A Neutral Fan's Guide On Guys To Root For In Stanley Cup Final

Well, kids, the Stanley Cup Final is upon us and get underway Saturday.

For fans of the Oilers and Panthers, best of luck to your teams, but those of us who typically root for any of the other 30 teams need something to root for.

Sure, some Lightning fans wouldn't dream of rooting for the Panthers. There are also lots of Flames fans who, if offered the choice between cheering for the Oilers to win a Stanley Cup or being fed feet-first into a rusty woodchipper, would only have one follow-up question: "Just how rusty is this woodchipper we're talking about?"

But for many other fans, we're more or less playing Switzerland here (although, I kind of want Canada's Stanley Cup drought to continue just because it's funny).

So, what I usually do is pick out a few individuals who I would like to see win the Stanley Cup. More often than not, those are veterans who still need a Cup on their CV, but not always.

I've taken the liberty (you're welcome) of identifying some individuals who I think most fans would be happy to see hoisting a Stanley Cup in a few weeks.

Let's get to it, shall we?

In his third stint with the Oilers, Journeyman forward Sam Gagner is probably looking at his last shot at a Cup. (Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

Sam Gagner

You probably remember Sam Gagner from his 8-point game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and while we haven’t seen much of him on the ice this postseason, the 17-year NHL vet with over 1,000 games under his belt is still on the Oilers roster.

He’s in his third stint with the club that drafted him in 2007 and signed with the team for the league minimum. As if that wasn’t enough, he also started the year with a few games in the AHL with the Bakersfield Condors and ultimately played in 28 games this season.

Not mind-blowing numbers, but Gagner is the kind of guy you like to see win in a Cup. He’s always been a solid depth player with a journeyman career that includes stops in Detroit, Arizona, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Columbus, and Winnipeg in addition to those three stints in Edmonton.

The man is no stranger to moving and according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (per Oilers Nation), he still wants to play next season.

I don’t think you’d see too many people upset seeing Sam Gagner hoist a Cup after all these years, especially in Edmonton.

A Stanley Cup title usually helps "underrated" players like Aleksander Barkov drop that tag. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)

Alexander Barkov

I know the Panthers play in a "non-traditional" market, but for the fourth season in a row, the Eastern Conference representative in the Stanley Cup final comes from the state of Florida.

Considering we just saw Florida in the Cup Final last year, you’d think that we’d all be familiar with what Panthers Aleksander Barkov can do, but I think most people would agree that he remains one of the most underrated players in the National Hockey League.

The guy can play, and I have no idea why it is that people don’t always realize this. For years I think it was that the Panthers weren’t great and some of their really good players got overlooked. But now, I think it might stem from Florida’s hard-nosed style of play being one of the biggest things people talk about with them, meaning guys like Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett usually come up in conversation first.

A second straight Cup appearance should be a good reminder, and I think a championship ring would be a good reminder to everyone who forgets how good this dude is.

Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid — the most dynamic one-two punch in hockey — deserve to hoist the Stanley Cup.  (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

Connor McDavid And Leon Draisaitl

Now, moving on from someone wildly overrated to two guys who are appropriately rated as the best one-two punch in hockey right now and one of the best ever: Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

I put these two together because the rationale for why they’re both root-for-able (?) is the same. You want to see the best players add championships to their resumes, and these two have consistently been some of the best in the league if not the best.

They’re both always at the top of the statsheets, but for years they couldn’t get it done in the postseason. It wasn’t that they didn’t show up, it was that the Oilers lacked the kind of depth we see from every Stanley Cup champion seems to have.

Well, this is the best they’ve had in the McDavid era thanks to guys like Zach Hyman, Evan Bouchard, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins stepping up in the regular season and playoffs and goaltender Stuart Skinner playing some stellar hockey.

Let’s be real: McDavid and Draisaitl hoisting a Stanley Cup is inevitable.

Kyle Okposo finally has a shot at a Stanley Cup after playing on some very, very bad teams. (Photo by Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Kyle Okposo

Kyle Okposo has got to be one of the luckiest players in the NHL season. He spent the start of this season and the seven previous ones in Buffalo on a Sabres team that has the longest active postseason drought in the league.

Before that? He was on some Islanders teams that ranged from trash to pretty good, but never legitimate Cup Contenders.

So, when he was dealt to Florida at the deadline, he suddenly found himself in that position for the first time in his 17-year career.

Okposo has been a healthy scratch a few times this post-season, but man does this guy deserve a Cup just for putting up with as many crappy teams as he has over the years.

Kris Knoblauch could finish his first season as an NHL head coach with a Stanley Cup. (Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

Kris Knoblauch

The Oilers stumbled out of the gates this season, and Knoblauch was brought in after the team fired Jay Woodcroft, and things turned around in a hurry.

Knoblauch took the job after five seasons as the head coach of the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack and two years as an assistant for the Philadelphia Flyers.

READ: BUFFALO BILLS CATCH STRAYS FROM EDMONTON OILERS HEAD COACH

 Although, it probably didn't hurt his cause that he was the coach of the OHL's Erie Otters when Connor McDavid was playing his junior hockey.

We've seen coaches who were hired mid-season take teams all the way before. Pittsburgh's Mike Sullivan did in 2016 and Craig Berube did it with the St. Louis Blues in 2019. However, both of those guys had NHL head coaching experience before taking those jobs.

A Stanley Cup would be an impressive way to cap off Knoblauch's first season as an NHL bench boss.

Paul Maurice is the winningest coach in NHL history who hasn't won a Stanley Cup. (Getty Images)

Paul Maurice

On the other end of the NHL head coaching experience spectrum is Florida's Paul Maurice. With stops in Hartford, Carolina, Winnipeg, and now Florida, he's currently fourth on the NHL's all-time wins list behind only Scotty Bowman, Joel Quenneville, and Barry Trotz.

But what do those three have that he doesn't? A Stanley Cup.

Maurice came close with the Hurricanes in 2002 and the Panthers just last season, but he has yet to seal the deal.

As one of the best coaches in the league's history — and a bonafide quote machine to boot — I don't think you'd find too many people bummed about seeing Maurice win a much-deserved Stanley Cup.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is one of the few remnants of the Oilers' previous attempt at a rebuild. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)

Ryan Nugent Hopkins

Let's hop in a time machine for a moment. Given the relative success of the Connor McDavid/Leon Draisaitl era in Edmonton, it's easy to forget that the Taylor Hall/Jordan Eberle/Ryan Nugent Hopkins/Nail Yakupov era even happened.

The Oilers racked up the top picks in the early 2010s, but the team was still so bad that they were able to get McDavid and reboot things.

Hall is long gone (that infamous 1-for-1 Adam Larsson trade).

Eberle is in Seattle after some time with the New York Islanders.

Yakupov became one of the biggest draft busts ever and is somewhere in the KHL now.

So that leaves Nugent Hopkins as the last vestige of that era still in Edmonton (although, you could throw Darnell Nurse in there too).

It'd be cool to see him lock up a Cup with the Oilers after having to deal with so much mediocrity.

Sergei Bobrovsky has been one of the NHL's best netminders for years. (Photo by Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Sergei Bobrovsky

Sometimes I'll be sitting around and for no reason at all, my eyes will glaze over into a thousand-yard stare and I'll think to myself, "I can't believe the Flyers traded Bobrovsky."

Then my girlfriend will see me and ask if I'm thinking about Bob again, and I'll lie and say no, but I am.

Bobrovsky was fantastic in Philadelphia and then went on to win the Vezina Trophy in Columbus, then signed a massive $10 million AAV deal to play in Florida.

But he still needs a Cup on his resume.

I always like seeing the players who have played at a high level for a long time win a Cup, and that's Bobrovsky who at 35 years old can still steal games for the Cats.

I'd be pumped to see him win a Cup… but I would've been more pumped to see him do it while wearing the Oranga and Black.

…

So, who are you rooting for in this year's Cup Final? Let me know!: mattreigleoutkick@gmail.com