LY: STANLEY CUP – THE GREATEST NOT TO WIN

By: Allan Ly
RP Show Intern

Nobody is like Henri Richard, the legendary Montreal Canadien forward who owns the staggering amount of 11 Stanley Cup Championship victories. A NHL record.

This achievement begs the question of which NHL great in the Playoffs would you most like to see win the Stanley Cup? That was a Poll Question on the Rod Pedersen Show this week. The choices for the poll were Carey Price, Joe Thornton, Jordan Eberle and Blake Wheeler.

Jordan  Eberle is the RP Show’s favourite choice as he spent four seasons with Rod’s beloved Regina Pats.

Jets Captain Blake Wheeler, who is Winnipeg’s beating heart, is in the second round after sweeping the Edmonton Oilers.

According to the poll results, the viewers on Facebook voted Joe Thornton as their choice with 42% of the vote.

I can see why people chose Joe Thornton as he has won everything in the NHL and international hockey except the Stanley Cup.

Internationally, he has four gold medals to his name (1 Olympic, 2 World Cups of Hockey, 1 World Juniors).

While in the NHL, Thornton also won the Art Ross Trophy as the leader in points at the end of the season and the Hart Trophy which meant he was the most valuable to his team which was voted by the Professional Writers Hockey Association in 2006.

After being drafted by the Boston Bruins in 1997, Thornton spent most of his career with the Sharks and has several franchise records including the all time leader in assists (804), the all time leader in plus minus (161) just to name a few. Thornton is in the top ten of most records with the Sharks.

The numbers that Thornton posted are legendary among the greats in the NHL, for example Thornton is 14 all time in NHL points for his career. Joe Thornton is also seventh all time in assists. Thornton got more assists than NHL greats like Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, Doug Gilmour, Adam Oates, Mark Recchi.

Thornton only went to the Stanley Cup finals once and that was in 2016 when he got the Sharks to the finals but lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. The other years that Thornton made the Conference Finals were 2010, 2016 and 2019.

Unfortunately, for Thornton to pass through to the next round, he and his Maple Leafs have to beat the Montreal Canadiens, who have Carey Price and Shea Weber.

A similar thing can be said with Carey Price; he has won everything in hockey besides the Stanley Cup.

Like Thornton, Price has had a storied international career as he won 3 gold medals, one in the Olympics, one in the World Juniors and one at the World Cup of Hockey Championship.

Price also has won the Ted Lindsay Award which is given to the NHL’s MVP voted by the player association, the Hart Award which signified he was the most valuable to his team which was voted by the Professional Writers Hockey Association and the Vezina Trophy(best goalie), all in the same year of 2015.

An interesting fact about Carey Price and his Ted Lindsay Award win from 2015 is that he is just the third Goalie in NHL history to win the award. The other recipients were Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek and St Louis Blues legend Mike Liut.

A person who is not on this list but should be included is Montreal Canadiens Defenseman Shea Weber, whom hasn’t won a Stanley Cup.

Unlike Thornton and Price, Weber has five gold medals to his name, two Olympic Gold Medals, one World Championship Gold Medals, one World Cup Gold medal and one in the World Juniors.

Weber also has the distinction of having the hardest shot in the NHL as he has won the competition four times in his career; he was the most recent winner in 2020.

Weber’s old team, the Nashville Predators, are also in the playoffs, and one of their stars, Pekka Rinne, is looking for his first title.

Rinne is a 17 year veteran with numerous Vezina Trophy nominations, where he won in 2018.

Rinne also has the distinction of having the most wins as a Predator with 369 and most shutouts as well with 60.

Hopefully, for Rinne’s storied career, a Stanely cup victory can tie it all together as the Predators are currently facing off against the Carolina Hurricanes.

On July 4, 2012, both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter signed 13-year deals worth 98 million dollars for the Minnesota Wild; unfortunately, they still have yet to win the Stanley Cup.

Parise was drafted in the first round of the 2003 Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils, he has (18) years of NHL experience and the closest he’s got to the Stanley Cup is when he and his Devils lost to the Los Angeles Kings in the 2012 Stanley Cup final.

The duo is currently in a playoff match-up with the Vegas Golden Knights in this year’s playoffs.

Not everyone can win a Stanley Cup, and unfortunately, the players listed have this distinction. Hopefully, guys like Thornton, Weber, and Price, plus others, can finally break the drought to finalize great careers.

(Follow Allan Ly on Twitter at @AllanTheIntern)