Congratulations, you have the best player. Does this mean you will win the cup?
With the hockey season well on its way and the Canadiens doing well so far, an interesting question popped in my head – is the winning team, the one with the best players? You can guess I am less interested in hockey than I am with business teams when that question appeared.
As a manager or a leader, isn’t our job to find the best players for our project or our organization? If we don’t have the best players, aren’t we doomed to fail?
With that question in mind, I did a not-so-scientific exercice. I looked at the winning teams in the last 5 years and determined if there was a correlation between the best player (in this case, the best offensive player) and the winning team. Much to my surprise, in the last five years, only in 2008-2009 did the best offensive player(s) win the much coveted Stanley Cup when Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby played with the winning team (Pittsburgh Penguins).
Much in line with a post I wrote last year, it makes more sense to focus on creating a highly performant team than to hire on “the best” individual contributors. The same seems to be true in hockey as it is in a business setting. Wouldn’t you agre?
| 2009-2010 | Stanley Cup Winner | Chicago Black Hawks | ||||
| Player | Team | Pos | GP | G | A | P |
| 1 | Henrik Sedin | VAN | C | 82 | 29 | 83 |
| 2 | Sidney Crosby | PIT | C | 81 | 51 | 58 |
| 3 | Alex Ovechkin | WSH | L | 72 | 50 | 59 |
| 4 | Nicklas Backstrom | WSH | C | 82 | 33 | 68 |
| 5 | Steven Stamkos | TBL | C | 82 | 51 | 44 |
| 6 | Martin St Louis | TBL | R | 82 | 29 | 65 |
| 7 | Brad Richards | DAL | C | 80 | 24 | 67 |
| 8 | Joe Thornton | SJS | C | 79 | 20 | 69 |
| 9 | Patrick Kane | CHI | R | 82 | 30 | 58 |
| 2008-2009 | Stanley Cup Winner | Pittsburgh Penguins | ||||
| Player | Team | Pos | GP | G | A | P |
| 1 | Evgeni Malkin | PIT | C | 82 | 35 | 78 |
| 2 | Alex Ovechkin | WSH | L | 79 | 56 | 54 |
| 3 | Sidney Crosby | PIT | C | 77 | 33 | 70 |
| 2007-2008 | Stanley Cup Winner | Detroit Red Wings | ||||
| Player | Team | Pos | GP | G | A | P |
| 1 | Alex Ovechkin | WSH | L | 82 | 65 | 47 |
| 2 | Evgeni Malkin | PIT | C | 82 | 47 | 59 |
| 3 | Jarome Iginla | CGY | R | 82 | 50 | 48 |
| 4 | Pavel Datsyuk | DET | C | 82 | 31 | 66 |
| 2006-2007 | Stanley Cup Winner | Anaheim Ducks | ||||
| Player | Team | Pos | GP | G | A | P |
| 1 | Sidney Crosby | PIT | C | 79 | 36 | 84 |
| 2 | Joe Thornton | SJS | C | 82 | 22 | 92 |
| 3 | Vincent Lecavalier | TBL | C | 82 | 52 | 56 |
| 4 | Dany Heatley | OTT | R | 82 | 50 | 55 |
| 5 | Martin St Louis | TBL | R | 82 | 43 | 59 |
| 6 | Marian Hossa | ATL | R | 82 | 43 | 57 |
| 7 | Joe Sakic | COL | C | 82 | 36 | 64 |
| 8 | Jaromir Jagr | NYR | R | 82 | 30 | 66 |
| 9 | Marc Savard | BOS | C | 82 | 22 | 74 |
| 10 | Danny Briere | BUF | R | 81 | 32 | 63 |
| 11 | Teemu Selanne | ANA | R | 82 | 48 | 46 |
| 2005-2006 | Stanley Cup Winner | Carolina Hurricanes | ||||
| Player | Team | Pos | GP | G | A | P |
| 1 | Joe Thornton | BOS, SJS | C | 81 | 29 | 96 |
| 2 | Jaromir Jagr | NYR | R | 82 | 54 | 69 |
| 3 | Alex Ovechkin | WSH | L | 81 | 52 | 54 |
| 4 | Dany Heatley | OTT | R | 82 | 50 | 53 |
| 5 | Daniel Alfredsson | OTT | R | 77 | 43 | 60 |
| 6 | Sidney Crosby | PIT | C | 81 | 39 | 63 |
| 7 | Eric Staal | CAR | C | 82 | 45 | 55 |
| Sources: | ||||||
http://www.nhl.com/ice/app |
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http://proicehockey.about.com/od/stanleycupbunker/a/stanley_cuplist.htm |
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Having the best single player by itself might not be enough, however having the best player sure helps bring the best players together and make it a championship candidate team.
Look at these teams with or without these players:
Patrick Roy with the Avalanches
Micheal Jordan with the Bulls
The 49ers with the stars of the early 90′s
The oilers with Gretzky and Messier
etc.
Agreed with Nicholas, also dont forget that one of the main goals of having the best player is to fill up the arena seats, thus attract spectators, thus bring money to the mill…