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Nathan MacKinnon cracked a sly smile. At the NHL North American Player Media Tour in Las Vegas last month, NHL.com asked each player to pick the team, other than his own, that would win the Stanley Cup this season.

"That might win the Stanley Cup maybe, I'll say," MacKinnon said, laughing.

Clearly, if MacKinnon could have picked his own team, the center would have predicted the Colorado Avalanche would repeat as champions. He would have been in line with the vast majority of his colleagues around the League.

Of the 50 players NHL.com polled at the NAPMT and the NHL European Player Media Tour in Paris in August, 32 picked the Avalanche to win the Cup this season.

Five picked the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Calgary Flames and Carolina Hurricanes each received three votes, and the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers each received two. Two players declined to give an answer. One chose the Toronto Maple Leafs.

So when the Avalanche raise their banner to the rafters before they open the regular season against the Chicago Blackhawks at Ball Arena on Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET; TNT, SN NOW), they will be expected to be right back there doing it again a year from now.

"Um, well, I'd like to think we would (win the Cup)," Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews said. "But Colorado's obviously going to be a heavy favorite with them winning last year and the team that they have and what they've been able to accomplish, so I'll have to go with them."

Obviously, Colorado is the easy answer, and that's part of this. The NHL remains defined by parity and unpredictability, and if you're put on the spot by NHL.com, no one is going to blame you for picking the team that hoisted the Cup on June 26.

"It's so hard," Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes said. "Who knows, man? There could be, like, 10 teams. As of right now, you'd have to go with Colorado, because they were the best team [three] months ago, I guess. That wasn't that long ago. They're the defending champs, you've got to knock them off, so them."

That said, for all the NHL's parity and unpredictability since the introduction of the salary cap in 2005-06, it has become common for champions to sustain their success and even repeat.

The Chicago Blackhawks won the Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The Los Angeles Kings won it in 2012 and 2014. The Pittsburgh Penguins won it in 2009, then in 2016 and 2017.

Video: NHL Network predicts the Stanley Cup matchup

The Lightning won it in 2020 and 2021, and they went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2022, losing to the Avalanche in six games. That's a good reason to go with Tampa Bay again too.

Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid picked the Lightning, saying, "They've just been there before." Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba said the Lightning "proved they're the team."

Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar , while giving a nod to Carolina and Toronto, said, "You can never count Tampa out because of all their stars" and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy . St. Louis Blues forward Robert Thomas said the Lightning are "hungry for another one, and they were right there last year."

But if hunger wasn't an issue for the Blackhawks, Kings, Penguins or Lightning, why would it be for the Avalanche?

"Once a team gets the job done and sees what it's like to win, some people are like, 'Oh, they won, and they're not motivated,'" Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger said. "I think it's the exact opposite. They'll want to do it again. I can't wait to play against them, obviously. Going to be fun to play them, hopefully in the playoffs."

Other contenders have made major changes.

The Flames lost forward Johnny Gaudreau in free agency, but they added center Nazem Kadri in free agency and forward Jonathan Huberdeau via trade.

"They made some good pickups," said Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele , one of the players who picked the Flames. "Getting Huberdeau kind of fills the Gaudreau void and getting Kadri [is important]. They have a good [defense] corps. I just think they're a tough team to play against."

The Panthers subtracted Huberdeau but gained forward Matthew Tkachuk via trade from Calgary. They also gained experience in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, winning a series for the first time since 1996 by defeating the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference First Round, then getting swept by the Lightning in the second round.

"I think they learned a lot and will be better for it," said MacKinnon, who picked Florida when he couldn't pick Colorado.

The Rangers added forward Vincent Trocheck in free agency, and the Hurricanes added defenseman Brent Burns and forward Max Pacioretty via trade. (Pacioretty is recovering from surgery to repair a torn Achilles but should return around February.)

The Avalanche are much the same, however. Although they lost Kadri and goalie Darcy Kuemper , they added forward Evan Rodrigues in free agency and goalie Alexandar Georgiev in via trade, and they still have their core of MacKinnon, Makar and company.

Several players said they picked the Avalanche because of how many players they have returning, and Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone cited Makar and MacKinnon in particular, saying, "They've still got the best defenseman on the planet, still got one of the best centermen on the planet."

"If it's not going to be us, then maybe my old team, Colorado again," said Kuemper, who signed with the Capitals as an unrestricted free agent. "A lot of their players are coming back. Obviously, a lot of good players over there. They've done it before, so they obviously are capable of doing it again."

They're the team to beat.

"Yeah, I think so," MacKinnon told NHL.com's @TheRink podcast. "Yeah, I mean, obviously we have some new guys, like we talked about, but I feel good. We learned a lot from last season, and it's a long 82 games, and I know everyone cares about the regular season a lot. But playoffs [are] when it matters, and we're excited to get there."

The NHL.com staff contributed to this report

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