Size is no longer a crucial ingredient among Stanley Cup winning teams
It has never been tougher to gain an edge over opponents in the NHL. With the access to data and scouting information we have publicly – plus all the other intelligence teams collect with their private research – it feels like everyone knows everything. Maybe that’s why we have such unbelievable leaguewide parity in 2025-26.
But there may still be a way to flex an advantage over the field. To quote Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Graysmith in the film Zodiac: “I’ve been thinking that if you put all the information together, maybe you could jog something loose.”
What if I told you I developed a formula consisting of seven common ingredients among recent Stanley Cup champions, using the previous 10 seasons as the sample to study?
Welcome to season 5 of Daily Faceoff Stanley Cup ingredients. If you’re curious as to whether the process works: last season, it identified the Edmonton Oilers as the team with the most Cup-worthy traits, and they reached a second-consecutive Stanley Cup Final, while the other conference finalists, the Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes, all graded out as above average on the Ingredients scale. The season prior, four of the top five teams on the Ingredients leaderboard made up the four conference finalists.
Note that the potency of each ingredient can fluctuate annually. Since we study rolling 10-season samples, we remove one Cup-winning team and add one each year, so the correlation of a specific trait can strengthen or weaken.
To kick off the 2025-26 series, let’s look at heavy hockey. Which teams tip the scales the most and are best equipped for the bludgeoning play of the postseason?
Stanley Cup Ingredient #1: TEAM WEIGHT
Even though the sport has never been faster and more skilled, the play style travels back in time during the postseason, with less scoring, less time and space and more leniency from officials to “let ’em play.”
The biggest and, more specifically, heaviest teams thrive in this environment. Size matters.
According to Elite Prospects’ team comparison data, here’s how the past 10 Stanley Cup winners ranked in their respective seasons in average player weight.
| Season | Champion | Avg. Weight | League rank |
| 2015-16 | Pittsburgh | 195 lbs | 30th |
| 2016-17 | Pittsburgh | 194 lbs | 30th |
| 2017-18 | Washington | 204 lbs | 6th |
| 2018-19 | St. Louis | 203 lbs | 5th |
| 2019-20 | Tampa Bay | 203 lbs | 4th |
| 2020-21 | Tampa Bay | 204 lbs | 2nd |
| 2021-22 | Colorado | 199 lbs | 14th |
| 2022-23 | Vegas | 205 lbs | 1st |
| 2023-24 | Florida | 199 lbs | 18th |
| 2024-25 | Florida | 196 lbs | 25th |
Stanley Cup correlation: Fading
Whoa. Things are shifting. From 2017-18 through 2022-23, one of the league’s biggest teams won the Cup five time in six seasons, but back-to-back champion Florida is one of the smaller clubs. Perhaps the correlation is less about the size of the dog in the fight and more about the size of the fight in the dog nowadays, as the Panthers led the NHL in hits per 60 minutes last season and the season before en route to their consecutive Stanley Cups. That’s a trend to watch closely.
So which teams in the current field bring the brawn? Let’s examine this season’s leaders in average weight, with data from Elite Prospects reflecting rosters as of March 16, 2025, and see if they reflect the diminishing correlation:
2025-26 NHL leaders, average team weight
1. Toronto Maple Leafs, 207 lbs
2. Boston Bruins, 207 lbs
3. New York Rangers, 207 lbs
4. Anaheim Ducks, 205 lbs
5. Dallas Stars, 205 lbs
6. Ottawa Senators, 205 lbs
7. Buffalo Sabres, 203 lbs
8. Columbus Blue Jackets, 203 lbs
9. Los Angeles Kings, 203 lbs
10. Vegas Golden Knights, 201 lbs
(No teams are actually “tied”; rankings are based on weight in kg)
Fascinatingly, half the teams in the top 10 don’t even hold playoff positions as of press time, and several that do aren’t shoo-ins to clinch. The powerhouse Colorado Avalanche are the NHL’s third-smallest team right now. Is the weight correlation dead?
Let’s try applying the trend we saw from the Panthers and see who leads the hits-per-60 leaderboard this season:
2025-26 NHL leaders, hits per 60
1. New York Rangers, 25.43
2. Florida Panthers, 24.75
3. Ottawa Senators, 23.73
4. Boston Bruins, 22.95
5. St. Louis Blues, 22.49
6. Toronto Maple Leafs, 22.43
7. Philadelphia Flyers, 22.15
8. Winnipeg Jets, 21.95
9. Montreal Canadiens, 21.21
10. San Jose Sharks, 21.07
Just two of the top 10 hold playoff positions. The thing about racking up hits: it often happens because you don’t have the puck. That’s likely why we see subpar teams littering the top 10.
In the 2010s, the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins combined for five Stanley Cups playing fast hockey with small teams. The 2017-18 Washington Capitals ushered in an era of heavy hockey being the winning formula, but the trend is shifting back toward smaller, more skilled teams having the right stuff.
Next up: Top-10 scorers
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POST SPONSORED BY bet365
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