For as hard as winning the Stanley Cup is, defending it is harder. Only two teams over the past quarter century (the 2017 Pittsburgh Penguins and the 2021 Tampa Bay Lightning) have followed up a Cup victory by winning the next year.
At this point, anyone’s guess is whether the Vegas Golden Knights can join those two teams in the back-to-back club. While returning much of the Cup-winning roster is encouraging, they also boast a veteran-laden core, many of whom carry a significant injury history. There also remains some lingering uncertainty between the pipes and scoring depth questions up front with the departure of Reilly Smith.
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It’s far too soon to evaluate whether the Golden Knights can get it done once again. So instead of looking forward, let’s look back at the follow-up season for some recent champions and how things went:
2022-23 Colorado Avalanche
Offseason Changes: Key forward Nazem Kadri and starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper left in free agency, with the Colorado Avalanche trading for Aleksandar Georgiev to fill the void in net.
How It Started: The Avalanche endured a mediocre 4-4-1 mark over the first month of the season before stepping on the gas and winning seven of their first eight games in October.
Injuries: Captain Gabriel Landeskog missed the entire season after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. Conn Smythe winner Cale Makar also missed 22 games as a result of a handful of injuries, including experiencing concussion symptoms. Valeri Nicushkin was held to just 53 regular season games while dealing with ankle injuries.
How It Ended: After the regular season saw Colorado take a bit of a step back, that decline was exacerbated when they lost to the upstart Seattle Kraken in a seven-game first-round series.
2019-20 St. Louis Blues
Offseason Changes: Fan favorite and hometown hero Pat Maroon left to join the Lightning in free agency and collect two more rings, while the club added All-Star Justin Faulk to an already-solid blue line.
How It Started: The St. Louis Blues enjoyed a strong start to their Cup defense, following up a solid October (7-3-3) with a blistering November (10-2-3) to settle nicely into the top spot in the Central Division.
Injuries: The Blues incurred a number of injuries over the 2019-20 season, none more notable than when star sniper Vladimir Tarasenko was forced to undergo shoulder surgery in late October that kept him out the rest of the season. In a scary incident, Jay Bouwmeester went into cardiac arrest while sitting on the bench during a February game against the Anaheim Ducks and wouldn’t play another NHL game. The biggest interruption to the Blues’ defense was, of course, the global pandemic that brought the regular season to an abrupt close on March 11.
How It Ended: During the scattershot 2020 playoffs, played in the Edmonton bubble in front of no fans, the Blues struggled to an 0-2-1 round-robin record before losing 4-2 to the Vancouver Canucks.
2018-19 Washington Capitals
Offseason Changes: Philipp Grubauer left for Colorado as a free agent after Braden Holtby had assumed No. 1 goaltender duties in the postseason, while key fourth-liner Jay Beagle departed for Vancouver. The biggest departure for the Capitals, however, came when head coach Barry Trotz resigned from his post and joined the New York Islanders.
How It Started: After laying an emphatic 7-0 beating on the Boston Bruins in the banner-raising home opener, Washington came out of the gates slowly (they went 4-3-2 through the rest of October), but turned on the jets with a 10-4-1 November.
Injuries: While the Capitals were able to remain largely healthy in their follow-up season, forward Tom Wilson missed time on account of a 14-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist.
How It Ended: While the 2018 Cup victory seemed like an end to the club’s history of playoff struggles, they suffered through another postseason heartbreak, falling to the Carolina Hurricanes in a seven-game first-round series despite owning a 2-0 series lead and a 3-1 advantage in Game 7.
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There are obviously no clear insights that can certainly be gleaned from these examples when it comes to the Golden Knights, as every team is different. That said, there do seem to be lessons here, as well as cause for optimism. Each of the Avalanche, Blues, and Capitals followed strong regular seasons with postseason disappointments, an indication that the drain of their Cup run, coupled with a long regular season, took its toll.
Health-allowing, Vegas should have the depth to enable the club to manage ice time and keep key players relatively fresh for the spring. If they can place themselves comfortably within the playoff picture early, then all the better. For what it’s worth, the Lightning’s successful title defense in 2020-21 came after a pandemic-shortened 56-game season that probably helped preserve the players’ legs somewhat. If head coach Bruce Cassidy can preserve his team and maintain a sharp focus on being at full strength come playoff time, the Golden Knights could show they’ve learned from recent history.
