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NHL History: Who is the most dominant team of the last decade?

By Rohan Yaradi|
NEWARK, NJ - FEBRUARY 24: The Stanley Cup is on display during Patrik Elias Jersey Retirement Night prior to the National Hockey League Game between the New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders on February 24, 2018, at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NEWARK, NJ - FEBRUARY 24: The Stanley Cup is on display during Patrik Elias Jersey Retirement Night prior to the National Hockey League Game between the New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders on February 24, 2018, at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

The last decade has seen some of the best hockey in NHL history, featuring the rise of dominant playoff and regular season teams. But which team should be considered the best of the past decade?

For NHL history buffs, one of the ways to pass the time is to debate how some of the great teams of the past compare to each other. Who was better, the 1977 Montreal Canadiens or 2002 Detroit Red Wings? The 1988 Edmonton Oilers or 1992 Pittsburgh Penguins?

As this current decade nears its end, those same discussions are bound to come up regarding some of the great teams fans have seen recently. However, without knowing how history looks back on these teams, it may be difficult to make these comparisons.

To help with this, let’s utilize the What If simulator. Based on the relative strengths of whichever teams are pitted against each other, the engine simulates a full game between the two.

While this is obviously not foolproof (the 1975 Washington Capitals have defeated the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks on more than one occasion), it is a fun way to compare the relative dominance of two teams.

As this current decade nears its end, those same discussions are bound to come up regarding some of the great teams fans have seen recently.

This post will put the eight best teams of the past eight seasons in a best-of-seven elimination tournament against each other using the What If simulator. No changes are made to lineups, and each game is simulated in playoffs mode.

There were some restrictions on what teams could be chosen, however. For one, the website does not have teams from this past season uploaded yet, so the range of time is from the 2009-10 season to the 2016-17 season.

Additionally, the decision was made to have just one team represent each franchise so that there would be more variation. Because of that, there is only one Chicago Blackhawks team, even though they won three Stanley Cups over that time span.

The teams were chosen and ranked as follows (with justification included):

  1. 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks (77 pts (lockout), Stanley Cup, Presidents’ Trophy)
  2. 2016-17 Pittsburgh Penguins (111 pts, Stanley Cup)
  3. 2010-11 Boston Bruins (103 pts, Stanley Cup)
  4. 2013-14 Los Angeles Kings (100 pts, Stanley Cup)
  5. 2009-10 Washington Capitals (121 pts, Presidents’ Trophy)
  6. 2014-15 New York Rangers (113 pts, Presidents’ Trophy)
  7. 2011-12 Vancouver Canucks (111 pts, Presidents’ Trophy)
  8. 2015-16 Dallas Stars (109 pts, Western Conference Finalists)

As is obvious by the seeding, the Stanley Cup-winning teams were given preferential seeding, followed by Presidents’ Trophy-winners, and finally the 2015-16 Stars, who were only chosen because that year’s Stanley Cup and Presidents’ Trophy-winners already had representatives.

The tournament will follow a typical 1 versus 8 format, with reseeding after each round. Without further ado, let’s find out who is the best team of the past decade.

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