2026 Stanley Cup Final Roundtable

With the Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes set to kick off tonight, the team here at Blueshirt Banter is ready to make some bold predictions and check in on their brackets.

Which team has surprised you the most in this postseason?

Joe Fortunato: I'd like to say Montreal, but they won in such a New York Rangers way (generate nothing, and rely on great goaltending) that it feels too familiar to give as an answer here. I could point to Colorado failing in spectacular fashion, or Carolina finally getting over the hump to the Stanley Cup Final. All that said, I think my answer is Edmonton. Not because I couldn't see it happening, but because there was so much on the line and they still let it happen. The organization put a knife in the back of Kris Knoblauch, but to see them go out without so much as a whimper while the Connor McDavid clock ticks down was incredible to me. No idea where they go from here, and no idea how they fix this, but they're in my "I could see this outcome but not this soon" file.

Eric Kohn: I agree with Joe that I don't think Montreal is the right answer here. I've had dozens of people insisting to me that their future is so blindingly bright after the just went on this run to the Eastern Conference Final. But given the way they did it, how they looked in half the series against Buffalo (especially Game 7) and how they got clowned by a Carolina Hurricanes I still don't really believe in? Well, as the Zen Master said, "we'll see." I'll give an honorable mention to the Philadelphia Flyers, as I didn't see them beating Pittsburgh in Round 1. But I think the award has to go to the Anaheim Ducks. In a way, I'm taking the positive side of Joe's answer. Joe is right, of course, that the way Edmonton didn't address their biggest glaring problem (well, to be quite clear, they made it worse by trading Stuart Skinner for Tristan Jarry of all people) while they're on the clock with McDavid is wild, we should give some credit to the Ducks. Edmonton should have had enough offensive firepower to get past them, and they couldn't. That surprised me.

Chip23: Tampa Bay, and not in a good way. With Florida, New York, and Toronto on the outside looking in, the Lightning should have walked through the East and into the Cup Final. They did not. They got spanked so hard by Montreal the untrained eye would think they had paid extra for the privilege. It was such an ugly showing that it left me wondering if maybe Jon Cooper's voice has grown stale in the locker room and that it might be time for a change.

Tom Dianora: The Dallas Stars, for looking so overwhelmed against the Minnesota Wild in the first round. That was a silly Round 1 matchup featuring two excellent teams, but I really thought that A) the Stars would win, and B) if not, they'd at least not look incompetent for such large swaths of the series, particularly at even strength.

Chris Feldman: Might be a weird answer, but I'm going to go with the Philadelphia Flyers. Heading into the postseason, I penciled them in as a "just happy to be here" type of team, but they quickly showed they had more to offer. They may have gotten swept by Carolina but their performance through two rounds of the playoffs proved the pieces are there for them to be more of a threat down the road.

Roberto Solis-Byxbee: The Colorado Avalanche. Falling in four games to Vegas when the stakes couldn't be higher really caught me off guard. I had them written in as the Stanley Cup champion in bold permanent marker. What went wrong?

Jake DiBlasio: They may not have had the toughest path, but the Carolina Hurricanes have truly been dominant. To start the playoffs 12-1 with your only loss coming after a 12-day rest is unheard of, and the last time a team had a start that good was in the 1976 playoffs. Also, the teams Carolina have played have all had strong goaltending, with the three goaltenders they faced having recorded a .932 (Linus Ulmark, Ottawa Senators), .a 922 (Dan Vladar, Philadelphia Flyers), and a .903 (Jakub Dobes, Montreal Canadiens) save percentage in their series against the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes are also averaging 33.17 shots per game, the most among playoff teams, while also only allowing 22.13 shots per game, tied for the least with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Which player has stood out the most?

Joe Fortunato: I am most interested in the ascent and success of Mitchell Marner, just because it continues to hammer home that you can (and should) bet on really good players being really good players. And it's OK to pay them, too (cough, Igor Shesterkin, cough). He has been every bit the playoff performer people in Toronto claimed he was not, and while Vegas isn't exactly Toronto in terms of atmosphere, I don't imagine the pressure of the Stanley Cup Final is less than an order of magnitude above the first or second round in Toronto. Honorable mention for Brett Howden, although sometimes guys just get red hot. Ruslan Fedotenko had 17 goals in 77 regular season games in 2003-04 for Tampa Bay and then scored 12 in 22 games in the playoffs to win the Stanley Cup that year. Oh, and he had a goal and two assists for three points in the prior 22 playoff games he had played leading up to that. And then zero points in the next nine playoff games. Sometimes it happens.

Eric Kohn: It's Mitch Marner. We've joked before that there's just something in the water in Toronto. Much the same way that there was something in the water in New York prior to Mark Messier's arrival and 1994, and in Chicago with the Cubs until Joe Maddon arrived and got them over their century-plus hump. So, in that sense, putting Toronto's perpetual playoff failures on him was, at minimum insufficient. Marner has already hinted at some of the hell that he was put through in Toronto that eventually drove him out of town, and his subsequent success in Vegas should really be the cause of some members of the Toronto media and some on the Leafs fandom to look in the mirror and start to figure out what the hell is wrong with them. Because it certainly wasn't Mitch Marner who was the problem.

Chip23: I mean, it has to be Mitchell Marner, right? After years of being informed by supposedly smart people that Marner was the albatross holding Toronto down, who would have thought he would go out and explode on the ice as one of the postseason's most prolific performers? Oh right, everyone. Everyone would have thought that, because we're not stupid enough to believe the narrative being pushed from Toronto fans and talking heads. Uninhibited by the toxic and psychotic environment in Hogtown (where fans thought it was perfectly normal to threaten his family, post his address publicly and then call him soft for wanting to get the hell out of town), Marner has been not just good, but great. He's easily one of the favorites for the Conn Smythe and nothing would make me happier than that.

Tom Dianora: My first thought is Mitch Marner, but then another Golden Knight, Brett Howden, usurps him in my mind. Not because he's having a better postseason or is a more legitimate Conn Smythe candidate, but because he's a former Rangers role player who is always scoring big goals ... of course. But I also know that he never would have been this player with the Rangers.

Chris Feldman: Alex Newhook becoming one of the most clutch players in the NHL was certainly not something I anticipated heading into these playoffs. Not only was he the one showing up in the big moments for Montreal, but he's (at the time of writing) still tied for second in postseason goals.

Roberto Solis-Byxbee: Brett Howden has 10 goals this playoff run. Are you kidding me? That's the same number of goals he scored in the last two seasons combined while playing for the Rangers.

Jake DiBlasio: It's hard not to look at Jack Eichel's game and wonder what could have been if he ended up a Ranger. His defensive game is incredible and really takes the opposing team's top line out of games. On top of that, he also has 18 points in 16 games, 14 of which coming while at even strength. Eichel currently has the seventh best odds to win the Conn Smythe, but if he keeps up his impressive two-way game, it would not surprise me if he won the award.

How's your bracket holding up?

Joe Fortunato: I have said this on the podcast before, but I don't really follow playoff hockey if the Rangers aren't in the playoffs. So, I didn't make one. That said, Vegas likely would have been on my board, but zero teams in the Eastern Conference Finals would have been, so I would have been wrong.

Eric Kohn: As I've mentioned, I have next to no faith in the Carolina Hurricanes, so I had them out before making it to the Stanley Cup Final. That said, the path they had to get to the Final was, I think, fairly weak. So I'm not shocked I was wrong about that. And I had Colorado winning it all. So, wrong there, too. But other than that, it's going great!

Chip23: My finals were Vegas against Tampa Bay, so I'm halfway there. I wish I could say that I just had a lot of faith in the Golden Knights, but truth be told I was only holding firm to something I said before the season started.

...the only thing that will drive the people of Hogtown (it's a thing!) crazier than seeing the Leafs crash and burn is seeing Mitch Marner raise Lord Stanley's Cup.

Tom Dianora: I didn't technically fill out a bracket, but I was envisioning Colorado vs. Buffalo in my head ... so, no bueno. Vegas vs. Carolina is pretty much the most odious matchup imaginable.

Chris Feldman: It was holding up real nice until Colorado fell apart. But even still, this year was without a doubt the most accurate bracket I've probably ever made. I had the entire East right except for Philly in Round 1 and Montreal beating Carolina. In the West, Dallas in Round 1 and Vegas beating Colorado were my only misses.

Roberto Solis-Byxbee: I don't want to talk about it.

Jake DiBlasio: I did not make one this year, which may have been for the best.

Who is winning it all?

Joe Fortunato: Vegas. They are too deep and they are too talented. Carolina is a fundamentally sound hockey team that I think deserves credit, but they had the easiest walk to the Stanley Cup Final in a long, long time and I'm not sure they are ready for what Vegas is going to be coming at them with.

Eric Kohn: Have I mentioned yet that I have next to no faith in Carolina? Vegas in five. Bringing in John Tortarella when they did for what this team was and what Torts can do was a perfect move. I think it gets them another championship. But they'd be insane to bring him back thinking it could repeat.

Chip23: Vegas, baby—in five. Look, not only is this pick based on some serious trolling of Toronto, but also I refuse to buy into the fact that Frederik Andersen is a Cup-winning goalie. I also don't need to hear for the next six months that the Rangers clearly made a mistake by giving up on K'Andre Miller because now he's a Cup winner. We're just getting through the glazing of Jeff Gorton, and hopefully the re-imagining of K'Andre's time here will end soon, too. But it will take much longer if he wins the Cup. So, give Vegas another title, let Marner spend his day with the Cup drinking beer outside Scotiabank Arena while pissing on a Gavin McKenna jersey.

Tom Dianora: Let's say Vegas, just so I can at least continue bit about Carolina being gimmicky, overrated, and underachieving. I'll take the Knights in six. But this will be a tough watch from an affinity standpoint.

Chris Feldman: I tweeted this during Game 1 of Round 1 when the playoffs first started:

You sort of had to think heading into these playoffs that if there was ever a year for the Hurricanes to do it, it had to be this year. They've been a consistent threat of sorts in the East for the last number of years, and their window isn't closing necessarily. But there's an argument to be made that their due date is approaching. They're going to take care of business and beat Vegas. And the scary part is they're in great shape to run it back with the same group and more cap space next season.

Roberto Solis-Byxbee: At this point, it needs to be the Carolina Hurricanes. It pains me to say it, but I have several personally important reasons why I don't want the Golden Knights to succeed.

Jake DiBlasio: I believe that the John Tortorella-coached Vegas Golden Knights are going to hoist the Stanley Cup. Under Tortorella, the Golden Knights have played their best hockey, and he has found a way to get players who were cold hot at the right time. They also have strong goaltending, which they lacked for the majority of the year. Another aspect that works in Vegas' favor is they have been in this situation before, whereas the Hurricanes have not and have shown to fold in previous playoff runs.

Who is your pick for the Conn Smythe Trophy?

Joe Fortunato: If Vegas wins it's Marner. If Carolina wins it's going to be Logan Stankoven (or at least should be).

Eric Kohn: Mitch Marner, just to throw some more salt in the sucking chest wound that is the Toronto Maple Leafs. If Carolina pulls it out, it's probably because Frederik Andersen has remained in god-mode, so it'll be him. If Andersen struggles but Carolina somehow still wins, it'll probably be Taylor Hall, as he's been their best and most consistent offensive performer. We can also dispense now with the weird lobbying some are doing for K'Andre Miller. I'm not saying he's been bad, but there's absolutely zero way the Conn Smythe is going to a player tied for 43rd in points in the playoffs.

Chip23: If you've read this far you know my pick is going to be Mitchell Marner.

Tom Dianora: I said Brett Howden has stood out to me the most, but Mitch Marner makes more sense as the Conn Smythe winner. I could also see Jack Eichel winning it despite his low goal scoring. His assist totals and two-way play are elite enough to warrant it. But, I'll stick with Marner.

Chris Feldman: I'm going with Logan Stankoven. The award is meant for the most valuable player throughout the entire playoffs and while the Cup Final always becomes a deciding factor, Stankoven is a huge reason as to why Carolina has had the success they've had.

Roberto Solis-Byxbee: Even if Vegas falls, it's hard to think it could be anyone aside from Mitch Marner at this point. Finishing with more than 30 points isn't out of the question for the dynamic winger. Aside from that, Frederik Andersen is having a great playoff run, and it's possible it could all fall apart when facing a team that is up to the challenge, but he has so far silenced a lot of his longtime critics.

Jake DiBlaso: If Vegas wins, I believe it will be Mitch Marner. For a player who was constantly labeled as someone who couldn't play in May or June, and as not the kind of player you win a Cup with, he has been the polar opposite and doing it his way with flashy offense and consistent defense based on good stick skills and positioning. If Carolina takes home the cup, I think Taylor Hall deserves it. His career is one of the more interesting ones in the league, but as he looks for his first Stanley Cup, he is playing his best hockey.

Are there any major lessons for the Rangers to take from these playoffs?

Joe Fortunato: Nope! Or at least none they shouldn't have already known. The NHL is a young man's game, you need team speed, and you need stars (or preferably superstars) who can take games over when you need them to.

Eric Kohn: Just get to the dance, baby. Aside from Chris, apparently, did anyone really have Montreal going that far? Or, look at Carolina. Because of the incandescently stupid way the NHL has structure the playoffs, you can either end up having to run a gauntlet or you can end up with a cake walk to the Conference Final like the Hurricanes had.

Chip23: Two things. First, there are multiple paths to winning. Actually, this is less a lesson for the Rangers (who I'm pretty sure know this) and more a lesson for Rangers fans. We talk a lot about wanting the Rangers to build "the right way," as if we have a clue about what that really is. Usually when people talk about the "right way" they mean through the draft and developing players. Well, um, take a look at Vegas. The only significant player on that roster that they drafted is Pavel Dorofeyev. The rest of the team were veterans who they acquired via trade or free agency. Hell, there's very little "home grown" talent on Carolina either. Now, sure, had Colorado and Montreal won their series we would be subjected to endless stories about the elite drafting of Montreal. But that's just it. Yes, building a team through drafting and development works, but it's not the only way to build a team.

Second, size doesn't matter (in the NHL). There are big guys who dominate. There are small guys who dominate. There are big guys who are disasters. There are small guys who are disasters. While it's true that size is the one thing you cannot teach, it doesn't mean you should default to filling your roster with large players. At the same time, for all the success of Logan Stankoven, there are a lot more Ty Ronning's in the world than there are Logan Stankoven's. Build a roster around skill, not height (or lack of height).

Tom Dianora: Yes, a couple. One: Stop caring so much about size. Can the guy play? Does be produce? OK, then I don't care how big (or small) he is. Two: Driving play at even strength is so important, and is still not something this team has figured out in the past decade.

Chris Feldman: It's more a lesson for the league as a whole but one the Rangers should certainly take note of, as well. Just because a player is "undersized" does not mean they should be written off or passed up on. Who have been some of the most effective players in these playoffs? Zach Benson, Cole Caufield, Logan Stankoven, Seth Jarvis, Jackson Blake, Alex Newhook. What do they all have in common? They clock in under six foot, and some of them well under that. The Rangers, nor any team, should be passing up on elite level players just because they are "undersized."

Roberto Solis-Byxbee: To echo what Chris said, abandon prioritizing sizable players. Bet on skill. Draft Viggo Björck, and if Xavier Villeneuve slides, trade up and grab him. Many of these elite teams have slick-skating smaller defenseman. I love Adam Fox, and probably more than you. But having another serious scoring threat on the backend will make him even more effective.

Jake DiBlaso: I think the Blueshirts and general manager Chris Drury need to look at how complete and talented some of these rosters are and how far away that is. Pulling off a retool is much harder than a rebuild, and there is a hard timeline to be back in contention by. The Rangers lack the young talented stars needed to win the Cup and don't have much in the pipeline. Multiple playoff teams such as the Anaheim Ducks, the Montreal Canadiens, and the Philadelphia Flyers were propelled by their youth and, despite losing, have a bright future ahead. If you look at the Los Angeles Kings, who tried to pull off a retool, they were swept in the first round and don't have a look on the way to give them that next step.