Way-Too-Early Top Contenders for the 2024 Stanley Cup
Let's face it, the NHL cycle never really stops.
The regular season goes from October to April, followed by the playoffs through June, and then by the off-ice frenzy that is draft preparation and free agency signing.
And before you know it, teams will begin reporting for another 82-game go-round when training camps start to trickle open in early and mid September.
So maybe it's not all that crazy to be thinking about the Stanley Cup Final, 2024 edition.
Amid all the other ongoing activities related to pucks, sticks and skates, the B/R hockey team figured now was as good a time as any to begin considering the favorites to be the next team to hoist the silver chalice—ultimately composing a list of the five that ought to be considered way-too-early top contenders for a celebratory parade come springtime.
Recent performance along with a forecast for next year's results were the main criteria considered in whittling away the pretenders, and, as always, we invite you to reply with a prognosticative thought or two of your own in the comments section.
Vegas Golden Knights
1 of 5
There's no better place to begin than with the team that just skated a lap, just had a parade and is still passing the Cup around so each player can have a special day with it.
The Vegas Golden Knights were among the league's best teams throughout the 2023-24 regular season, finished first in the Pacific Division (and fifth overall) with 111 points, and rolled through the playoffs with an impressive 16-6 record—trailing just once in four series.
The good news? They'll arrive to the 2023-24 season looking much the same.
They dealt original "Misfit" Reilly Smith and his $5 million salary to Pittsburgh to ease some cap issues, but they retained the services of playoff hero goalie Adin Hill and will still march out a deep, talented and tough forward corps whose oldest member, Mark Stone, is just 31.
As for anyone who believed Jack Eichel, who'll turn 27 in October, wasn't deserving of the No. 2 pick in the 2015 draft behind that kid named McDavid...well, never mind.
The uber-talented center beat his draftmate to a title after beating his team along the way and there's precisely nothing on the horizon at the moment suggesting it can't happen again.
Carolina Hurricanes
2 of 5
One of these years, the Carolina Hurricanes are going to break through.
Probably.
Coach Rod Brind'Amour and Co. are coming off a 52-win season in which their point total, 113, was second only to the record-setting Boston Bruins. In fact, no NHL team, other than the Hurricanes, that is, has been among the top three overall for the last three seasons.
But beyond yielding at least one playoff series win each spring and a trip to the Eastern Conference Final this past season, it hasn't translated into anything resembling the postseason frenzy that engulfed the mid-Atlantic when Carolina won its lone Cup in 2006.
In fact, the inglorious four-game ECF sweep at the hands of the eighth-seeded Florida Panthers, who finished 21 points behind them in the standings, left the Hurricanes and their fans even more frustrated than they'd been with three straight second-round exits.
But the organizational desire remains strong.
GM Don Waddell was particularly busy on the opening day of free agency, locking down a goaltending tandem that was among the league's best last season, snatching Dmitry Orlov for two seasons at $7.75 million apiece to bolster the blue-line corps, and adding winger Michael Bunting and his consecutive 23-goal seasons to enhance the scoring numbers.
Bottom line for 2023-24? They're young, They're good. And they're hungry.
Edmonton Oilers
3 of 5
It all seemed lined up for the Edmonton Oilers.
They'd dispatched a pesky rival in the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the playoffs while both the defending champs from Colorado and the regular-season record-setters from Boston were being eliminated in other series.
Which meant none of the teams remaining on the Western or Eastern sides of the draw had bested them in a 2022-23 season series. And, in case you'd forgotten, the league's top-two scorers were wearing blue and orange sweaters with an oil drop on the crest.
And then, well...you know the rest.
Mssrs. Eichel, Hill and Co. proceeded to eliminate them with a Game 6 win on the Oilers' home ice, triggering an offseason in which GM Ken Holland had depth issues to address, goaltending concerns to consider and precisely zero salary room with which to work.
Still, while considering Edmonton a holdover favorite might read as a stretch to some, it's not as if the offseason hasn't had some merit. The Oilers signed Connor Brown, McDavid's junior teammate, to an incentive-laden deal, offloaded financial bloat in a deal with Detroit and are rumored still in the mix to find a way to acquire San Jose's Erik Karlsson.
It seems a reach, but if Holland is able to get EK65 in the fold, Edmonton's spot is secure.
Dallas Stars
4 of 5
Introducing the contenders no one considers: The Dallas Stars.
The franchise formerly known as the Minnesota North Stars has been relevant for most of its stay in Texas, winning a Cup in 1999 and reaching the title round as recently as 2020 before a six-game COVID-bubbled loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
They seemed an aging unit destined for the Western Conference's second tier in 2022-23, but ran a close second to Colorado in the Central Division regular season and handled both Minnesota and Seattle (which had eliminated the Avalanche) in the playoffs before running into the eventual champions from Vegas and losing in six games.
And while three of its six highest-paid forwards are still 31 or older, there's been a subtle shift in Dallas via which youngsters like Jason Robertson (age 23) and Roope Hintz (age 26) have become stalwarts—combining for 83 goals and finishing 1-2 on the team in the category.
Defenseman Miro Heiskanen is just 24 and tied for fifth among NHL blue-liners in scoring, and goaltender Jake Oettinger, also 24, was seventh or better in every significant statistic, including wins (37), saves (1,633), save percentage (.919) and goals-against average (2.37).
Free-agent pickups Matt Duchene and Evgenii Dadonov provide an additional layer of veteran leadership and production, and a consistently successful coach in Peter DeBoer all but ensures the Stars will remain relevant at the highest level in 2023-24.
New Jersey Devils
5 of 5
Remember MLB's Houston Astros a decade ago?
They could barely get out of their own way from 2011 to 2013, losing 106, 107 and 111 games in those three seasons, respectively, and providing their (dwindling) fan base with precisely zero on-field reason to believe things would get better anytime soon.
But they drafted well, signed well and stayed the course to the point where no less an authority than Sports Illustrated, amid another 92-loss season in 2014, boldly proclaimed that Houston would rebound quickly enough to win a World Series by 2017.
And whaddya know? Not only did the Astros fulfill that forecast that very season, they returned to the title round again in 2019 and 2021 before winning another trophy last season.
Which brings us to the NHL's New Jersey Devils.
The Garden State residents arrived to 2022-23 having reached the playoffs once in the preceding 10 seasons and having not actually won a postseason round since their advance to the Stanley Cup Final in the spring of 2012.
But GM Tom Fitzgerald had a plan. He drafted well. He signed well. And whaddya know? While the Devils didn't win a Cup last season, they did win 52 games, place third overall and take a seven-game playoff series from the New York Rangers before a second-round loss.
The plan has continued into this summer.
Fitzgerald signed productive forward Timo Meier to an eight-year extension, acquired Tyler Toffoli from Calgary for a player and a pick, and is in the running to get elite goaltender Connor Hellebuyck from Winnipeg if the Jets choose to deal him before free agency.
So we'll go ahead and say it here: If Hellebuyck is a Devil this season, they're winning it all.
Your move, Tom.
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