Ranking Joe Thornton and the Best Stanley Cup-less Players Since 2000
It's high praise and high regard.
But it's not the sort of label anyone really wants.
For example, it's a fair bet Joe Thornton would trade his six All-Star Game appearances and an all-but-guaranteed Hall of Fame enshrinement for one silver chalice:
The Stanley Cup.
So being considered among the greatest players to never hoist the greatest trophy in professional sports is dubious praise for a career well received, but still lacking.
Nevertheless, now that the 2023-24 season is off and running, the B/R hockey team members took it upon themselves to compile a list of the 10 players during Thornton's Era—for these purposes, essentially 2000-present—for whom that label fits.
We considered statistical significance, standing amongst peers, and an eye test when building the list, which includes five "active" players, several who've gotten to the final series brink, four who are already in the Hall of Fame, and others who will be the moment they retire.
Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought in the comments.
10. Shea Weber
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Technically, Shea Weber's quest for the Cup is not over.
He'll make better than $7.8 million per year through the end of 2025-26 as (presumably) a member of the Arizona Coyotes, though he's actually not taken the ice since a 48-game run with the Montreal Canadiens during the 2020-21 season.
But what he's done in 1,038 games across parts of 16 seasons has been list-worthy.
The 6'4", 230-pounder lasted until the second round before he picked by Nashville in the 2003 draft and was with the Predators inside of three years. He was the team's captain by 2010 and became one of the league's most productive blue-liners, scoring 15 or more goals eight times through 2015-16 and consistently averaging better than 25 minutes per game.
A trade to the Canadiens yielded three more double-digit scoring seasons, though, ironically, Nashville reached the final round for the first time in the season after Weber was dealt for P.K. Subban.
Weber finally got to the brink in what's been his last active season to this point, averaging 25:13 of ice time per game for Montreal on the way to a five-game loss to Tampa Bay.
9. Carey Price
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Speaking of technically active players from the 2021 Canadiens, here's Carey Price.
The former Vezina, Jennings, and Hart Trophy winner has barely taken the ice since that magical 22-game playoff run, playing just five games in the subsequent 2021-22 regular season and none since then because of myriad injuries and personal issues.
But he is under contract to Montreal for $10.5 million per season through 2025-26, though the team earned salary-cap relief by placing Price on long-term injured reserve.
In his prime years, though, the fifth overall pick from the 2005 draft was a star.
He won 20 or more games in 12 NHL seasons, landed between 30 and 39 wins four times, and peaked out at 44 wins in 2014-15 while locking up honors as the league's top goalie and its most valuable player with a 1.96 goals-against average and .933 save percentage.
Playoff-wise, Price registered eight series wins and won 43 individual games with a 2.39 goals-against average and .939 save percentage that exceeded his career numbers.
8. Daniel/Henrik Sedin
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You can't have one without the other.
From the instant they were born as twin brothers in 1980, to their second and third overall draft choices by Vancouver in 1999, to their simultaneous exits after the 2017-18 season, Daniel and Henrik Sedin were the quintessential package deal.
The sublimely skilled Swedish forwards helped reinvent a moribund Canucks franchise which had missed the playoffs for four straight years before their arrival, qualifying for the tournament 11 times in their first 14 seasons, winning at least a series in five of those seasons and peaking with a run to a seven-game Cup final loss to the Boston Bruins in 2011.
Henrik was the league's top scorer and its MVP in 2009-10 and Daniel followed him with a scoring title the following season, and the brothers combined for 12 goals and 42 points across 25 games while getting Vancouver as close to a championship as it's ever been in three title-round appearances—matching a seven-game loss against the New York Rangers in 1994 and bettering a sweep loss to the New York Islanders in 1982.
The brothers capped off their careers when they became Hall of Famers together as part of a five-man induction class in 2022.
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7. Auston Matthews
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Auston Matthews is still very much an active player.
And though his career numbers don't rival Weber's, Price's, or the Sedins', the pace at which he's scoring goals these days indicates he may wind up among the all-time greats.
The 26-year-old Californian has never scored fewer than 34 goals across a full NHL season, became one of the few players to reach 60 in 2021-22, and is on an early pace this season (13 in 14 games) that'd get him near 400 for his career by the schedule's end in April.
So as an individual, he's clearly legit.
But whether he can lift his team the way the others did remains to be seen.
Toronto is just 1-7 in eight playoff series in seven seasons with Matthews, and his prolific scoring rate has dipped considerably in the late spring, having netted 22 goals in 50 games.
6. Erik Karlsson
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Erik Karlsson's stock will never be higher than it is these days.
The reigning Norris Trophy winner was the biggest story of the offseason when he was dealt from the San Jose Sharks to the Pittsburgh Penguins after becoming one of the few defensemen in league history to reach the 100-point threshold in 2022-23.
He's produced 11 points in his initial 12 games with his new team, continuing a career's worth of production that began with Ottawa after he was picked 15th overall in the 2008 draft.
He scored 13 or more goals in six of nine seasons with the Senators and earned a pair of Norris trophies before a trade that included five other players and four draft picks sent him to San Jose shortly before the 2018-19 season began.
The Senators won three of eight playoff series and reached the Eastern Conference Final once during Karlsson's stay, while the Sharks reached the Western Conference Final in his initial season with the team before four straight playoff misses hastened his high-profile exit.
5. Roberto Luongo
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If you're an all-time numbers cruncher, Roberto Luongo's an easy one to like.
The fourth overall pick in 1997 is primarily remembered for his long-term stints with the Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks, ultimately racking up 489 wins (fourth in NHL history), 1,044 games (second), 77 shutouts (ninth), and a .919 save percentage (11th).
He spent 11 seasons with the Panthers compared to eight with the Canucks, but had six of his seven career playoff appearances in a Vancouver uniform, winning at least one series in four of those seasons and backstopping the Sedins to the aforementioned—albeit fruitless—run to the Stanley Cup Final against the Bruins in 2011.
Luongo was 15-10 in 25 games that spring with four shutouts and he was consistently stellar in nearly every career postseason effort, ultimately winning 34 games with a 2.49 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage.
4. Henrik Lundqvist
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He never won a Stanley Cup.
But Henrik Lundqvist is still one of the very best seventh-round picks in NHL history.
The Swede was the 205th overall selection in the 2000 draft by the New York Rangers, and he far outperformed that low-profile choice upon arriving in 2005, winning 30 or more games for seven straight seasons—including a Vezina win in 2012—and ramping it up in the spring with a run to the Cup final in 2014.
Lundqvist won 13 games in 25 starts and posted a 2.14 goals-against average that spring but it wasn't enough to seal the deal on the 20th anniversary of the franchise's most recent title, instead ending in a five-game loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
A Presidents' Trophy regular season was a strong encore to that run but the chase for a title again fell short with a six-game loss to Tampa Bay in the Eastern final and Lundqvist never again got beyond the postseason's second round.
He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2023 and finished his 15-season career with top-20 all-time finishes in games (887, ninth), wins (459, sixth), and shutouts (64, 17th).
3. Jarome Iginla
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Jarome Iginla was one of the original late-career Cup chasers.
The Edmonton native spent his first 15 NHL seasons a few hours down the road in Calgary and reached the Cup final with a plucky Flames team in 2004, getting as close as you can get to a title with a 3-2 series lead. But, thanks to a double OT loss in Game 6 and an equally threadbare 2-1 regulation loss in Game 7, it didn't happen.
Iginla had two goals and two assists in the series for Calgary but never won another series in the Flaming C sweater, losing four straight first-round series and missing the tournament three times before a trade deadline deal sent him to Pittsburgh in March 2013.
An 8-3 record across two series wins preceded a sweep loss to Boston in the Eastern final and Iginla was in a Bruins sweater the following spring but was knocked out in Round 2 by the Montreal Canadiens. Another free-agent deal meant a two-year stay in Colorado and two playoff misses before one final trade to Los Angeles saw Iginla, by then 39 years old, finish his career on the outside looking in after six goals and nine points in 19 games.
He finished with 1,300 points in 1,554 regular-season games and 37 goals in 81 playoff games, and entered the Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2020.
2. Joe Thornton
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Never let it be said that we don't deliver what we promise.
And no, it's not just because he's in the headline.
"Jumbo Joe" Thornton was an impactful NHL player from the moment the Boston Bruins made him the first pick in the 1997 draft as a teenager to the moment he skated his last shift with the Florida Panthers in the 2022 playoffs as a 42-year-old.
He played more than 1,900 games (regular and postseason), scored 1,673 points and was on the winning side in 15 playoff series—including the 2016 Western Conference Final with the San Jose Sharks—but he never hoisted the Cup.
Thornton had three assists in a six-game loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the championship round that spring. Still, his epitaph will certainly mention of chronically underachieving Sharks teams that won four straight Pacific Division titles from 2007-08 through 2010-11 and captured a Presidents' Trophy in 2008-09, but never delivered a Bay Area parade.
1. Connor McDavid
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These are not the best of times for Connor McDavid.
His Edmonton Oilers were favored by many for a deep playoff run but are instead off to one of the poorest starts in franchise history, leaving some to call for a core dismantling.
Nevertheless, and regardless of how the season plays out, McDavid is a great player.
Already an all-time great player, in fact, by virtue of the five scoring titles and three MVPs he's earned since reaching the NHL after a No. 1 overall selection in 2015.
But like so many of the greats who've come before him, No. 97's legacy will be determined in large part by the number of titles he does, or doesn't, win.
And so far, he's not been all that close.
The Oilers reached the second round in McDavid's second season before bowing out, then fell out in the first round in 2020 and 2021 before a career-best run to the Western finals in 2022 that ended in a sweep to the eventual Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.
It was another Cup champion and another second-round loss to the Vegas Golden Knights for Edmonton last season, and this season's tumult is beginning to turn the fanbase's nervous eyes toward the eight-year contract that'll end after the 2025-26 season.
Stay tuned.
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