The Winnipeg Jets captured the Presidents’ Trophy Sunday night in Game 81 of a remarkable 2024-25 season where they obliterated even the highest of expectations.
Undoubtedly, they are and should be proud of their accomplishment of recording the most points in the league for the first time in 2.0 history to cap off a weekend in which they also clinched first place in the Central Division and Western Conference.
However, it’s been pretty clear that the Presidents’ Trophy is not the hardware they want.
In postgame interviews after Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers — where they clinched the Presidents’ Trophy during the second intermission when the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Washington Capitals — a few of the players and the head coach responsible for achieving the feat were happy, but remained firmly fixed on what’s ahead.
“It’s Not the Trophy We’re After,” Says DeMelo
Dylan DeMelo acknowledged the 55-win, 115-point (and counting) season is “nice,” as is having home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, but said “it’s not the trophy we’re after.” Rather, he said they’re after “being the first Canadian team since 1993 to win the Cup.”
“It’s been a fantastic year, it really has. We’ve done a lot of good things, we’re really consistent, everybody’s bought into what we’re doing here. Like I said, we’ve got our sights set on higher things,” the top-pairing defenseman said. “At the end of the day, I think it’s great. It’s great for the organization and great for the city.”
“It’s nice,” he said of giving Winnipeg its first Presidents’ Trophy. “I hope we can give them the first one of something else a little later.”
DeMelo attributed the team’s success to buying into playing the right way, with a focus on a stout defensive structure rather than playing “run and gun.”
“We’re still working. We’re still building. We’re not a finished product,” he continued. “We’ve still got more to give and we’re going to have to give more in order to get to where we want to get to.”
Veteran forward Nino Niederreiter, one of the players added complement to the team’s core and is now a member of that core himself, said “it’s definitely a great accomplishment.”
“But it’s definitely one of the first steps, and obviously not playoffs. That’s what matters most,” the third-liner who joined the team in the 2022-23 season said.
Niederreiter admitted the score of the Blue Jackets/Capitals game was in the back of everyone’s mind.
“It’s definitely going to mean a lot, like I said it’s very hard to win in this league,” he said of what being part of a Presidents’ Trophy team will mean to him toward the end of his career. “Having a season like we’ve had this season, it’s definitely a great feeling. But obviously you want to win the Cup at the end of the day.”
“We’re Still Going to Be Judged on What Happens from Game 83 On,” Says Arniel
Head coach Scott Arniel — who is in the thick of the Jack Adams Award conversation for leading the Jets to new heights in his first year as bench boss — said winning the Presidents’ Trophy was not a check box on the list of things he wanted to accomplish this season, but admitted “kinda jumped on there in the last month of so.”
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“It’s a heck of an accomplishment, guys should be real proud of it seeing just what we’ve gone through this year, to be right in the the thick of things all year long as one of the best in the league… but the end of the day, it’s not really the trophy we’re after,” he said. “We’re proud of it. If and when we get to the Stanley Cup Final, we have home-ice advantage as well, so there is something to it.”
“I’m happy for the group, I’m happy that a lot of the things we talked about in training camp, we accomplished,” he continued. “I’m real proud to be a part of this team, but like I said this morning, we’re still going to be judged on what happens from Game 83 on. There’s still lots to happen and hopefully there’s a long story to go with that… I’ve been in the game a long time know to be proud of the accomplishments you have but move on to the next challenges and that’s what we’re hoping to do.”
Evidence Doesn’t Support Existence of “Presidents’ Trophy Curse”
None of DeMelo, Niederreiter, or Arniel mentioned the Presidents’ Trophy “curse,” the superstitious idea that the team that finished first in the regular-season standings cannot win the Cup.
Fortunately for the Jets, the evidence does not support its existence.
In the Presidents’ Trophy’s 37 years of existence, the team that’s won it has hoisted the Cup eight times, more than any other playoff seed. Over the past 40 years, the team that’s finished first has won the Cup 10 times and made it to the Final 15 times.
However, there is currently an 11-year Cup drought for Presidents’ Trophy teams (the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks were the last club to win both), which has amped up the “curse” narrative.
The real reasons the Presidents’ Trophy winner hasn’t won the Cup more often are pretty simple: there are 15 other good teams in the playoffs who don’t just roll over and die for the top team, the NHL has strong parity, and the Stanley Cup is just the hardest professional sports trophy to win.
The Jets have put themselves in the best-possible position to make a long run, as they have home-ice advantage throughout the postseason and get to play the second wild-card team in the first round. If they don’t win the Stanley Cup, it won’t be because of a curse. It’ll either be because they underperformed at the worst time like they did in the first round last year or because they played well but simply got beat by another elite team.