who made history by winning the Stanley Cup."
