Photo: NBC Sports Boston

As the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues get set for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night at TD Garden (8 PM ET, can be seen on NBC), NoVa Caps looks at how each of the two Stanley Cup finalists and how the 2018-19 Washington Capitals were built.

Photo: @PR_NHL

13 of the Capitals (captain Alex Ovechkin, center Nicklas Backstrom, center Evgeny Kuznetsov, defenseman John Carlson, forward Jakub Vrana, forward Tom Wilson, defenseman Dmitry Orlov, forward Andre Burakovsky, center Travis Boyd, forward Chandler Stephenson, defenseman Christian Djoos, defenseman Jonas Seigenthaler, and goaltender Braden Holtby) were drafted by the team. That makes up 52% of how the roster was built, exactly the same as the Blues.

Six were acquired via trade (forward T.J. Oshie, center Lars Eller, defenseman Michal Kempny, forward Carl Hagelin, defenseman Nick Jensen, and goaltender Pheonix Copley). Copley was signed by the Capitals as an unrestricted free agent out of the ECHL’s Carolina Stingrays in 2014. He was sent to the Blues along with forward Troy Brouwer and a 2016 third-round pick in exchange for Oshie in 2015 but was brought back to the Capitals in 2017, when the team acquired him along with defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk from the Blues in exchange for forward Zach Sanford, forward Brad Malone, and a 2017 first-round pick. That accounts for 24% of how the Capitals were made, in between the Blues and Bruins.

Five were picked up via free agency (forward Brett Connolly, center Nic Dowd, defenseman Matt Niskanen, defenseman Brooks Orpik, and forward Devante Smith-Pelly). In addition, forward Dmitrij Jaskin was picked up off of waivers from the Blues on October 2, 2018. 20% of the team was acquired in free agency and another 4% was picked up by waivers.

By Harrison Brown