THN: Just how important are prospects in building a Stanley Cup winner?
By: Matt Larkin
The weeks before we finished Future Watch 2015 were extremely exciting for the Winnipeg Jets and their fans. They had an elite crop of 21-and-younger talent, including Mark Scheifele, Jacob Trouba, Nikolaj Ehlers and Nic Petan, and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff made it even better via the Evander Kane trade (see pg. 18).
As we reviewed this year’s cover art in the THN office, I asked: “How excited will Cheveldayoff be when he sees this?â€
Senior writer Ken Campbell’s retort: “Excited? Or nervous? Now he has to win.â€
It was a provocative thought. Possessing the best young talent in the sport doesn’t mean you’ve won anything yet. A strong Future Watch ranking, as encouraging as it may be to a team and its fans, is just a means to an end. How often does it lead to success in the NHL? And when on average does the result occur?
We researched the correlation between past Future Watch finishes and success in the standings and playoffs, starting with FW 2008. Why 2008? Because fans and media so commonly champion Pittsburgh, Chicago and Los Angeles as the ideal development models and 2008 marked one year before Pittsburgh’s first and only Stanley Cup in the Sidney Crosby era.
