Olympic Preview: Most Stanley Cup Wins by Team

I thought an interesting and unique approach of comparing the top Olympic hockey teams would be to compare them by how many collective Stanley Cups their teams have won. I'm not doing Olympic wins at the moment, mostly because there simply won't be as many of those as Stanley Cup wins, obviously.


You think you can win on talent alone? Gentlemen,
you don't have enough talent to win on talent alone.

I think it would be worth exploring as an additional way of seeing which teams have "the stuff." You know the stuff I'm talking about. Not just talent. But the willpower, determination, and discipline to to what it takes to become a champion. There are reasons that guys like Joe Thornton hasn't won a Stanley Cup in his long career but Jonathan Toews already has two.

As Herb Brooks said in Miracle, "We're not looking for the best players. We're looking for the right ones." Meaning, that when it's all on the line, talent will only take you so far.

Indeed, Predator's GM David Poile enlisted this paradigm when selecting his roster for the US team, amidst some controversial cuts in Bobby Ryan and Keith Yandle, among others.

So, let's take a look and see which teams have those guys. The championship caliber players who know what it takes to win and do it.

Team Canada:
Sydney Crosby- 1 Cup
Jonathan Toews- 2 Cups
Patrice Bergeron- 1 Cup
Patrick Sharp- 2 Cups
Ryan Getzlaf- 1 Cup
Corey Perry- 1 Cup
Chris Kunitz- 2 Cups
Jeff Carter- 1 Cup
Drew Doughty- 1 Cup
Duncan Keith- 2 Cups
Total= 14 Cups

Team Sweden:
Niklas Hjalmarsson- 2 Cups
Markus Kruger- 1 Cup
Johnny Oduya- 1 Cup
Henrik Zetterberg- 1 Cup
Niklas Kronwall- 1 Cup
Johan Franzen- 1 Cup
Total= 7 Cups

Team Czech Republic:
David Krejci- 1 Cup
Tomas Kaberle- 1 Cup
Patrick Elias- 2 Cups
Michael Frolik- 1 Cup
Jaromir Jagr- 2 Cups
Total= 7 Cups

Team USA:
Patrick Kane- 2 Cups
Dustin Brown- 1 Cup
Brooks Orpik- 1 Cup
Jonathan Quick- 1 Cup
Total= 5 Cups

Team Finland:
Antti Niemi- 1 Cup
Tuukka Rask- 1 Cup
Valtteri Filppula- 1 Cup
Teemu Selanne- 1 Cup
Total= 4 Cups

Team Russia:
Pavel Datsyuk- 2 Cups
Evgeni Malkin- 1 Cup
Total= 3 Cups

Team Slovakia:
Zdeno Chara- 1 Cup
Marian Hossa- 2 Cups
Total= 3 Cups

So, for what it's worth, Canada definitely has the advantage here. Surprised? You shouldn't be. Not only do they have probably the deepest and most talented team, but their lineup is stacked with guys who know what it takes to win and have had a great deal of success at it.

I do find it interesting that nobody in the Olympics has won 3 Cups. Not that it's common, obviously. There aren't too many Mark Recchi's around. But I definitely see more Stanley Cup wins in the future for guys like Crosby and Toews.


 If you see any that I missed, please let me know. However, I think this list accurately portrays the strengths and weaknesses of each country. For example, Russia is known for highly skilled forwards like Ovechkin, Semin, and Kovalchuk, but those guys tend to produce during the regular season and shrink during the playoffs (if they can even get their teams there.)

Unfair? Maybe. But then again, maybe not.