Ducks, Pens try to buck trend of winning Stanley Cup without elite No. 1 defenceman
The Philadelphia Flyers showed the hockey world what a No. 1 defenceman meant in July 2012 when they signed then-Nashville Predators defenceman Shea Weber to a spectacular 14-year offer sheet worth US$110 million.
Letting Weber walk would’ve meant a haul of top draft picks for the Preds, but the club matched the offer and described it as “the most important hockey transaction in franchise history.”
Teams that compete for a Stanley Cup without an elite defenceman such as Weber are almost non-existent these days, but this might just be one of those odd years when the trend is bucked — with two of the four teams remaining lacking such a player.
The Anaheim Ducks captured their first and only Cup in 2007 with a pair of future Hall of Famers at the top of their defence in Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger. There’s no such player fronting this year’s edition though; the Ducks defence is instead made up of a collection of well-rounded parts, including 25-year-old American Cam Fowler and the young core of Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson, Sami Vatanen and Brandon Montour.