The team that wins the 2023 cup will not have the usual ‘star power’

We’ve grown accustomed, in the last three years, to seeing potential “dynasties” win the Stanley Cup.

But this year, the team that won the cup will be really special.

It is usually expected that a Super team Which is based on two (at least) two players with a label franchise Earned top honors – the Lightning did it with the guys at president Who won the Hart Cup, Vezina, Norris and Maurice Richard. The Avalanche counted on Nathan McKinnon, one of the best players in the league, and Cal McCar, a young defenseman expected to be a generation.

We can even go back a little bit. The Capitals did it with Ovechkin, Holtby, and Carlson. The Penguins preceded Crosby and Malkin and the Blackhawks did so with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. The Kings also had a strong personality in every position with Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick.

Can we really compare the formation of the teams currently in the semi-finals to that? The highest-paid players in the NHL, as of today, are being eliminated, and that usually accounts for the status of the “stars” of the circuit.

McDavid, Drycitel, Matthews, Marner, McKinnon, Makar, Crosby, Ovechkin, Kucherov, Hedman and Vasilevsky, to name a few went on.

In Carolina, is Sebastian Ahu really a franchise player? Brent Burns surpassed his counterpart president And Fredrik Andersen does not have a star goalkeeper rating.

In Vegas, Mark Stone and Jack Eichel are star players, nothing more, and Alex Pietrangelo, while excellent, never made it to the NHL elite.

In Dallas, Jason Robertson is a star, but he doesn’t have a stellar reputation (yet) and he hasn’t scored in eight games. Miro Heiskanen is excellent, without being a star. Jake Oettinger is perhaps the centerpiece of this club, and possibly a franchise guard in the making. In fact, the stars are the closest thing to the teams we’re used to.

In Florida, finally, Matthew Tkachuk is a franchise player. Alexander Barkov is a star, but he hasn’t (yet) reached the next level in terms of his value. It is clear that Sergey Bobrovsky no longer has the reputation he had in 2017 when he won his second Vezina Prize.

Hurricanes, Golden Knights, Stars or Panthers will rank higher in a category St. Louis Blues One of the great teams that dominated the decade 2010 and 2020 so far. It is possible that the champions do not even have a concession player, while we are used to seeing two or three players.

Note: Everyone has their own definition of a franchise player – but the point is about how much “star power” there is within clubs.

Perhaps the future will prove us wrong and some young players will build a legacy that will make them worthy of the label. Perhaps one of these four teams will become an unbeatable streak formation whose individual value will not be comparable to that attributed to them today.

We probably have a short memory and guys like Jonathan Towes and Anzi Kopitar didn’t have the same reputation before they put a ring on their finger.

In any case, the 2023 champion team will have shown that the important thing is not star power. A good lesson for the oilers and maple leafs of this world…

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