Department of Obvious Statements: 20 Players Dress Every Night

Hell, let’s look back at that ’91 team and see how many of the big pieces got there:

• Jaromir Jagr, Bryan Trottier, and Joe Mullen all arrived at the start of the season, though Mullen only played half the year (injury?).
• Paul Coffey had been there two and a half seasons by that point, after being traded by the Oilers for Craig Simpson due to a holdout. Tom Barrasso had come over less than two years earlier from Buffalo.
• Kevin Stevens and Mark Recchi were both in their second full seasons as an NHLers.
• Larry Murphy and Jiri Hrdina were midseason replacements from Minnesota and Calgary, respectively, while Ron Francis was a deadline acquisition from Hartford.

So besides Lemieux and maybe Bob Errey, how many key contributors to that team had been there since the mid-80s? (I honestly don’t know what the relative contribution of a guy like Troy Loney was.) I think this was a team that very much came together in the last couple of years before their ultimate victory, and the fact that they had to bring in all those guys before they finally won is the perfect demonstration of your point. Good call, Jonathan.

Thanks for this. You’re right in that it is something that should be patently obvious, but clearly isn’t.

Well, you’re obviously correct. But when people make the point that Hemsky can’t lead us above eighth, the unspoken assumption is that in a cap world you can only have so many marquee offensive talents, and if Hemsky’s your flagship you’re probably not going to be a Cup team. In other words, Lemieux + that supporting cast = Cup winner, while Hemsky + whatever supporting cast you can afford under the cap = 8th place.

I have no idea whether any of that’s true, but I do think interpreting the argument as “no team with Ales Hemsky on it can possibly win” is somewhat strawman-ish.