B/R NHL Roundtable: Stanley Cup Favorite After 2022 Trade Deadline

It's on to the stretch drive to the playoffs as the dust settles from the 2022 NHL trade deadline.

The big hitters around the league all made moves to strengthen themselves ahead of prospective runs at the Stanley Cup. From the league-leading Colorado Avalanche to the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning, teams around the league ponied up the assets in an active trade deadline.

So the question that's now on the minds of most NHL fans is this: Which team is the Stanley Cup favorite?

We called together another B/R NHL Roundtable, and our writers put their cases forward for four of the top contenders for the Cup.

Disagree with our panel? Feel free to submit your thoughts in the comments!

Tampa 3-Peat Is on the Cards

Chris O'Meara/Associated Press

Several playoff clubs made significant moves leading up to Monday's NHL trade deadline.

Meanwhile, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning made a pair of depth moves.

Their first acquisition came Friday, shipping young forwards Taylor Raddysh and Boris Katchouk along with two conditional first-round picks to the Chicago Blackhawks for Brandon Hagel. The second came on deadline day, swapping Mathieu Joseph and a conditional 2024 fourth-rounder with the Ottawa Senators for Nick Paul.

Those moves didn't generate splashy headlines. Nevertheless, they could become the keys to the Lightning's quest to become the first team to three-peat since the 1982 New York Islanders.

Like the Islanders and other Stanley Cup dynasties of the long-ago past, the Lightning possess a star-studded core featuring captain Steven Stamkos, forwards Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, defenseman Victor Hedman and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. However, they cannot win it all without a strong supporting cast.

Two years ago, the Lightning also made a pair of depth forward additions in Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow. Not much was made of those moves either at the time, but Coleman and Goodrow were invaluable checking-line stalwarts crucial to the Bolts winning back-to-back Cups.

By bringing in Hagel and Paul, Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois could be repeating history.

Hagel, 23, emerged this season as a solid two-way forward with the Chicago Blackhawks. The 5'11", 174-pounder plays a gritty style and has a decent scoring touch, netting 21 goals and 37 points in 55 games with Chicago. He's also signed through 2023-24 with an affordable $1.5 million salary-cap hit.

Like Hagel, the 27-year-old Paul has a reputation as a versatile, hard-working forward who plays a responsible game at both ends of the ice. He also carries a cost-effective $1.4 million cap hit but is slated to become an unrestricted free agent in July. The 6'3", 224-pound Paul recorded a respectable 11 goals in 59 games with the low-scoring Senators. 

The departures of Coleman and Goodrow could have been a serious blow to the Lightning's championship chances this season. Bringing in Hagel and Paul, however, could put them on the path to their third straight Stanley Cup.

—Lyle Richardson

Panthers' Upgrades Give Them the Advantage

Ashley Landis/Associated Press

The Florida Panthers were already among the league's best entering the weekend—tops in the Atlantic Division and second among 32 teams—and at least a reasonable proposition to represent the Eastern Conference come Stanley Cup Final time.

But that wasn't quite good enough for GM Bill Zito.

Given the unyielding presence of the two-time defending Cup champion about 250 miles to the northwest in Tampa, the franchise's second-year executive refused to stand pat with the NHL's best offense (4.06 goals per game) and the 13th-best defense and got busy during deadline week.

Zito started with a pair of deals on March 16, clearing cap room by sending forward Frank Vatrano to the New York Rangers. He then used the space to allow for the acquisition of burly 234-pound defenseman Ben Chiarot from the Montreal Canadiens for a prospect and two draft picks.

The weekend brought even more activity, first with Saturday's swap that brought in longtime Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux, two other players and a pick in exchange for 2017 first-rounder Owen Tippett and two more picks. The next day, the Panthers sent a sixth-round 2022 pick to the Buffalo Sabres for depth blueliner Robert Hagg.

Last but not least, Zito plucked forward Egor Korshkov and a sixth-rounder in the 2022 draft as part of a three-team deal with Carolina and Columbus that sent defenseman Tyler Inamoto to the Hurricanes.

Giroux slots nicely into a top-six forward group alongside point-per-game producers Jonathan Huberdeau (86 in 62 games), Aleksander Barkov (62 in 49 games) and Sam Reinhart (60 in 59 games). Meanwhile, Chiarot adds both size and jam to a blue-line corps missing 2015 Rookie of the Year Aaron Ekblad to injury.

Presuming vet Sergei Bobrovsky (30-6-3, 2.57 GAA) and newbie Spencer Knight (12-7-3, 2.88 GAA) maintain the steadiness that allowed for the league's best goal-differential (plus-74) through 62 games, the work Zito's done in the past seven days is enough to slide the Panthers into a favorite's perch.

Let's just say it is.

So somebody, go ahead and get Jimmy Buffett on the phone.

Metro Miami is officially hockey's Margaritaville.

—Lyle Fitzsimmons

Flames Burning Bright After Trade Deadline

David Zalubowski/Associated Press

While it's tough to blame anyone who views the Lightning and Panthers as front-runners, one can't help but feel that the Calgary Flames are getting slept on in a major way.

If you're looking for consistency, this squad has it. They haven't lost more than three games in a row since mid-January, and they have gone on three-plus-game losing streaks just three times all year. No slide ever reached more than four losses, either.

If you're in the defense wins championships camp, the Flames have you covered. Only five teams in the NHL give up fewer shots per game on average. Drilling down a bit more and looking at each defensive pairing, a run at the Stanley Cup looks even more likely. 

According to MoneyPuck.com, 103 defensive duos have spent 250 or more minutes together. In terms of expected goals for percentage, the Flames' three defensive pairings all rank inside of the top 10.

Up front, just 38 forward lines have spent 250-plus minutes together. Again, through the lens of expected goals for percentage, the Flames are tough to keep up with, with their top two lines occupying spots inside of the top five. Their first unit of Johnny Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk has flirted with best-line-in-pro-hockey status all year long.

Mikael Backlund, Blake Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane (who is quietly on pace for nearly 40 goals) have also been stellar.

Head coach Darryl Sutter has shuffled the lines a bit following the addition of Tyler Toffoli on Valentine's Day and Calle Jarnkrok a few days before the deadline, but those two give the Flames even more depth at forward. 

As for their goalie situation, Jacob Markstrom isn't in the Vezina Trophy conversation like he was a few months ago, but he's still top 10 in terms of goals saved above average and wins above replacement level for goalies that have played at least 30 games, per MoneyPuck.com.

This is a remarkably deep hockey club, and while the Flames might not have as much name recognition on their roster as the Panthers or the Colorado Avalanche, they are a real threat to make it out of the Western Conference. They have everything that a contender should have, are tough to play against and are well-coached.

If the road out of the Eastern Conference leads through Florida, then the road out of the West goes through Alberta.

—Franklin Steele

Avs Are the Team Everyone Is Chasing

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

The Stanley Cup favorite remains the same as prior to the deadline. It's the Colorado Avalanche.

Last year's Presidents' Trophy winner looks poised to repeat. The Avs' 95 points in just 63 games give them the best record in the NHL by a good margin. While they may not have made the splashy deadline addition of a Claude Giroux, GM Joe Sakic made a number of additions to reinforce the depth chart and complement the top of the lineup.

There is no other team with the quantity of elite talent that Colorado boasts. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Nazem Kadri up front are all excellent. The problem in Colorado has been depth, particularly in defense from forwards. That was addressed in a massive way at the deadline. Artturi Lehkonen, Nico Sturm and Andrew Cogliano are all staunch defensive forwards who will improve the penalty kill.

But the separating trait is the defensive corps. The trio of Cale Makar, Devon Toews, and Sam Girard already blew away what any other NHL team has to offer on defense. Josh Manson, added from Anaheim, brings some much-needed defensive cover. This is one of the best top-four defense corps the league has seen in some time.

Meanwhile, Darcy Kuemper has been more than adequate in replacing Philipp Grubauer.

Several teams around the league have a realistic shot at winning this season, but add in a fairly soft Western Conference, wherein only Calgary and maybe Minnesota offer legitimate competition, and Colorado should be a runaway favorite to win the Stanley Cup. The Athletic's model gives the Avalanche a 31 percent chance of winning it all—the next-best odds belong to the Florida Panthers (13 percent).

—Adam Herman