More insight from The Athletic:
https://theathletic.com/5428251/2024/04/19/stanley-cup-tiers-nhl-2024/
I'll pull out the Dallas and Vegas commentary for this thread:
Dallas Stars
Average rating: 1.3
Dallas was the highest-rated Western Conference team, earning five Tier 1 votes, well ahead of the second-best Western club.
The Stars’ forward group is arguably the deepest in the NHL — their “third line” features Wyatt Johnston (32 goals and 65 points), Jamie Benn (60 points) and hot-shot call-up Logan Stankoven (14 points in 24 games). Their blue line is substantially upgraded from last year and Jake Oettinger, who struggled for most of the year, is heating up at the perfect time with a .941 percentage in his last 11 games.
The GM: “They’re my favorite to win coming out of the West.”
Executive 1: “They’re elite in a bunch of ways. I think transitioning the puck gets overlooked … the speed at which Dallas gets the puck up the ice is the separating factor. Their defense is elite. You’re going to have (Miro) Heiskanen, (Esa) Lindell, (Thomas Harley) and (Chris) Tanev — there’s no weak links there. They have four guys that can play 23 minutes a night, I think that might help Heiskanen.”
Executive 2: “I love them — my only knock on Dallas is they don’t have an offensive player that is a superstar. They don’t really have a guy that you can say OK, with a minute left I’ll put this guy on the ice and he’s getting you a goal, he’s winning you a series. Like it could be Jason Robertson, it could be Roope Hintz, it could be Wyatt Johnston or Stankoven but they don’t have an impact (star) the way some of these other teams have — they don’t have a (Nathan) MacKinnon, a (Connor) McDavid, a (Leon) Draisaitl, even a Jack Eichel. It’s not a (huge) hole because they’ve got such good depth.”
Vegas Golden Knights
Average rating: 2.3
After firing on all cylinders for the first three weeks of the season, the Golden Knights haven’t played near their peak. Vegas went 34-29-7 through the final 70 games, ranking 10th among Western Conference teams in points percentage during that timeframe. Key injuries have, of course, played a major role in that. That’s why most of our panel extended Vegas the benefit of the doubt, even if there was some hesitancy.
Executive 2: “On paper, what box don’t they check? I guess just kind of goaltending but (Adin Hill) is proven in the playoffs. On paper, their D is excellent with (Alex) Pietrangelo, (Noah) Hanifin, (Nic) Hague, (Brayden) McNabb, (Shea) Theodore, (Alec) Martinez and (Zach) Whitecloud. And up front, you basically added (Tomas) Hertl and Mark Stone for the playoff run. This is a high-end team. The only reason they’re not a Tier 1 team for me is they just haven’t executed in the regular season. What version of Stone are you getting? How good is Hertl going to be? How well is your team going to flip the switch?”
Vegas’ goaltending is a question mark. Since the All-Star break, Hill has a 7-10-0 record and an .882 save percentage. (Logan) Thompson has been vastly superior in that timeframe but he’s never played an NHL playoff game before. Drawing Dallas in the first round doesn’t give Vegas much margin for error. The Golden Knights need to hit their elite form and get steady goaltending immediately.