Ten unique champions in a row

[scoop 3,426]

Season 86: Vancouver

Season 87: Calgary

Season 88: London

Season 89: Davos

Season 90: Prague

Season 91: Toronto

Season 92: D.C.

Season 93: Seattle

Season 94: Moscow

Season 95: Riga

 

Ten seasons, ten unique champions. This is a level that has not been seen before, and I hope we can seen this stretch extend even further. Of course, the longer the streak goes on, the smaller our list of heroes becomes, making it so much more difficult for it to continue. Let's rank the remaining six teams in terms of who is most likely to keep this going.

 

1. Chicago - The Phoenix made it to the Conference Finals last season, and all of their key pieces will be returning next season. Most of their roster is in their prime, so I expect them to be among the best once again.

 

2. Malmo - While they have been notoriously bad in the playoffs recently, the current generation of Nighthawks have been one of the best regular season teams in a long time. The loss of Randy Bobandy will hurt, but they should still make the playoffs.

 

3. Warsaw - The Predators may only have one defender on their roster at the moment, but they have three very good forwards and an excellent goaltender. If they can fill out their defense, they could have a shot. Their relatively average performance last season does not instill a ton of confidence, however.

 

4. New York - Even when the Americans look good on paper, they struggle. They massively underperformed last season to the point where they were sellers at the deadline. It will be interesting to see what direction they go in the off-season, as they could try to make moves to get back into the playoff picture.

 

5. Helsinki - The Titans slot in ahead of the Stars because I think they have a slightly better chance of making the playoffs, where anything could happen. They just need one of this past season's playoff teams to falter, because London and Prague are still worse than them.

 

6. Los Angeles - I do think the Stars have a bright future, but I don't believe this will be their year. If a couple of the other teams can keep the streak of unique winners alive for a couple more seasons, the Stars could be our best hope a few seasons from now.

Edited September 30 by scoop

[Lemorse7 1,014]

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