The President's Trophy deserves way more respect.

[TGWL]

Rangers have the banner from last year. It says regular season champions.

 

[BB79]

1) I’m not trolling
2) of course you’d take Tampa’s success, they’ve won two cups, four ECFs, and a Presidents trophy
3) I don’t understand why you would rather see your team lose more games and have not trophy rather than win more games and have a compensatory trophy.

1)- honestly couldn't tell
2)- 3 cups if you count 04...people remember cup victories, no one cares about finishing first then bombing out in the playoffs when it matters most. See:2023 Bruins. Having that regular season record then bombing out made it even worse TBH.
3)-I'd rather see my team finish in 3rd place then tear it up in the playoffs than finish first and have the entire league gunning for you. Not only that but the expectation of running the table and winning the cup after winning the president's almost always ends in disappointment. Why is that a good thing? We play to win Stanley Cups and that's it. Division banners are pretty to look at in the rafters but aren't the reason teams compete.

 

[Dread Clawz]

It's fun to win it, but it pales in comparison to Lord Stanley.

 

[karltonian]

Agreed, OP. You have to win a lot more than 16 games to win it.

 

[24 others]

It's ridiculous that so many NHL fans deride the President's Trophy and dismiss it as meaningless. Teams and players should take pride in being more successful than 31 other teams over an 82-game sample size. It's a testament to the group's talent, consistency, effort, and cohesion. Fans should be grateful and thrilled to watch their team win night-in and night-out for seven months.

I've long held this opinion, but--as a Panthers fan--the time is right to declare it.
The 2021-22 President's Trophy run was by far the most entertaining season of hockey I've ever watched. It was disappointing when they were swept in the second round, but that couldn't negate how much fun the lead-up was. The 2022-23 season couldn't even keep me engaged until the playoffs. As the 2023-24 season concluded, I found myself really, really hoping they could win enough games to catch the President's Trophy again. Obviously the playoffs were exhilarating, but they were equally stressful since the small sample size of each series is so luck dependent. You're more focused on your team not losing as opposed to actually winning.

When we look at team (and to a lesser extent player) success, the President's Trophy should count a tier below the Cup.
For example, in the Salary Cap Era, the Kings have won 2 cups (one entirely on the back of Jonathan Quick), 10 playoff series, and made the playoffs 9 times. Can anybody seriously claim that they've been more successful than the Capitals and Bruins? Does anybody really believe that they're more comparable to the Lightning and Blackhawks than the Blues and Red Wings?

Agreed. The regular season is simply a better indicator of a team's strength than the playoffs. Statistically speaking, success in regular season cannot be a matter of luck - a President's trophy winner is never a fluke. In playoff though, an unfortunate injury or a random goalie getting randomly hot can make all the difference.

In hindsight, of course, we romanticize playoff success - we are sports fans, after all. So we downplay the role of luck and claim instead that the team was "built for the playoffs" and that their "true character was shown in the playoffs" and so forth.

Or, of course, one can do what many posters in this thread do, which is to chant "Cup is the only thing that matters" ("Nobody remembers number two", as a certain player once asserted). But if you can overcome this tunnel view, then I think you must appreciate the meaningfulness of the Presidents' trophy, too.

 

[MadLuke]

Cinderella run that feel lucky do exist (2021 mtl being maybe the worst modern case), but they about never end up with a cup.

Winning all 4 round, best of 7, that's hard, how many fluky cup winner have we seen.. not really a big issue with nhl playoff format and rules.

 

[Oddbob]

Oh yes, I would much rather win 62 games in the regular season and only 2 in the postseason, as opposed to 44 in the season and 16 in the playoffs.

 

[BigEezyE22]

Hard no. Bad take. 8 of near 40 teams to win the Presidents have won the Cup.

We only care about Champions. The Presidents, divisions, EC/WC, etc are all loser banners without a Cup next to them.

That's 20% of the cups going to the spot that represents about 6.5% of the playoff field.

How many cups have gone to 2nd overall?

12th overall?

 

[BTP]

Oh yes, I would much rather win 62 games in the regular season and only 2 in the postseason, as opposed to 44 in the season and 16 in the playoffs.

Shocking how so many of you are missing the point entirely. lol