Five NHL Teams Closest to Breaking their Franchise’s Stanley Cup Curse

The Vegas Golden Knights just won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history, doing so in their sixth year of existence in the NHL.

If you are a fan of a team that has not yet won a Stanley Cup, you are probably salty since you have had to wait so long in comparison, which is the case for Nashville Predators fans.

They seemed to be chasing their sudden 2017 Stanley Cup run up until this season, which crazily enough happened the year before the Golden Knights were in existence. So watching the Predators fight and fail to even make it past the second round while the Golden Knights win their first Stanley Cup so fast hurts for fans like myself.

As tough as it was to watch for people in Nashville, there are fans of teams who have not only existed for much longer, but they come from traditional hockey markets. So if you are a fan of one of those teams, you are probably more than just salty right now.

But all of this begs the question — which teams that have not yet won a Stanley Cup are closest to doing so?

There are five teams that look closer to it than the other six, but even still, few of them are particularly close at this point in time.

Nashville Predators

Stanley Cup Appearances: 1  Last Appearance: 2017 ( Lost in 6 to Pittsburgh Penguins)

When I was first starting this article, I thought of having the Predators higher on this list because they showed this year that they have a bright future. Even after they sold at the trade deadline and suffered a brutal amount of injuries, their youth performed admirably and got them to missing the playoffs by just three points in the standings.

Guys like Cody Glass, Tommy Novak, Juuso Parssinen, Luke Evangelista, and Philip Tomasino look like the future, and of course veteran stars like Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi will be around for awhile.

They have one of the best goaltenders in the game in Juuse Saros, and Yaroslav Askarov is still hyped up as someone who could be historically good at his position. Also, they hired a new head coach in Andrew Brunette who should mesh better with several of their brighter players, as well as bring in a philosophy that is much more in line with what works in the modern day game.

The idea of how well the Predators are set-up is quite nice, but when you take a step back and look at the holistic picture, you tell yourself to pump the brakes a bit. At the end of this day, this team just started rebuilding, and there are a lot of questions left to be answered.

Number one, there are still a few players currently on the team who could be traded this offseason, or even after the new season begins. Saros is among them, and if he is indeed dealt, the Predators can forget about contending for a Stanley Cup for at minimum three more years.

And while most people think that Brunette is going to be a coaching upgrade over John Hynes, he is still a new head coach and is unlikely to have everything figured out on day one. Not to mention that the Predators also have a new GM in Barry Trotz, and we cannot truly know his vision until he has a few years of experience under his belt.

The team is undoubtedly off to a good start as far as getting a new Stanley Cup window opened, and you never know it could be fairly soon when they are ready to compete again. But the truth is there are too many moving parts to expect them to get to that point within a quick time.

Stanley Cup window: 3 to 5 years from now

Buffalo Sabres

Stanley Cup Appearances: 2  Last Appearance: 1999 ( Lost in 6 to Dallas Stars)

If you were to have made this list just a year ago today, the Sabres would have been nowhere to be found. Maybe they would have been a bit closer than they would have a year before that, when they had burned all bridges with Jack Eichel and were in a state of extreme turmoil.

They are still not ready to compete for a Stanley Cup now, but the state of this organization compared to the past three years before is unrecognizable. They have made so much progress recently and got to the point of missing the playoffs this year by literally one point.

It is understandable why, as they already have enough talent on offense to keep up with the most prolific scoring teams in the NHL. The headliner Tage Thompson is a proven superstar, and their forward core is made up of other bright youngsters such as Dylan Cozens and Alex Tuch.

Even Jeff Skinner has recently played up to his contract, which is super important because he will remain on the books for four more years.

The Sabres are looking promising on their blue line as well, as Rasmus Dahlin is already proven, Owen Power did well in his rookie year, and they just locked up Mattias Samuelsson for seven more years. They have some legit building blocks for the future, and as long as they continue to develop, they should be set on skaters if they supplement them with the right depth.

But what is keeping the Sabres from being further up on this list is, first of all, their history as an organization shows that we should exercise caution before declaring them the next big threats in the league, or anything like that.

Additionally, they do not have a goaltender in their system who they can say is their definitive future. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen could end up being that guy, but that is not a sure thing in the slightest based on how he has fared so far.

The Sabres absolutely have time to figure that out whichever way they do, but need to get it solidified before their Stanley Cup window can really open.

So while the Sabres have the guys in place who could very likely be faces of a Cup-caliber team, they are still unproven as a franchise, and are a few depth pieces and a legit goaltender away from truly being ready to compete.

Stanley Cup window: 2 to 5 years from now

Florida Panthers

Stanley Cup Appearances: 2    Last Appearance: 20223 ( Lost in 5 to the Golden Knights)

Let me just say that the Panthers were a weird team to judge when making this list. They of course did just make the Stanley Cup Final, which I have to respect, especially because there are parts of their team that are championship caliber.

Their top line is one of the best in the league, and they as a team can score with the best of them. They also have some studs on defense, mainly Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, but their series against the Golden Knights showed that their roster still needs some work.

Their defense does not have much depth, and their middle six is not super consistent and could use some reinforcements. They also have to seriously wonder if Sergei Bobrovsky will continue to be a monster from here on out, or if his epic playoff performance was a flash in the pan.

On top of that, it is fair to worry about them being demoralized after such a beating in the finals, and we do not know if that will affect them when the new season begins.

Now as far as their roster is concerned, they have enough cap space to be able to smartly address their needs. There are plenty of defensemen to choose from in free agency this summer, and middle six forwards are also a dime a dozen.

They also may have to address backup goaltender in free agency, and that largely depends on if Spencer Knight returns to the game. But that in itself is a whole other topic that is way bigger than anything hockey related.

The Panthers as a team are approaching an average age of 30, so like the Wild, they only have so much time before their contending window begins to shut.

The odds are going to be against them as they just did make it to the Stanley Cup Final, but on paper they only need a few more pieces to get back there.

People forget that they were supposed to be a contender when the 2022-23 season began, so for the purposes of this conversation, they are in the middle of their window and could easily reach the promised land again very soon.

Stanley Cup window: 1 to 3 years from now

Seattle Kraken

Stanley Cup Appearances: 0  

If you are an NHL fan looking to add fuel to the argument of “Gary Bettman gives expansion teams nowadays way too many privileges, way too early on,” then look no further than this article.

It is a tough thing to come to grips with, but when you look at all of the teams who have not won a Stanley Cup, it is hard to push back on the notion that the Kraken are the closest of the team without a Stanley Cup.

The best way to describe the Seattle Kraken is deep. They do not yet have a proven superstar, but if you are looking for a squad that can roll four forward lines and three defensive pairings, these guys check that box.

Of course, you need a real and lethal superstar if you want to compete for a Stanley Cup, but they might eventually have that in Matty Beniers. Jared McCann also just had a breakout year, so the Kraken are not a team you can look at as just having depth players.

Oh and they also have a little under $20M of cap space and several picks over the next few years. They can make whatever move they want, which includes splurging on a proven superstar to complement Beniers, McCann, and the rest of their roster.

The Kraken are set up almost exactly how all teams would like to be. They have a good enough roster to be a legit playoff team, as they were this year, but also enough younger players and overall potential to keep their window open for years and years.

Is it fair to the teams who have been around for many years and have struggled time and time again to maintain a contending team? Not in the slightest, but it appears as though new norm is expansion teams coming in and legitimately competing in the first three years of their existence.

Stanley Cup window: 1 to 5 years