What We Learned: Knights and Panthers got this far thanks to big gambles

As I've watched this Stanley Cup Final, it's been impossible to avoid the weird reality behind how the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers got here.

The total number of players drafted by either team in this Final is shockingly small. Three for Florida (Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell, Aaron Ekblad). Just one for Vegas (Nicolas Hague).

Obviously, it's a little bit of a cheat with Vegas since they've only had a handful of drafts ever and they haven't exactly been picking in prime spots. There's also the fact that the NHL's playoffs in general are highly randomized, and so it's probably best not to draw too many conclusions from the fact that just four players drafted by these particular teams are getting into these games.

But it underscores a point a lot of NHL general managers would do