My Ahead Of Season Cup Favorite

Team: 2023-24 Carolina Hurricanes

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 21, 2023

Published: Sep. 21, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

My ahead of season cup favorite for 2023-2024.

There's a few teams that qualify for this conversation in my mind, but I'm going with Carolina.

A team that has been top 5-8 defensively over the last 5 years shows no signs of slowing down. Arguably the toughest team to play against last season, somehow went out during the off-season and became more suffocating. The only team in the league who can rival their blueline in my opinion is Vegas. Their blueline is heavy, skilled, experienced (without being elderly) and deep. They have 6 defensemen who could all realistically play on any teams top pair. Chatfield as a #7 and some good depth under him. While the argument will be made that they continued to fail in boosting their star power, this team wins by committee. With 59 goals by defenseman last season, they cleared the pack by a good margin. Adding Orlov and DeAngelo will only bring more offense into the fold. Bunting is a great match for Rod Brind'Amour's play style. Missing Svechnikov during their playoff run hurt them of course. They have an outstanding goaltending group in Anderson, Raanta and Kochetkov. If this team manages to add a 2C/3C, or a highly skilled winger for their top 6/9, they will be complete. They already look outstanding on paper, that's the only move they need to make to put them into the "fully assembled" category for me. Among the other contenders in their class, they all have a move or a couple to make, to really make them look like an unbeatable team. There's always movement during the season, but this team looks ready. Despite being swept for the 2nd time in 5 years in the conference finals, the caniacs are still as loud as ever.

Can't wait for the season. Let me know your cup favorite down below!