Quote:
Originally Posted by Yrebmi
The Knights going on to win the Stanley cup would be terrible for the NHL in my opinion.
The optics of an expansion team winning it all with a discard bin collection of players would cheapen the brand. Make it appear to be more luck than actual skill.
I am not trying to take anything away from the efforts, skill, and coaching of the LVK, but just stating the potential optics to a casual fan.
So for that reason I hope the Sharks win this one.
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This idea that the Knights’ players are “discards” ignores the fact that many or most of the NHL teams were scrambling to find ways to keep players for whom there were no places left on their protected list. This is a team made up of good players who just missed the cut for the protected list on their parent team.
Partly because of the cap, most of the NHL teams are like the Flames - a small number of players that, indvidually may be better than the best on the Knights - and then a bottom 6 forwards and bottom 2 or 3 defensemen that aren’t nearly as good as their comparables on the Knights. A team made up of all good players should beat a team made up of a few stars and a bunch of significantly lesser players most of the time. This is what happened during the regular season. In a seven game playoff series, the players with a few stars and not so bad 3rd and 4th line might prevail when the star players turn it up a notch, but a team that can roll 4 good lines can beat them - that was how the ‘86 Flames beat the Oilers. it wouldn’t surprise me if the Knights go pretty deep this year.