His Cup Runneth Over

As his plane touched down at Logan Airport in August, Arlington native Paul Krepelka, JD ’97, was even more excited than usual. Returning to his hometown is always special, but this time he had something extraordinary to share with family, friends, and residents of his hockey-crazed community—the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup.

“It was surreal,” says Krepelka, senior vice president of hockey operations for the 2024 Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers. “Words can’t describe what bringing the cup home meant to me.”

When a team captures the Stanley Cup, each player and certain members of upper management can, with proper security, “host” the cup for a single day. After an NHL security team delivered the cup to his home, Krepelka made the most of his opportunity. He took the cup all over Arlington, paying visits to the police and fire departments before arriving at the Ed Burns Ice Arena for a two-hour public viewing. Perhaps his most moving stop was at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, where he shared the Stanley Cup with his late parents, Robert and Marie.

“It was one of the most rewarding days of my life—and I’ve lived a good life,” he says.

Krepelka, who grew up playing youth hockey in his hometown, was an All-Scholastic defenseman at Arlington High School. He went on to Princeton University, where he was a member of the hockey squad for two years, then played professionally for the minor-league Hampton Roads Admirals of the East Coast Hockey League for two seasons, winning the Riley Cup in 1992.

Once he hung up his skates, Krepelka enrolled at Suffolk University Law School.

“Suffolk taught me that you need discipline and structure to accomplish anything,” he says. He says he relished studying alongside “so many intelligent and driven people from all walks of life. Our professors threw a lot of information at us and challenged us to be thorough in everything we did, from all of the readings to balancing our work and school schedules. Without Suffolk, I’m not where I am today.”

Prior to joining the NHL, Krepelka spent 20 years as a sports agent, co-founding the Orr Hockey Group with Boston Bruins’ legend Bobby Orr. He built a reputation for trustworthiness with his pro and minor-league hockey clients. “I told them what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear,” says Krepelka, who loved the chance “to be part of their extended families while helping them achieve their dreams.”