Stanley Cup Comes To Harwich Port

HARWICH PORT – Just feet away from bustling Harwich Port last Wednesday, Aug. 27 sat the Stanley Cup in all its silver glory.

Hockey’s hallowed trophy was brought to The Port restaurant that night by Brett Peterson, assistant general manager of the Florida Panthers, who won the 2025 National Hockey League championship this June. Per tradition, members of the winning organization each get a day to spend with the Stanley Cup. 

A Northborough native, Peterson began his time with Lord Stanley’s Cup in Boston, first at Children’s Hospital and after at Boston College, his alma mater. The trophy then came to Harwich Port, first stopping at Wychmere Beach Club before ending the night as the star of a party for about 80 friends, family and members of the Panthers organization at The Port, where Peterson knows owners Jared and Judd Brackett. 

“My idea with the Stanley Cup is to bring as many friends and family together as possible at a place where it's friends and family,” Peterson said.

The Bracketts, Harwich natives, are hockey guys themselves. Judd is the director of amateur scouting for the NHL’s Minnesota Wild and Jared played at Babson College. Jared said he had gotten a call from Peterson asking what he thought about bringing the Cup to The Port. Jared’s response: “Let’s do it.”

“For us, the Stanley Cup at The Port is pretty cool,” he said.

The 2025 championship was the second in two years for the Florida Panthers. It’s also the second time in two years that the trophy thereafter has been brought to the Lower Cape. Last summer, Paul Fenton — a senior advisor to the general manager for Florida — brought the Cup to the Captains Golf Course in Brewster. In Harwich Port last Wednesday, Fenton shared his championship ring with others and lifted the trophy.

“It’s hard not to have fun with it,” he said.

Peterson, who became the first Black assistant general manager in the NHL when he joined the Panthers in 2020, carried the Cup to a table inside the restaurant at the beginning of the evening. Having the trophy was a “blast,” and being able to spend a day with it was “what it's all about,” he said.

“It's the best team sports trophy awarded, so it should be shared with as many people as possible,” Peterson said.

As people looked at and took pictures with the trophy, a replay of Florida’s game 7 win in the finals against the Edmonton Oilers was shown behind the bar. Not unexpectedly, the trophy generated a lot of interest. Rick Wadowski said he had driven up from Connecticut and had last seen the Cup in 1983.

Peterson took photos, along with several others, standing next to the trophy with Pete Rutili, an agent who Peterson had previously worked with when he was a hockey agent, as well as JB Bittner, whom he had lived with when the two played professionally for the Johnstown Chiefs and Florida Everblades. Bittner had seen the Stanley Cup before, but seeing Peterson carry it “was a little different,” he said.

Accompanying Peterson all day, from Boston to Harwich, were two Cup handlers, Steve Poirier and Glenn Stants. They had started at 9 a.m. in Boston and were set to drive the trophy back from Harwich after the evening gathering. Then the keepers of the Cup had to bring the revered silver bowl to Toronto, whereafter it was supposed to be brought to Rick Dudley — a Panthers senior advisor to the general manager — in Buffalo, according to Poirier. 

Handling the Stanley Cup — engraved with the names of the members of championship teams and the year they won — is no small job. Just as Lord Stanley travels all over, so too does its keepers, who work shifts of about a week or more. Poirier had started his watch the previous Friday and spent time in Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando (at Disney World) then flew to Minnesota. Stants had recently wrapped up a European tour. 

The Cup travels inside a custom-fitted case, and for flights goes through TSA and is checked as oversized luggage, according to Poirier. The primary rule as the trophy makes its offseason tour with members of the championship-winning franchise is that the individual spending the day with the Stanley Cup is typically the only person who can hold it on their own, other than the handlers. 

Last Wednesday at The Port, Peterson at one point carried the Stanley Cup out to the sidewalk, where he took photos with passersby, including a pair of police officers. 

“I just got a picture with it,” someone said excitedly as they walked back into the Harwich Port night.

That reaction to the Cup knows no borders. People are never disappointed seeing the trophy, Poirier said. 

“It’s the same in Europe as in Cape Cod, Toronto, anywhere,” he said.