5 early favorites to win the 2017 Stanley Cup

1. Dallas Stars

Why they could win the Stanley Cup

The Stars have an extremely talented roster even after factoring in that they will likely lose at least one of Alex Goligoski and Jason Demers in free agency. Few teams have what it takes to replace them, but the Stars just might. Julius Honka could provide the team with some excellent production at a dirt cheap price while replacing one of the two. Stephen Johns appears ready to do the same. Dallas had an explosive offense last season and they made it all the way to the Western Conference Semifinals despite not having Tyler Seguin for the playoffs. Their only weakness is their goaltending and that could be rectified with some creative salary cap magic by general manager Jim Nill. Despite what the popular narrative suggests, the Stars defense was above average in terms of suppressing shot attempts against.

Why they won’t win

As they proved in the postseason, the Stars won’t win the Stanley Cup if they can’t stay healthy. That’s the same for pretty much every team but it is worth noting that the Stars rely quite heavily on Jamie Benn and Seguin. To win the cup, you need solid goaltending. The Stars would love to upgrade between the pipes, but that might not be possible if they can’t figure out a way to get rid of at least one of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi.