NHL: The Best Player on Each NHL Team to Have Played for a Memorial Cup

Canada’s answer to the NCAA Final Four and Bowl Championship Series commences on Friday with the first day of the Memorial Cup’s preliminary round.

The host Shawinigan Cataractes, Quebec League champion Saint John Sea Dogs, Ontario League champion London Knights and Western League champion Edmonton Oil Kings boast a combined 32 NHL draft picks. Another 22 participants are eyeing a selection in this year’s entry draft.

Quite tellingly, all 30 NHL teams have at least one established player or a prospect on the cusp of settling into The Show who has contended for the Canadian Hockey League championship. With a total of 60 teams between the CHL’s three regional branches and only four going to the annual dance, the Memorial Cup’s developmental benefit speaks for itself.

In alphabetical order, here is a capsule of every NHL franchise’s most impressive Memorial Cup alum. Selections are based on a combination of the player’s accomplishments when playing for the CHL title and what he has done more recently for his current employer.

Anaheim: Corey Perry

The Ducks’ leading goal scorer in four of the last five seasons and their top point-getter in the other year, Perry had his final tune-up for the NHL at the 2005 Memorial Cup. All he did there was pilot the host London Knights to the championship with four goals and seven points.

Boston: Milan Lucic

His big-game proficiency has failed to show up at times recently, particularly this year’s first-round exit and portions of last year’s run to the Stanley Cup.

But Lucic has also given a few head-turning clutch performances as a Bruin, which was no surprise to those who saw him delight his home crowd in his last twirls as an amateur.

Like Perry in 2005, the Vancouver native concluded his major junior career by helping the host Giants to the CHL title in 2007 before their own crowd at Pacific Coliseum.

Buffalo: Tyler Ennis

Ennis’ injury, which forced him to miss 34 games, was a contributing factor to an adverse 2011-12 campaign for the Sabres.

When he was available for action, he tallied 15 goals and 19 assists, coupled with a team-best plus-11 rating. And of those who played in more than half of Buffalo’s games, Ennis had the best shooting accuracy, with 18.3 percent of his bids going in.

The pint-sized, third-year pro previously had a point-per-game for the Medicine Hat Tigers in the 2007 Memorial Cup.

Calgary: Jarome Iginla

Iginla won back-to-back titles with the Kamloops Blazers in 1994 and 1995. After being drafted by the Dallas Stars, he spent one more anticlimactic year in the Western League before breaking in with the Flames in the 1996 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Actually, “anticlimactic” is only applicable in terms of team achievements. Iginla’s productivity soared in 1995-96 to 63 goals and 73 assists in 63 games.

This season, his 15th in Calgary, Iginla suited up for all 82 games for the fifth consecutive season and tallied a 32-35-67 scoring log in defiance of his team’s shallow offense.

Carolina: Drayson Bowman

The only active Hurricane to have competed for Canada’s major-junior national championship, Bowman led all participants with six goals in the 2008 tournament. The last of those proved to be the Cup-clincher as Bowman’s Spokane Chiefs vanquished the host Kitchener Rangers, 4-1.

Chicago: Marian Hossa

For Hossa, there seems to be something favorable about wearing a red and black uniform with a Native American head crest.

A dozen years before he arrived in Chicago and won a previously elusive Stanley Cup, Hossa arrived in North America and spent one year with the Portland Winterhawks. By the end of that season in 1997-98, he was one of the co-pilots on a CHL championship team and ready to break into the NHL.

Colorado: Jamie McGinn

A member of the Ottawa 67’s team that lost the 2005 OHL title to Perry’s Knights and the national semifinals to Sidney Crosby’s Rimouski Oceanic, McGinn pitched in eight goals and 13 points in 17 games after the Avs imported him at this year’s trading deadline.

Columbus: Derek Dorsett

A career year of 12 goals and 20 points isn’t saying much. Then again, Dorsett has been laboring with the lowly Blue Jackets in each of his four NHL season. And other than Aaron Johnson (Rimouski, 2000), Columbus doesn’t have anyone else eligible for this slide.

Before breaking into the organization and playing the 2007-08 season with AHL Syracuse, Dorsett wrapped up his major-junior days with the Medicine Hat Tigers, who went to the 2007 Memorial Cup title game.

Dallas: Brenden Morrow

One of Hossa’s teammates on the aforementioned 1998 Portland team, the Stars captain tallied 11 goals and 26 points in an injury-shortened 2011-12 campaign.

Detroit: Darren Helm

Helm stepped into the Red Wings system upon graduating from the major-junior ranks in 2007. His Western League career ended in bittersweet fashion, as his Medicine Hat Tigers fell short of the Cup against the rival Vancouver Giants.

Edmonton: Taylor Hall

No contest here. Hall set the tone for his No. 1 overall selection in the 2010 NHL draft by winning back-to-back tournament MVP laurels as his Windsor Spitfires claimed the Cup in both 2009 and 2010.

To say the least, the success has been slow to translate with the Oilers. But in two professional seasons, Hall has finished fourth and second on his team’s scoring chart despite missing 17 games as a rookie and 21 as a sophomore.

Florida: Jonathan Huberdeau

He has yet to make his NHL debut, but Huberdeau is the Panthers’ top prospect and will be looking to deliver a second straight Memorial Cup to the Saint John Sea Dogs in the coming week.

Los Angeles: Mike Richards

If it didn’t in the regular season, the expected impact of the Kings’ acquisition of Richards is coming to fruition in these Stanley Cup playoffs.

And besides an unlikely appearance in the 2010 finals with Philadelphia, deep postseason journeys are nothing new to Richards, who partook in a 2003 Memorial Cup campaign with Kitchener. He pitched in two goals and five points while playing under head coach Peter DeBoer and with such teammates as Gregory Campbell, David Clarkson and captain Derek Roy.

Minnesota: Jared Spurgeon

This year’s leader among Wild defensemen with 20 assists and 23 points, Spurgeon was a similarly valuable playmaker on the Spokane Chiefs team that won the 2008 Memorial Cup.

Montreal: PK Subban

Subban’s Belleville Bulls earned the right to play for the 2008 title after winning the Ontario League championship. He would tally a point per game before the Bulls were knocked off by league rival and host Kitchener in the semifinal.

Nashville: Shea Weber

The Predators captain and Norris Trophy candidate had the unfathomable pleasure of appearing in three consecutive Memorial Cups with the Kelowna Rockets between 2003 and 2005. He was named to the tournament all-star team in 2004, when the host Rockets won the national crown.

New Jersey: Adam Henrique

Perhaps slightly eclipsed by his teammate Hall in Windsor’s second straight championship run, Henrique claimed the OHL’s playoff MVP award in 2009 and charged up an 8-9-17 scoring log in 10 career Memorial Cup games.

Now a second-year pro, Henrique tallied a not-so-shabby 16 goals and 35 assists in his first full NHL season.

NY Islanders: Casey Cizikas

There’s not much Memorial Cup influence on Long Island, but the rookie did wrap up his major-junior career last season when his Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors hosted the tournament.

Cizikas put in 15 appearances with the Islanders this season and tied for second on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers with 45 points.

NY Rangers: Brad Richards

Richards all but swept the entire Quebec League and Canadian League trophy case in his third and final year with the Rimouski Oceanic, who won the 2000 league and national title.

Though not quite as dominant in the professional ranks, the 2004 Conn Smythe winner is forming the one-two punch with Marian Gaborik almost exactly as the Rangers planned.

Ottawa: Jared Cowen

Another member of Spokane’s championship squad in 2008, Cowen broke in with the Senators this season and played all 82 regular-season and seven playoffs games. And this is coming a year after he added a Calder Cup with Binghamton to his resume.

Philadelphia: Claude Giroux

Giroux’s final campaign with the Gatineau Olympiques in 2007-08 was briefly interrupted by a two-game call-up to the Flyers.

His return to the Quebec League was arguably beneficial. Despite missing 15 regular-season games, he was Gatineau’s top scorer and then won the league playoff MVP as the Olympiques claimed the President’s Cup and an automatic passport to the Memorial Cup.

Fast-forward four years, and Giroux, on an individual level, is reaping similar results as Philadelphia’s top producer in the regular season and postseason.

Phoenix: Keith Yandle

In 2005, Yandle aborted a commitment to the University of New Hampshire and instead opted for up to two years of major-junior eligibility with the Moncton Wildcats, who happened to be the Memorial Cup host for the coming campaign.

As it happened, he only needed one before signing his entry-level contract with the Coyotes. In 2006-07, he broke into the farm system after scoring 25 goals and 84 points as part of Moncton’s ride to the Memorial Cup title game.

Yandle had since logged 365 games in Phoenix, including all 82 in each of the last three seasons.

Pittsburgh: Sidney Crosby

The only hockey fans who cannot recall Crosby’s expedition to the 2005 CHL championship game with the Rimouski Oceanic was either on his/her own expedition to one of the polar caps or is not yet in fourth grade.

Although the Oceanic fizzled in the final against Perry’s Knights, 4-0, Crosby still topped the tournament charts with six goals and 11 points. That was after he tallied 31 points in 13 Quebec League playoff games en route to a President’s Cup title and MVP accolades.

St. Louis: David Perron

Perron’s only season in the Canadian League, spent with the Lewiston Maineiacs, culminated in a Quebec League title and concomitant berth in the 2007 Memorial Cup.

San Jose: Colin White

A two-time Stanley Cup champion with New Jersey in 2000 and 2003, the stay-at-home defenseman capped off his amateur career with a major-junior national title with the Hull Olympiques in 1997.

Tampa Bay: Brendan Mikkelson

A multitude of prospects, such as defenseman Mark Barberio and goaltender Dustin Tokarski, are both probably some of the more exciting Memorial Cup alums in Tampa Bay’s system. But for the moment, the Bolts do have a midseason acquisition in Mikkelson, who won the title with Vancouver in 2007 and played 41 games for Tampa after a trade from Calgary.

Toronto: Nazem Kadri

A championship finalist in 2008 with the Kitchener Rangers, Kadri has pitched in an 8-11-19 scoring log over 51 NHL appearances and is presently piloting the AHL Marlies on a run to the Calder Cup semifinals.

Vancouver: Roberto Luongo

This selection doesn’t say as much as it initially appears.

In both this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs and last year’s Stanley Cup final, fans on Canada’s West Coast have been left to ponder what happened to the East Coast Luongo from the previous millennium.

Before he broke in with the New York Islanders in 1999-2000, Luongo backstopped two different teams, the Val-D’or Foreurs and the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, to the Quebec League crown in consecutive years.

As it happens, though, his major-junior league playoff success mirrors that of his Olympic track record, whereas his Memorial Cup transcript is closer to his recent Stanley Cup performances. Luongo lost all three of his national tournament decisions with both Val-D’or and Acadie-Bathurst, allowing a cumulative 30 goals in those six games.

Washington: Cody Eakin

A midseason trade from Swift Current to Kootenay ultimately allowed Eakin to savor a Western League title and a berth in the 2011 Memorial Cup. There, he tied all participating skaters for second with six points in the tournament.

Splitting his rookie season between the Capitals and the Hershey Bears, Eakin chipped in four goals and four assists in 30 NHL appearances.

Winnipeg: Evander Kane

Another member of the 2007 champion Vancouver Giants, Kane spent two more seasons in the WHL before breaking in with the Atlanta Thrashers at the start of the 2009-10 campaign.

His first year back in Canada proved a positive boon. Kane tallied a team-best 30 goals and career-high 57 points for the Jets and also topped the team chart with a plus-11 rating.