The Athletic has recently released its ranking of how near rebuilding teams are to a Stanley Cup win. For the exercise, they branded the teams that missed the playoffs as “rebuilding teams”. Since the Montreal Canadiens made the dance last time around, they were excluded from the ranking, but Corey Pronman mentioned that had they been part of the exercise, he would have ranked them in fourth place.
Which teams are therefore ahead of the Canadiens in the ranking? Pronman lists the San Jose Sharks, the Utah Mammoth, and the Anaheim Ducks as the top three rebuilding teams. What allowed them to clinch such rankings? Let’s have a closer look.
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For the writer, the Sharks deserve the top spot due to their highly desirable group of young players, including Macklin Celebrini, Michael Misa, Will Smith, and Sam Dickinson. While it’s hard to argue with the talent San Jose has up front, they remind me of the Edmonton Oilers.
They’ve been focusing a lot on the forward group and are still a bit thin on the blueline. The fact that Pronman has included Dickinson in that article is quite telling. While the youngster seems destined for a promising future, he has yet to play a single game of professional hockey. As a result, I believe it’s a bit premature to say the Sharks are close to the Cup when their top blueliner hasn’t skated in a professional game.
In net, the Sharks’ top option is Yaroslav Askarov. Although he was a high draft pick by the Nashville Predators at the 2020 draft, taken 11th overall, he has only played 16 NHL games, with a combined 3.01 goals-against average and a save percentage of .899, which is below .900. He has done well in the AHL, but so has Cayden Primeau, and that success hasn’t translated well to the NHL.
In second place, Pronman opts for the Mammoth, citing the fact that they took notable steps as an organization last season and were lucky enough to land the fourth overall pick, which they used to select Caleb Desnoyers. Once again, Pronman focuses on the forward group, mentioning Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, and their other high picks of the last decade.
Looking at their defense, though, it is somewhat aging. Granted, acquiring Mikael Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning helped, but aside from him and Sean Durzi, every other blueliner is over 28 years old (Olli Maatta, Nate Schmidt, Ian Cole, and John Marino).
In net, they have a trio of NHL-capable goaltenders in Karel Vejmelka, Vitek Vanecek, and Connor Ingram, but is there one that could backstop them to the most fantastic prize of them all? That’s far from a done deal.
In third place in the rankings, Pronman has the Anaheim Ducks and mentions Leo Carlsson, Roger McQueen, Mason McTavish, Cutter Gauthier, and Beckett Sennecke as their top players. Granted, Anaheim’s center line has excellent depth, and they do have at least two very promising defensemen in Jackson Lacombe and Olen Zellweger, while Tristan Luneau is progressing very well (52 points in 59 games with the San Diego Gulls). The biggest question mark for me in Anaheim is in the net.
Lukas Dostal, 25, has 121 games of NHL experience but has yet to make a significant impact. That being said, with the young core maturing, the defense in front of him may improve and make his job significantly more straightforward.
Looking at previous Cup winners, it’s essential to have a well-balanced side to claim the Stanley Cup. The Toronto Maple Leafs underwent a significant rebuild, focusing heavily on firepower. As a result, they’ve become a regular-season powerhouse, but they’ve struggled to find success in the playoffs. Until recently, the same was true for the Oilers, who made it to the Cup final but needed to do some tuning and get reinforcements on the blueline, while they still had a question mark in net.
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