The ultimate goal for an NHL team is to win the Stanley Cup. It’s a goal that takes a full team effort to achieve. It’s made even more difficult by the fact that there are 31 other teams striving toward a the same goal, actively trying to prevent your team from achieving it’s goal in the process.
Building a team capable of contending for the Stanley Cup in today’s NHL is no easy task. A team needs good players in order to compete and they need to to be able identify those players in order to acquire them. And while talent evaluation is obviously a key component to team building, the salary cap has added another layer of complexity. We’ve seen teams become dominant over multiple seasons or get stuck at the bottom of the standings during the cap era but that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of parity. The salary cap has brought parity comes in the form of available resources. How those resources are deployed can make or break a team’s chances.
I thought it was time to put together some teambuilding guidelines that, if followed, will improve a team’s chances of building a Stanley Cup championship team. Here’s 10 guidelines I think every team should follow:
#1 Strive For Excellence In All Areas
Great teams are good at everything. Yes, they may be stronger in some areas than others but there are no glaring weaknesses. Building a great team requires paying attention to all facets of the game. Forwards, defensemen and goaltenders all contribute. Defense wins championships. But only if the offense produces.
#2 Acquire Elite Players
Any team that hopes to contend must have elite players. Having the best players on your team is an obvious advantage. And it doesn’t matter (much) what they cost. Elite players are a limited resource and whichever team has them starts off with a leg up on their competition.
#3 Maintain Diversity
Having the best players on your team is a start, but it’s only a start. A team needs to ensure their roster includes players with diverse skillsets. A playmaker is more effective if he has a sniper that can finish chances. A defense pair needs to be able to defend the front of the net, defend the rush, start transition, and contribute offensively. Very few players do everything well. Putting players with complementary skill sets together maximizes their effectiveness.
#4 Lock Up Core Players
In order to remain competitive over a number of seasons, teams should lock up their core players on longer contracts through their prime years. We’re taking about only a handful of players per team, roughly 3-4 forwards, 1-2 defensemen and 0-1 goaltenders and they should be the elite players we discussed in #2. Getting them under contract provides certainty on the cost of the team’s most expensive players and sets the table to surround them with additional talent.
#5 Maintain Flexibility
The core needs to be surrounded with good players and it’s best if that can be done with shorter term contracts. Even if the value is reasonable, locking in a 3rd line winger for 8 years makes future adjustment difficult. Losing a player for nothing is a much smaller risk with depth players. Unlike elite players, depth players are a more readily available commodity and can be more easily replaced as required.
#6 Avoid Bad Contracts
Great teams don’t have bad contracts. Resources are limited in the salary cap system and overpaying a player ties up valuable resources that could be used to further improve the team. Dead cap is even worse.
#7 Find Value
Tying in with #6, find players that can be acquired for a small amount of resources. Graduating prospects still on entry level deals is one method that is entirely internal the team. Understanding what other teams objectives are and what types of players they value is another that helps find value in free agency and trades.
#8 Goaltending is Voodoo
Goaltenders have a huge impact on team success. Yet there are very few goaltenders who are consistently among the best in the NHL and worth committing a large cap hit or long term contract to. If you have one of the top few goalies, hang onto them. If not, find a cost effective solution in goal.
#9 Stick with the Plan
Once you have a plan, stick to it. Don’t let short term trends sway decision making. We see things like SH% and SV% regress toward the mean, but it takes time. Making a rash decision due to short term results will most likely result in violating at least one of the first 8 guidelines.
#10 Evaluate and Adjust
Finally, while having and sticking to a plan is important, that doesn’t mean the plan is set in stone. Evaluating team progress and making adjustments is the only method to systematically improve the team. Figure out what’s working and keep doing it. Figure out what’s not working and change it.
