Vancouver has 8 NHL defensemen, including Bieksa and Erhoff.
Pittsburgh had Gonchar and Kris Letang (in addition to several other good guys). Chicago had Keith and Seabrook. Detroit had Lidstrom and I can't remember who else. Anaheim had Pronger and Nieds, as well as Beauchemin.
No team has won the cup without a #1 defenseman except perhaps Carolina - and even they would not have won had they not injured Roloson in Game 1 of S.C.F.
The point was Vancouver, Carolina, and Pittsburgh didn't have a franchise defender, but they all had franchise centermen.
I never said those teams didn't have some very good d-men, but gonchar, bieksa, ehrhoff, hamhuis, orpik, letang, etc are not or were not franchise defenders or elite top guys in the league. The closest thing to a top 5 d-man is letang, but he has made huge strides since their cup win and wasn't near as complete then as he is now.
Either way, I think that's 3 examples in the last 10+ years of teams winning without a franchise d-man. Over that time, how many without an elite centre? 0.