Every NHL Stanley Cup Playoff season I enjoy digging into rosters to see how teams compare across relatively basic demographic information such as nationality, age, and acquisition type. As they say, sharing is caring. (Note: data sources are a combination of capfriendly.com and various statistical reports out of NHL.com.)
Average age across Stanley Cup Playoff rosters
Stanley Cup rosters by nationality
The league is roughly 45% Canadian, but variance across certain teams can be profound. Here is the breakdown of nationality by team.
How the players were acquired
This is a fun view on how these teams were built.
An interesting callout for Vegas is that Nicolas Hague is the first draft pick to make an appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the Golden Knights. This is his fourth season since being drafted and should be a good example on setting expectations for Seattle Kraken NHL Entry Draft picks in July.
Salary cap by playoff team
Technically there is no such thing as a salary cap in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but this year playoff salaries are getting a bit more discussion. The defending Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning brought back Nikita Kucherov from long-term injured reserve just in time for the playoffs, pushing the team way over the limit of what would be the cap. But again, there is no salary cap for the playoffs.
I hope this gives you a little more insight into the teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year. If you have questions about the data or some additional angles you would like me to consider, let me know in the comments section.
I wonder what some of the teams that didn’t make the playoffs look like in comparison. For example, the Canucks have spent a ton of money but have little to show for it. And as much as everyone says the draft well. I bet there’s alot of traded and free agent players.