NHL: Predicting The 2023 Presidents’ Trophy Winner
By Jim Lynch
The Presidents’ Trophy is handed out every year in the NHL to the team with the most points during the regular season. For the past handful of years, that trophy has ended up being a bit of a curse as no team that has won the Presidents’ Trophy has won the Stanley Cup since the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks. Today, let’s take our best-educated guess as to who will win the 2023 Presidents’ Trophy.
The 2023 Presidents’ Trophy winner will go into the Stanley Cup playoffs with guaranteed home ice throughout the entire playoffs.
Getting that top spot definitely will be a game changer for one team although we do have to note that only four teams since 2000 have won the Stanley Cup during the same season that they won the Presidents’ Trophy. Those four teams are the 2001 Avalanche, 2002 Red Wings, 2008 Red Wings, and 2013 Blackhawks.
In fact, when looking at the entire history of the trophy since it was first introduced ahead of the 1985-86 season, the trophy winner has won the Stanley Cup just eight times, and the winner has been bounced in round one seven times. Enough about that, as at the end of the day having home ice is an advantage, it is up to the teams to get things done on the ice.
A trend in Presidents’ Trophy winners:
I have good news for fans of the Tampa Bay Lightning, as there has been a bit of a trend from previous Presidents’ Trophy winners as of late. The Boston Bruins won the trophy in 2020, the Nashville Predators won in 2018, the New York Rangers won in 2015, the Boston Bruins won in 2014 and the Vancouver Canucks won in 2012. You might be asking what those five teams all have in common from the past ten years, well they all went to the Stanley Cup Final the year before.
Teams that were so close to winning it all and fell just a few wins short end up entering the next season hungrier than ever. They try to pick up where they left off and five times since 2012 have ended up winning the Presidents’ Trophy.
Now does that necessarily correlate with who I think will win in 2013? No, but I do think it is important to mention for you to form your own pick.
Who I think will win in 2023:
The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2022, and while they are still the top team in the west, I do not think they are destined to capture the best record of the regular season. The Lightning are still the Lightning, but at this rate, they are built to get into the playoffs and then turn it on, so not the Lightning.
The Rangers were a team I was considering for this, but the big additions from another within the Metropolitan Division makes me think this trophy is destined to go to Carolina.
The Hurricanes added Max Pacioretty and Brent Burns this offseason. They still have their core group including Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Teuvo Teravainene and Jaccob Slavin. Most of their roster is running it back after an exit in the second round in 2022 at the hands of the New York Rangers.
With head coach Rod Brind’Amour and general manager Don Waddell proving year after year that they are willing to do anything to win, without a doubt I think this team could win the Presidents’ Trophy.
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While the winner could end up coming out of the western conference thanks to the fact that the competition level just is not as high across the board, I still am picking the Hurricanes as my early pick to win the trophy.
Let me know who you think will win the Presidents’ Trophy in the comments!