NHL franchises covet players with extensive Stanley Cup Playoffs experience like someone walking through the desert yearns for water.
Players with their names on the Stanley Cup cost more in free agency and trades than those with the same resume otherwise would. Franchises with young cores overpay for Cup champions, desperate to give their kids a grizzled veteran of past playoff wars who can help show them the way.
It is one of the most precious commodities in the league. And among the eight remaining teams in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Colorado Avalanche has a massive advantage over the field.
Between the eight clubs still in the playoffs, 11 players have won the Stanley Cup with their current team. Ten of them play their home games at Ball Arena.
“It’s valuable. Every experience, not just the good ones and the winning but the heartbreak, too — they’re all valuable,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I think you learn from both. Our team has done a nice job of staying even-keeled and part of that is the experience we have in the playoffs. You always reflect on ways you could have handled situations better. Not just tactically, but mentally. You have to be mentally tough and resilient to win in this league.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to pride ourselves on all year long. We try to stay even keel, just focus on our process. That’s carried over year-to-year for us, and now that experience should pay dividends.”
The only other player who has won the Cup with his current team is Brad Marchand, who triumphed 13 years ago with the Boston Bruins. Every other franchise with a title since then has been eliminated, save for the Avs and their collection of 2022 champions.
The Stars, Colorado’s next opponent, took care of the defending champs Sunday night by knocking out the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 7 of their opening-round series. The Avs will not face another foe with a locker room full of guys possessing a diamond-filled Stanley Cup ring.
“Especially being so recent, you know how hard it is and what the road ahead of us is,” Avs defenseman Jack Johnson said. “We understand that. There’s not a whole lot that we haven’t seen in terms of situational stuff in the playoffs, like 8:30 starts, long gaps in between series. There’s some normalcy in that for us. We know how to go about it, how to progress through it.”
Colorado has 11 players on the roster with a ring, including Ross Colton, who won with Tampa Bay in 2021. The other three teams in the Western Conference don’t have half that many between them.
Corey Perry can tell his Edmonton Oilers teammates what it was like to win the Cup in his younger days, or about all of those trips to the Final recently. Tyler Seguin can tell his Stars teammates about winning with Marchand, Zdeno Chara & Co. in 2011.
But no other remaining club has the shared experience of winning the sport’s Holy Grail like the Avs.
“It’s one thing to have to tell guys. It’s another thing to just know,” Johnson said. “When you’ve got a group together, I think that’s a big deal. You don’t have to tell guys or have guys wondering. It’s just business as usual.”
Where does that experience show up in a tangible way? Look no further than the previous round.
“There were some pretty key moments where it was a tight game and they scored, but our guys — just nothing fazed them,” Avs forward Zach Parise said. “We would come right back and get a goal. I think there’s things like that can be useful for guys who have been there in those types of situations.”
Winnipeg had a team full of guys who didn’t have a lot of playoff success, and it showed. Dallas has two players who have been part of a Cup winner — Seguin and backup goalie Scott Wedgewood, who was along for the ride with Tampa Bay in 2020 as the No. 3 goalie but never played.
That said, before we declare this a huge advantage in a second-round series full of razor-thin margins, there is another kind of valuable Stanley Cup experience that cannot be discounted. It’s what Parise and Colton know too well.
The Stars have nine players who lost to Wedgewood’s Lightning team in the Cup Final four years ago, including a majority of their core guys. Andrew Cogliano and Joel Kiviranta, currently playing for the Avs, were part of that Stars team as well.
Colton won in 2021 with Tampa Bay but lost the next year against Colorado.
“It obviously sucks,” Colton said. “You grind all summer and all year long for that. It just kind of fuels you that much more. Those guys over there have been in that situation. It’s never fun, but you just learn from your mistakes.”
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Parise lost in the Cup Final in 2012 with New Jersey, signed with Minnesota that summer and has never been back. He came out of semi-retirement at the All-Star break for one more chance with the Avalanche.
He knows as well as anyone in this league how powerful it can be to get so close to your dream only to have it snatched away.
“You learn how hard it is to get there, and then once you get there and lose how hard it is to get back,” he said. “Sometimes it is like, ‘Oh, we’ll get back,’ and then you blink your eyes and you haven’t even gotten a sniff.
“I think it leaves you hungry and excited to get back.”
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