- Only four individuals played for only one team throughout their careers.
- Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, and Jarome Iginla played the most games without winning the Stanley Cup.
- Eight of the 27 individuals (30%) on the below list never played in a Stanley Cup Final.
The ultimate goal of every NHLer is to win the Stanley Cup. It’s an objective most professional hockey players never achieve, which makes that first sip from the Holy Grail all the more satisfying.
While entirely subjective, most fans perceive the Stanley Cup as the most challenging trophy in professional sports. Those among the favourites to win the Stanley Cup in 2024 know what’s in store as the playoffs approach and how the hockey odds of winning a title are stacked against them.
The excessively competitive, gruelling and lengthy nature of the playoffs is one of the main reasons the list of NHLers who have never won a Cup is so extensive.
Let’s look at the best players with the most storied careers who never lifted the Stanley Cup aloft.
Best Players Never To Win a Stanley Cup
| Player | Games | Number of Teams | Stanley Cup Final Appearance |
| Patrick Marleau | 1,779 | 3 | Yes |
| Joe Thornton | 1,714 | 4 | Yes |
| Jarome Iginla | 1,554 | 5 | Yes |
| Shane Doan | 1,540 | 2 | No |
| Phil Housley | 1,495 | 8 | Yes |
| Mike Gartner | 1,432 | 5 | No |
| Scott Mellanby | 1,431 | 5 | Yes |
| Luke Richardson | 1,417 | 7 | Yes |
| Harry Howell | 1,411 | 4 | No |
| Norm Ullman | 1,410 | 2 | Yes |
| Jeremy Roenick | 1,363 | 5 | Yes |
| Marcel Dionne | 1,348 | 3 | No |
| Mats Sundin | 1,346 | 3 | No |
| Adam Oates | 1,337 | 7 | Yes |
| Henrik Sedin | 1,330 | 1 | Yes |
| Daniel Sedin | 1,306 | 1 | Yes |
| Keith Tkachuk | 1,201 | 4 | No |
| Dale Hawerchuk | 1,188 | 4 | Yes |
| Brad Park | 1,113 | 3 | Yes |
| Darryl Sittler | 1,096 | 3 | No |
| Paul Kariya | 989 | 4 | Yes |
| Peter Stastny | 977 | 3 | No |
| Henrik Lundqvist | 887 | 1 | Yes |
| Eric Lindros | 760 | 4 | Yes |
| Cam Neely | 726 | 2 | Yes |
| Pavel Bure | 702 | 3 | Yes |
The list of elite players who have never won the Stanley Cup is about as long as the traffic queue on Toronto’s Highway 401 during rush hour.
The NHL playoffs take no prisoners, indiscriminately gobbling up and chewing out generational players who want nothing more than to win at least one Stanley Cup. Just ask Connor McDavid, who has won three Hart Trophies but no Stanley Cups thus far, whether he’d trade his MVP awards for the most coveted piece of team silverware.
His answer would be unequivocal, as everyone without a Stanley Cup ring can attest.
Ordered by games played, here are the best of the tormented souls who were forced to hang up their skates before winning the Stanley Cup.
NHL Players Who Spent Entire Careers With One Team
Only four players on the list played their entire careers for one team. Two are named Henrik, and two are brothers.
Henrik and Daniel Sedin played with the Vancouver Canucks for 17 seasons.
They made it to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010-11 but lost to the Boston Bruins in an infamous Game 7, which led to the Vancouver riots. It was their only Stanley Cup Final appearance.
Henrik Lundqvist played for the New York Rangers for 15 seasons and led his team to the Stanley Cup Final in 2013-14. The Blueshirts lost in five games to the Los Angeles Kings. Like the Sedin twins, it was Lundqvist’s only Stanley Cup Final appearance.
Shane Doan spent 21 seasons with the same franchise. He played his rookie season with the Winnipeg Jets in 1995-96 before the franchise moved to Phoenix. That’s where he remained for the following 20 seasons.
He’ll forever be lionized in Arizona for his unwavering loyalty. Unfortunately, that loyalty didn’t translate to on-ice success, as Doan never got to play in a Stanley Cup Final.
Most NHL Games Without a Stanley Cup
Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, and Jarome Iginla played the most games without winning a Stanley Cup.
The trio are among the greatest legends ever to play. However, their accomplished resumes have a gaping hole that would have further elevated their statuses.
On this date in 2017, former longtime Flames star Jarome Iginla had a “Gordie Howe Hat Trick” for the Kings, including his first goal as an opponent in Calgary, as Los Angeles won, 4-1. Iginla became the seventh player in NHL history to have 100 career game-winning goals. #FBF pic.twitter.com/cquUMiwK4z
— LA Kings Insider (@lakingsinsider) March 29, 2024
Iginla won the biggest prize in junior – two Memorial Cups with the Kamloops Blazers – and at the international level, World Juniors, World Hockey Championship, and Olympics, but couldn’t crack the most important of them all.
Thornton and Marleau played together during the San Jose Sharks’ most fruitful years. Along with Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns, the retired legends took the Sharks all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015-16, where they lost to the Sidney Crosby-led Pittsburgh Penguins.
Neither long-time teammate made it back to the Big Dance.
The Infamous Mike Gartner Trade
On March 21, 1994, Mike Gartner was moved from the New York Rangers to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the trade deadline.
The Rangers won the Stanley Cup three months later. Talk about agonizing. Even worse, Gartner never made it to a Stanley Cup Final in his 22-year career.
