Panthers disprove popular analytics narrative with their Stanley Cup win

Why are all the spreadsheet folks, who have lectured all of us for years that teams cannot win the Stanley Cup if they are paying their No. 1 goaltender at least 10 percent of the cap, so silent now after the Panthers have gone back-to-back with Sergei Bobrovsky in the net? 

Bobrovsky, who has completed the sixth season of his seven-year deal for $10 million per, shares the distinction with Aleksander Barkov as Florida’s highest-paid player. A year ago, Bobrovsky accounted for 11.976 percent of the cap. This year, the 36-year-old Russian accounted for 11.363 percent of the cap. 

(Igor Shesterkin will account for 11.518 percent of the cap when the 29-year-old’s eight-year extension at $11M per kicks in July 1. If the Rangers do not end the three-decade-plus drought during Shesterkin’s tenure, it won’t be because they invested too much into their franchise goalie.) 

And though Connor McDavid won the Conn Smythe last year before Sam Bennett was named the playoffs MVP this year, Bobrovsky was the ultimate difference maker each time around. There have been exceptions to the rule, but the notion that legit contenders can get by with middle-tier netminders has always been patently absurd.