Most Unique Cup Team Ever?
Everyone once in a while I learn some new fact about the 2019 Blues Cup team that reminds me how much of an anomaly they really were. I was listening to 32 Thoughts recently and Elliotte Friedman was asked to name the only team since 2000 with no players on the team who had won a cup before. The 2019 Blues were apparently the first team since the ‘89 Flames to accomplish this. Other fun facts are that they won the cup with no superstars, likely no future Hall of Famers, no elite goaltending (compare the stats of Binner in that playoff run to other recent cup winners and finalists, trust me he wasn’t elite). They didn’t tank for a top draft pick— in fact they didn’t draft any of their players in the top 3. They also are one of the few cup winners of their time to not take advantage of the LTIR cap fuckery, they’re not from a no tax state, and they didn’t make any meaningful additions at the trade deadline. That 2019 Blues team was truly a miracle team.
EDIT: 32 Thoughts specified that the team had no prior players with their name on the cup. Sundqvist won with the Penguins, but did not have his name on the cup with the team.