Even if Islanders make playoffs, they’re missing one mandatory ingredient
Welcome to part 6 of Daily Faceoff Stanley Cup Ingredients 2024-25. I’ve developed a formula consisting of seven common ingredients among recent Stanley Cup champions, using the previous 10 seasons as the sample to study. You can click here for a more detailed breakdown of the inspiration for the formula and how accurately it has predicted teams going deep in the playoffs.
So far, we’ve explored how championships correlate to team weight, top-10 scorers, top-10 goaltenders, expected goal differential and penalty killing efficiency. Next, we measure the importance of experience. Are you more likely to win the Cup if you have players on your roster who’ve done so before?
Stanley Cup Ingredient #6: STANLEY CUP RINGS
Experience has pretty much always been championed as a crucial component of any winning team in any pro sports. To know what it takes to win, it helps to have someone who has already done it. Here’s a breakdown of how many players on the past 10 Stanley Cup championship teams already had rings:
| Season | Champion | Stanley Cup rings |
| 2014-15 | Chicago | 16 |
| 2015-16 | Pittsburgh | 6 |
| 2016-17 | Pittsburgh | 18 |
| 2017-18 | Washington | 1 |
| 2018-19 | St. Louis | 1 |
| 2019-20 | Tampa Bay | 1 |
| 2020-21 | Tampa Bay | 18 |
| 2021-22 | Colorado | 2 |
| 2022-23 | Vegas | 6 |
| 2023-24 | Florida | 2 |
Stanley Cup correlation: Absolute
The huge numbers on the 2014-15 Blackhawks, 2016-17 Penguins and 2017-18 Lightning are obvious outliers coming on dynastic teams that won multiple championships in a short period of time and returned many guys from previous Cup winners. What matters here: the lack of a zero in the table. Every team in the past decade had at least one guy in the room who’d lifted Lord Stanley before and could share the wisdom. It didn’t have to be a superstar player, just someone who’d been along for a start-to-finish ride on a previous championship team.
In, fact, it’s been a whopping 36 years since an NHL team won a Stanley Cup with a playoff roster consisting of no players who’d won it before. The 1988-89 Calgary Flames were the last to do it. Looking further back, they’re the only team in the past 43 seasons to accomplish that feat.
That’s a large enough sample size for us to declare the correlation significant, agreed? The logical question to ask next is: which current NHL teams are ringless?
2024-25 NHL teams without a Stanley Cup winning player
Boston Bruins
New York Islanders
Philadelphia Flyers
In this case, the winner-free list doesn’t sound many alarm bells. The Bruins aren’t a playoff team and got rid of their last 2011 Stanley Cup holdover, captain Brad Marchand, at the Trade Deadline. The Flyers, in rebuild mode, dealt Stanley Cup winner Erik Johnson at the Deadline. Both clubs are ringless by design at the moment.
But if the Islanders emerge from a bizarre Eastern Conference Wildcard race in which seemingly no team wants to win a berth…they’ll have to rely a lot on coach Patrick Roy and his NHL-record three Conn Smythe Trophies. Not a single current Isle has a Stanley Cup ring. They do have a couple players who’ve competed in a Stanley Cup Final in defenseman Alexander Romanov and right winger Anthony Duclair. Still, the historical data tells us they have no chance at a Cup without a bejewelled elder statesman in the dressing room.
The New York Rangers technically pass the test because they have Jonathan Quick, a two-time Stanley Cup champ, plus checking forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel. But they squeak by on a technicality given neither player is a lock to see any minutes should the Blueshirts find their way into the postseason.
____
Previous instalments of Stanley Cup Ingredients 2025
Team Weight
Top-10 Scorer(s)
Top-10 Goalie
Expected Goal Differential
Penalty-Killing Efficiency
Next up: Trade Deadline acquisitions
_____
POST SPONSORED BY bet365
_____
Recently by Matt Larkin
- Has the 4 Nations Face-Off hurt player performance?
- Improving one key ingredient has morphed Blues into sleeper Stanley Cup contender
- Stolarz vs. Woll: Who should start for Leafs in the playoffs?
- How can the Hurricanes convert their elite fancy stats to Stanley Cup success?
- Forget last year: Jets have huge edge in Stanley Cup chase with Connor Hellebuyck
- The trade from Dallas hurt Logan Stankoven, but the excitement in Carolina trumps it
- Oilers feel flawed this year…but they still have their most crucial Stanley Cup ingredient
- As NHL’s heaviest team, are Leafs finally poised for a Stanley Cup run?