The previous three Cup winners highest cap hits were $9.5 million, $9.5 million, and $8.7 million. Back in 2015 Patty Kane was a bit of an outlier, being only $6.3 million, but he did jump up to 10.5 or so the next year, and they had several players in that range. It was a thing there for a while, I remember, with the journalists, how all the teams winning the cup had so much salary tied up in just a few players.
What am I saying here? Uh, nothing I guess. Long season, long playoffs, hockey is quite a random sport. However, I feel there is an influx of young and affordable talent these days and that might be tied to winning. Most of them had not splurged too much on high end free agents, but acquired decently expensive older tenured players in trades, that had signed instead of reaching free agency.
I think there's a mix, and it changes from year to year. Of course blowing it all on some high end free agent rarely works out. You have to develop players, trade for players, and sign the right free agents at the right time.
First priority should be to getting Boeser signed to a team friendly deal I guess, then reaching for some good free agents that will last while considering the contracts to come.