Avalanche favorite repeats as cup winner in NHL player poll

“That could possibly win the Stanley Cup, I’d say,” MacKinnon said, laughing.

Clearly, if MacKinnon could have picked his own team, the center would have predicted that the Colorado Avalanche would repeat as champions. He would have been in line with the vast majority of his peers in the league.

Of the 50 players NHL.com surveyed at NAPMT and the NHL European Player Media Tour in Paris in August, 32 chose the Avalanche to win the trophy this season.

Five chose the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Calgary Flames and Carolina Hurricanes received three votes each, while the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers received two each. Two players declined to answer. The Toronto Maple Leafs were chosen.

So if the Avalanche hoist their banner before opening the regular season against the Chicago Blackhawks at Ball Arena on Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET; TNT, SN NOW), they’re expected to be back in a year.

“Um, well, I’d like to think we would (win the trophy),” Maple Leafs center Austin Matthews said. “But Colorado is obviously going to be a big favorite because they won last year and the team they have and what they were able to achieve so I have to go with them.”

Obviously, Colorado is the easy answer, and that’s part of it. The NHL is still defined by parity and unpredictability, and if NHL.com puts it in a nutshell, no one will blame you for picking the team that lifted the trophy on June 26th has hoisted.

“It’s so difficult,” said the Vancouver Canucks defenseman QuinnHughes said. “Who knows, man? There could be about 10 teams. Right now you would have to pick Colorado because they were the best team [three] months ago I guess. That’s not so long ago. They’re the defending champions, you have to knock them out, so they.”

Despite all the parity and unpredictability in the NHL since the introduction of the salary cap in 2005-06, it has become common for champions to maintain and even replicate their success.

The Chicago Blackhawks won the cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The Los Angeles Kings won it in 2012 and 2014. The Pittsburgh Penguins won it in 2009, then 2016 and 2017.

Video: NHL Network Predicts Stanley Cup Matchup

The Lightning won it in 2020 and 2021, and they reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2022, where they lost to the Avalanche in six games. That’s a good reason to ride with Tampa Bay again.

Center of the Edmonton Oilers Connor McDavid dialed the flash and said, “You’ve just been there before.” Rangers defender Jacob Trouba said the Flash “proved they’re the team.”

avalanche defender Kal Makarwhile nodding to Carolina and Toronto, said, “You can never shut Tampa out for all their stars” and goalie Andrei Vasilyevsky. St.Louis Blues Forward Robert Thomas said the Lightning are “hungry for another one, and they were right there last year.”

But if starvation wasn’t an issue for the Blackhawks, Kings, Penguins, or Lightning, why should it be for the Avalanche?

“Once a team does its job and sees what it’s like to win, some people say, ‘Oh, they won and they’re not motivated,'” said the Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger said. “I think it’s the opposite. They’ll want to do it again. Of course I can’t wait to play them. It will be fun to play them, hopefully in the playoffs.”

Other competitors have made big changes.

The Flames lost going forward Johnny Gaudreau in free agency but they added center Nazem Kadri in free hand and forward Jonathan Huberdeau about trade.

“They made some good pickups,” the Winnipeg Jets center said Markus Scheifele, one of the players who selected the Flames. “Getting Huberdeau kinda fills the void of Gaudreau and getting Kadri [is important]. You have a good one [defense] Corps. I just think it’s a tough team to play against.”

The Panthers pulled off Huberdeau but won going forward Matthew Tkachuk over the trade of Calgary. They also gained experience in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, winning a series for the first time since 1996 by defeating the Washington Capitals in the first round of the Eastern Conference and then being carried away by the Lightning in the second round.

“I think they’ve learned a lot and they’re going to be better because of that,” said MacKinnon, who chose Florida when he couldn’t pick Colorado.

The Rangers added Vincent Trocheck in free hands, and the Hurricanes added a defender Brent Burns and further Max Pacioretty about trade. (Pacioretty is recovering from surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon but was due to return in February.)

However, the Avalanche are very similar. Although they lost Kadri and goalie Darcy Kumperthey added Evan Rodrigues in free agency and in goalkeeping Alexander Georgiev about trade, and they still have their core from MacKinnon, Makar and Co.

Several players said they chose the Avalanche because they have so many returners and Vegas Golden Knights up front Mark Stein notably quoted Makar and MacKinnon as saying, “You still have the best defender in the world, still one of the best centermen in the world.”

“If not us, then maybe my old team, Colorado,” said Kuemper, who signed as an unrestricted free agent with the Capitals. “A lot of their players are coming back. Obviously a lot of good players over there. They’ve done it before so obviously they’re capable of doing it again.”

They are the team to beat.

“Yeah, I think so,” MacKinnon said on NHL.com’s @TheRink podcast. “Yes I mean obviously we have some new people as we discussed but I’m feeling good. We learned a lot from last season and it’s a long 82 games and I know everyone is very interested in the regular season. But endgames [are] when it matters most, and we look forward to getting there.”

NHL.com staff contributed to this report