Star Power: Canadiens Lessons Learned From Stanley Cup Final

Montreal Canadiens fans aren’t expecting the team will compete for a Stanley Cup in the near future, but given the team is preparing to take the next step in their long-term rebuild, keeping an eye on Stanley Cup winning teams is in order.

That’s not to say the Canadiens should emulate the 2024 Stanley Cup champions, as recreating the Florida Panthers’ lineup would be impossible. Besides, if you attempt to chase the meta you’re already too far behind. By the time you’ll be ready to compete, the landscape will have changed.

However, there is value in finding some correlations between recent Stanley Cup winners. And when it comes to recurring themes, it’s quite clear that star power is a crucial aspect of the process. According to Hockey Prospecting, the Panthers had seven stars* in their lineup as they eliminated the Edmonton Oilers from the Stanley Cup final.

With the Florida Panthers winning the 2024 Stanley Cup, the last five winners had 5+ true career stars on the team and 8 of the last 10 winners had 5+ stars. pic.twitter.com/JjssauOdzx

— Byron Bader (@ByronMBader) June 25, 2024

In this particular case, the star players are as follows: Matthew Tkachuk, Sasha Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Aaron Ekblad, Brandon Montour, and Vladimir Tarasenko. Of course, we can debate the labels given to certain players. In this case, I would suggest Tarasenko’s best years are well behind him, and Gustav Forsling was more important when it comes to the factors that allowed the team to win its first Stanley Cup in franchise history. It may also surprise some that a player who only reached 60 points is considered a star, but the definitions aren’t what’s important in this case, and we’re not necessarily discussing elite or generational players, as they are few and far between.

What matters most is finding impact players, and that’s something the Canadiens hope to do on Friday, when they take to the podium at the 2024 NHL Entry Draft. Bob McKenzie’s draft rankings have offered some insight as to the possibility a talented forward such as Ivan Demidov or Cayden Lindstrom will be available.

Beyond the player who will be chosen fifth overall, the Montreal Canadiens already have some interesting pieces in place, which have the potential to become star players.

Captain Nick Suzuki has already established himself as a career star, while Cole Caufield is on the cusp. Mike Matheson’s excellent 2023-24 campaign is considered a star season, but that’s where the list ends. Consequently, the team will look to players such as Lane Hutson and Juraj Slafkovsky, among others, to join the list of star players, forming the core of a team that could potentially, one day, challenge for a Stanley Cup.

*Forwards are considered star players if they produce 57 points or more per season. Defencemen are considered star players if they produce over 35 points per season. A ‘true star’ will equal or surpass those numbers throughout his career, while a ‘star season’ means the player in question reached those numbers in a single season.