The Kings have Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, but the secret to their success has been contributions from lower defensive pairings and third-line players along with elevating their game during the playoffs.
But it's not just about them, they picked strong defensemen in prior drafts (Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith), signed veteran Marian Hossa, and had contributions from players that went on to sign massive free agent deals after success as Blackhawks (Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Brandon Saad, to name a few).
With that said, the Hawks were a bottom-feeder for several years and ended up with top draft picks, which turned out to be Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, two top 10 players in each of the past several seasons. However, the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings have had enormous success without any of the aforementioned superstars. Now, it does help now and again to draft a John Tavares (Islanders) or Steven Stamkos (Lightning). In comparison, hockey teams take years to build. Now, they didn’t bring in the best player in the league, but both essentially transformed from mediocre to a top level almost overnight. They had Paul Pierce and brought in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen (and drafted Rajon Rondo). Of course, the Miami Heat come to mind for hoarding the Big Three (LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade) but their path to success wasn’t much different than the Celtics from a few years before. And, of course, the moment we had all been waiting for: He is alive, ladies and gentlemen.