Saturday, June 6, 2015

Just Like Starting Over

The Tampa Bay Lightning are going for their second Stanley Cup. A second would be pretty impressive for a team that only dates back to 1990. Of course, other teams can claim similar accomplishments (the Avalanche won two cups in less time.) But what would be impressive is that the Lightning would be doing it with a different core of players. Their first was only eleven years ago, yet the principal players from that team have moved on. In fact, they don't have a single player left from the first cup.

If you'll permit me a sports-stats geek-out, I'm wondering how many franchises have won at least two championships with entirely different teams? That is, you can point out two championships in their history without a single person on the roster for both.

In the NHL, all original six teams have done it (yes, even Toronto; they may not have won in decades, but their wins were spread over fifty years.) The only other team I can think of is Pittsburgh, who won two cups in the Lemieux-Jagr era, and another in the Crosby-Malkin era.

As for other leagues, here are all the multi-roster winners I could find with Wikipedia and fifteen minutes:

NFL: Cowboys, Steelers, Packers, Colts*, Giants, and 49ers. (If you're asking, "What about Jerry Rice?" Remember that he wasn't there for their first two Superbowls.)

Major League Baseball: Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Phillies, Pirates, White Sox, Cardinals, Braves*, Athletics, Dodgers, Giants*, Twins*, Tigers (Contrary to people’s impressions, the Marlins did have a few players on both their World Series Winners.)

NBA: Lakers, Celtics, 76ers, Pistons, Warriors

(* = only if you count championships won in other cities)

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