Chances are good the 2025 Stanley Cup champion is sitting right in front of you, in broad daylight.
As it has been, for the most part.
With the National Hockey League trade deadline upon us on Friday at 3 p.m. ET, just about every deal that’s made will be scrutinized to the nth degree.
And if it’s a Cup contender that is involved, you can bet that any incoming player will be seen as a key piece in that team’s hopes to raise the silver mug some time in June.
Something Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving said during a media scrum in Pittsburgh last Saturday caught our attention, though.
“Historically, look back on these attention-grabbing deadline deals, really look back at how many have really paid dividends,” Treliving said. “Sometimes moving the needle is maybe not the sexy headline-grabbing move.”
We took a look at the past 10 Cup-winning teams and, it turns out, Treliving was right on both counts.
If the eventual 2025 champion adds a player or two before Friday afternoon, chances are high that any newcomer won’t play anything more than a supporting role, if that.
Teams who have attempted to hit a home run at the deadline — last year, for example, Carolina acquired Jake Guentzel, Winnipeg traded for Tyler Toffoli and Vegas got Tomas Hertl — usually don’t cross the plate in that same year.
A year ago, the Florida Panthers acquired forwards Vladimir Tarasenko and Kyle Okposo on or before the deadline. Tarasenko played in all 24 playoff games and had five goals and four assists; Okposo, who would retire in September, played in 17 playoff games and contributed two assists.
The heavy lifting was done by the Panthers who helped the club win the Atlantic Division during the regular season — Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Gustav Forsling and Sergei Bobrovsky among them.
Two years ago, Vegas won its first Cup. The Golden Knights did so after acquiring goalie Jonathan Quick and Teddy Blueger at the deadline. Quick didn’t play in a single playoff game. Blueger had two points in six post-season games.
In 2022, defenceman Josh Manson was a solid deadline pickup for the Colorado Avalanche. But even so, in 20 playoff games, Manson had the fifth-most ice time among Avs D-men.
Tampa Bay won its second of two Cups in a row after adding defenceman David Savard, who played on the third pairing, at the deadline.
A year earlier, in the 2019-20 season interrupted by the COVID pandemic, the Lightning acquired forwards Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow at the deadline in February; each made his presence felt when the Cup finally was contested in the bubble in Edmonton the following September, when Tampa Bay beat Dallas.
Craig Berube and the St. Louis Blues didn’t add at the 2019 deadline before winning the Cup; in 2018, the Washington Capitals got defenceman Michal Kempny from Chicago, and he was a key cog in 24 playoff games as the Caps won their first Cup.
In 2017, Pittsburgh acquired Ron Hainsey from Carolina. The veteran defenceman, who went on to sign with the Leafs that summer, was vital for the Penguins as Kris Letang wasn’t able to play after having neck surgery.
The Penguins added depth defenceman Justin Schultz before raising the Cup in 2015; the Blackhawks, in winning their third Cup in six years in 2014, got depth forwards Antoine Vermette and Andrew Desjardins.
In almost every case in the past 10 years, the roster of players that won the Cup were part of that team well before the trade deadline. Players who were crucial during the regular season carried that on through the post-season.
Having said all this, the pressure does not come off Treliving with the deadline looming.
The Leafs are a solid hockey team. They’ve made strides in Berube’s first season behind the bench and, with 20 games left in the regular season (after Wednesday’s loss in Vegas), seemingly are in line for a good playoff run.
Yet the addition of a centre or a defenceman should benefit the Leafs further down the lineup and Treliving almost has no choice but to make a trade after Florida acquired defenceman Seth Jones and Tampa Bay traded for centre Yanni Gourde and winger Oliver Bjorkstrand.
Rounding out the lineup has been the path that most of the recent Stanley Cup champions have taken at the deadline. For Treliving, even that will be a challenge, considering the Leafs are up against the cap.
Still, Treliving has to give it his best shot — whether it’s Scott Laughton or Brayden Schenn or Savard or Connor Murphy or Brock Nelson — whoever it might be.
If the Leafs do end the drought that has been ongoing since 1967, though, Treliving can be sure of one thing: Recent NHL history tells him that he already has the players who will be the driving force to making that happen.
X: @koshtorontosun