The Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2023 after missing the playoffs in the 2021-22 season. Otherwise, it’s a rarity for a team to miss the playoffs one season and hoist Lord Stanley’s Mug the next. The only other time in the past decade a team won it all after missing the playoffs was in 2019 with the St. Louis Blues (who also were in last place halfway through that season).
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There are plenty of teams that missed the playoffs last season that look to make the playoffs this time around. However, which teams can go even further and win the Stanley Cup this season? Non-playoff teams have a handful of question marks, and Cup teams check off a lot of boxes; the teams on this list have their flaws but a lot going for them that make them intriguing picks to win it all.
Ottawa Senators
There’s the trio of the Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, and Ottawa Senators to choose from as three rebuilding teams that missed the playoffs last season with good arguments to compete moving forward. All three also have glaring weaknesses that will likely keep them out of the playoffs. The Sabres and Red Wings both lack depth and have questions in the net (with neither team possessing a proven starting goaltender.) The Senators, meanwhile, have a new head coach and general manager (GM), took a big step back last season, and, at the moment, lack an identity. So, why are they the team that can go from missing the playoffs to winning the Cup?
The first thing working in their favor is the core they have in place. Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, and Thomas Chabot are cornerstones to build around. Tkachuk is a power forward who plays a unique style while Stutzle is a fast-paced playmaking forward but both are entering the primes of their careers and look to lead an offense that has plenty of complementary skaters in it. Those skaters include Claude Giroux, Drake Batherson, Ridley Greig, and Shane Pinto, all of whom give the Senators a great forward unit.
There were also the offseason additions that addressed the big needs on the roster. The Senators needed depth, so they added David Perron, Michael Amadio, and Nick Jensen. They needed a reliable starter, so they acquired Linus Ullmark in a trade with the Boston Bruins. They needed a head coach who could work with both the stars and role players, so…
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