NHL teams that lost out in the Cup Final only to win it soon after

Conn Smythe Trophy controversy in Game 7? No.

Having beaten two of Gretzky's lesser playoff records for most points in a playoff season with 42 - and finishing a mere five points away from the all record of 47 in the process - McDavid became only the sixth player in NHL history to win a Conn Smythe while playing on the losing team.

While some are butthurt because McDavid didn't skate back out onto the ice to accept the trophy, let's just be honest here - stop being oversensitive and give the guy a break. He just captained his team to a Stanley Cup loss, thus losing the trophy he really wanted to win, and winning a trophy he didn't really want to win in the Conn Smythe. If you ask him I'm sure he'd rather have that reversed.

If you're one of those people - what's wrong with you? The guy is already miserable and doesn't want to face a crowd in enemy territory that was already booing his selection in the first place. Who knows how they would've reacted if he had come back out on the ice to get the trophy? It just would've made him more miserable.

That's another reason I was hoping the Oilers would win - the Florida Panthers fans have been largely classless throughout the whole series. They booed the announcement of the starting lineups for the Oilers before each game in their building, and they booed McDavid's selection of winner of the Conn Smythe. Florida is known as the land of the crazy, now we know it's also the land of the classless.

McDavid is the Oilers - and the league's - marquee player. He's allowed to have private time, especially after what happened to his team in game seven. Don't begrudge the guy because he's human. He's allowed to be human.

Meanwhile, around the NHL

A few major trades went down over the last week or so.

First off, the long rumored move of Jakob Markstrom to New Jersey was completed. This was apparently supposed to have materialized at the deadline, but it collapsed at the last minute. It's been completed now. I will never in my life understand why teams like this guy so much - he's never been actually good outside of maybe two seasons. He's proven himself to be an average, underperforming goaltender. Either way, he's New Jersey's problem now. In exchange the Flames got a fairly decent guy who just became an NHL regular last season with the Devils in Kevin Bahl. The Flames have been forced to completely retool their roster on the fly, as veterans get tired of playing for a team that's obviously going nowhere at this point and with an ownership group that seems oblivious to reality and won't let them go full fledged rebuild. By the way the Flames are now almost $6 million dollars below the cap floor, so they're going to have to make moves of some kind, otherwise they risk repercussions from the league. But hey, good luck convincing anyone to sign with your dumpster fire of a franchise....

Then there was a big problem child trade that went on - Pierre-Luc Dubios went to Washington in exchange for Darcy Kuemper straight up. The feeling here is Dubois will ride shotgun with Alexander Ovechkin and help him try and break Gretzky's all time goal scoring record before he runs out of gas. Guess the caps miss Nicholas Backstrom more than they thought....meanwhile Kuemper is an oft-injured goaltender. The guy's been in the league for 13 seasons but has only played 50+ games in three of them and has only played in 30+ games in five of them. Not a great track record for goalie durability. On paper this is trade that should work out well for both teams.....but there's huge risk on both sides. If Dubois's fresh start doesn't pan out, the Caps will have an $8.5 million boat anchor on their roster for another seven seasons, not a promising prospect. Not to mention they've only got one more season of Backstrom's LTIR cap space, so they'll have to figure out how to pay for Dubois regardless after this coming season. Meanwhile, Kuemper, when healthy, is a very good goaltender, but so far he's basically been the goaltending version of Marion Gaborik - when healthy, very good, but often not healthy. This is technically a re-acquisition for them, as Kuemper played for the Kings in 2017-18.

Then there was Ottawa trading Joonas Korpisalo to Boston in exchange for Linus Ullmark. The nets are now Jeremy Swayman's to lose in Boston, while Korpisalo, with a reduced role and less pressure, at least in theory should rebound. Goaltending held the Sens back last season from what they could be, and on paper at least Ullmark should provide the Sens with what they need. I certainly wouldn't count out the Sens from a playoff spot next year with Ullmark in net.

The Flames also dumped malcontent Andrew Mangiapane to Washington for Colorado's second round pick next season. This makes a ton of talent that has exited the Flames at all three positions - Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau, Mangiapane, Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, Jakob Markstrom, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindhom - that's a huge chunk of their core from the last season or two. The Flames will look very different next season, and frankly I don't know who in their right mind will sign with them so they can reach the cap floor. Maybe a native Calgarian warm body can sign with them, a hometown boy is the only person I can really think of that might even consider it. GM Craig Conroy certainly has his work cut out for him, and I wouldn't want his job right now.

The Pittsburgh Penguins then picked up Kevin Hayes from the Blues for "future considerations" - aka nothing. I know Hayes has been underperforming the last two seasons, but....nothing? Seriously? Not a mid-low end draft pick? Hayes has 713 games of NHL experience and thus will be a great veteran presence in Pittsburgh. Nothing? Man did the Blues ever gets fleeced on this one.

The Washington Capitals traded for Logan Thompson from Vegas in exchange for two draft picks. So now we know who's going to replace Kuemper in Washington. I wonder who's going to tandem with Hill in Vegas now......is Robin Lehner healthy enough to play out his contract now? I wonder......

The Utah hockey club made two separate deals with Tampa Bay and New Jersey, to bring Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino into their defense corps for next season and beyond. Definitely two good trades that will make that team better. I wouldn't go so far as to say they'll be in the playoffs next season, they were a pretty bad team last year, but they're definitely better than last season. Funny how players actually want to sign with you when a move to another city isn't looming.....fun fact - the Oilers second round pick in 2025 that they traded away to Arizona in the Zack Kassian trade went to New Jersey as part of the Marino trade. The only roster player of any relevance they really gave up was Conor Geekie. Pretty good deal for them, for sure.

And last but not least, the Oilers made a trade with Philly for the 32nd pick in the first round for their first rounder in either 2025 or 2026 for Florida's first rounder this year at the draft table, so they could draft Sam O'Reilly, a player who already cracked the 20 goal and 50 point marks in his first full season of junior hockey for the London Knights of the OHL. He looks like a keeper, we'll see how his development goes.

Other Oilers news

Calvin Pickard and Cam Dineen re-upped - Pickard was re-upped for $2 million over two seasons ($1 million AAV), while prospect blueliner Dineen was signed to a two way contract at $775,000 per at the NHL level ($1.55 million total). Dineen is not one of the surefire NHL prospects at this time, we'll see what he does over the length of the contract.

Jack Campbell bought out - I was honestly hoping the Oilers could trade Campbell somewhere before exploring this - maybe Vegas where Campbell has the same cap hit as Lehner, or Washington prior to them trading for Thompson, or Seattle or Detroit where their goaltending is nothing to write home about. But, for all I know, maybe Holland already explored this option and found it wanting. The move will save the Oilers $3.9 million this upcoming season, $2.7 million two seasons from now, and $2.4 million three seasons from now before costing $1.5 million for the next three seasons after that. It remains to be seen what the Oilers will do with that cap savings.

Ken Holland and Oilers mutually part ways - His contract was up as of June 30, and it won't be renewed. It always seemed a bit odd to me that the Oilers didn't want to renew the contract of the GM who had built their team into a Stanley Cup contender - and on the surface that's certainly what it looks like. However, it was evident that as soon as Bob Nicholson moved into an advisor role from running the hockey ops, and the Oilers hired Jeff Jackson to replace him, we all knew there was some possibility that Holland's days were numbered regardless of how he does at the helm. Holland, after all, was a Nicholson hire, and so when your boss moves out or to a different role than before, you don't have that protection in your job on an NHL team. Holland was also believed to acknowledge that Jackson would likely want to "hire his own guy" so to speak. The Oilers, while largely satisfied with Holland's performance, were thinking they might want to get younger at the position. After all, Holland is 68, and he has children and grandchildren, and with $25 million made from just working with the Oilers alone, not to mention whatever he made all those years in Detroit, he has the cash to determine his own destiny. We don't know at this point whether he will simply retire or take a job with another NHL club. Jackson himself will be the interim GM, and now he has a chance to really put his own stamp on this club. Internal candidates for the GM job are believed to be Keith Gretzky, current assistant GM (and primary GM For the Condors) and interim GM for the club after Peter Chiarelli was fired, current capologist Bill Scott, and assistant GM Brad Holland, who oversees pro scouting for the Oilers right now.

Oilers cup run makes a $200 million economic impact to the City of Edmonton - At this point it's pretty safe to say that Daryl Katz's investment in the Oilers in 2008 has paid off in spades for him. The Oilers are now a top 10 NHL team in terms of their books and profit margins, and this past playoff run has only enhanced that. Part of that boon for the city must've been in increased revenues from the Community Revilatalization Levy put down for many years to come as part of the funding formula for businesses surrounding Rogers Place, who surely saw a surge in business on game days themselves. So no need to feel sorry for them that they have to pay extra taxes. Congratulations to Katz, he has built the Oilers into a business entity that consistently punches above it's weight class.

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