The San Jose Sharks did not just land an all-star in defenseman Erik Karlsson when they acquired him a trade with the Ottawa Senators on Sept. 13, they also brought in the final piece to a Stanley Cup championship team, according to seven of those 18 NHL.com panelists who have made their preseason predictions.
The Sharks, who were made the Stanley Cup Playoffs at 18 of the past 20 seasons, have never won the Cup, reaching the Closing 2016, where they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.
Karlsson, who played his first nine NHL seasons will be awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy three of panelists predicted. Sharks defenseman Brent Burns (2), ahead Logan Couture (1) and goalie Martin Jones (1) were the other picks for Conn Smythe out of San Jose.Though the Sharks obtained the most votes to win the Cup, the Tampa Bay Lightning, who attained the Eastern Conference Final last year, were selected by six specialists to win everything.
The Nashville Predators and Winnipeg Jets each got two votes and the Penguins got one. The defending Stanley Cup champions, the Washington Capitals, were not chosen by any of the specialists to repeat. In reality, the Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights, who played in the Stanley Cup Final last year, weren’t selected by some of the experts to return there this year.
The Lightning would be the overwhelming favorite to represent the Eastern Conference in the Cup Final, getting votes out of 13 of the 18 specialists. The Toronto Maple Leafs (2), Penguins (2) and Boston Bruins (1) got the other votes from the East.
The Sharks got nine votes while the Jets got Predators four and five, to reach the Final.
Of those six who chose the quad to win the Cup, three predicted defenseman Victor Hedman to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, two choose forward Nikita Kucherov and one chosen goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The other Conn Smythe selections were Filip Forsberg of the Predators (two ), Sidney Crosby of the Penguins (1) and Mark Scheifele of and Patrik Laine of the Jets.
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