The Stanley Cup is the greatest trophy in all of sports and every NFL player dreams of one day winning it. It’s definitely not an easy feat and may be one of the toughest to win in all of sports.
Today we look at 10 Players You Won’t Believe Won A Stanley Cup.
Aaron Ward
The defenceman played more than 800 games in the NHL, and won three Stanley Cups while he was in the league. Ward made his NHL debut in 1993, but didn’t become a regular in the NHL until the 1996-97 season.
Originally a first-round draft pick of the Winnipeg Jets, he would never play a game for the team, as he would be traded to the Detroit Red Wings in 1993. It would be with the Red Wings that he would win his first two Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998. However, he was never a regular contributor during his tenure in Detroit, never playing in more than 60 games in a season except for the 2000-01 season, his final with the Red Wings.
At the end of that season, Ward would sign for the Carolina Hurricanes, the team that he would win his third Stanley Cup for in 2006. He would become more of a regular contributor in Carolina, as in his four seasons, he would play in 70 games three times, with his career year coming in the 2005-06 season, where he would score six goals and tally 19 assists, setting career-highs in goals, assists, and points (25).
For 2006, Ward would sign for the New York Rangers, and he would be traded during his first season with the team to the Boston Bruins, where he would stay until 2009. For the 2009-10 season, he would re-sign with the Panthers, and he would be traded mid-season to the Anaheim Ducks. Following the season, he would retire.
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Shawn Thornton
A fifth-round draft pick by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1997, Thornton would never play for the Maple Leafs as he would be traded to the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2001-02 season. He would then be traded to the Anaheim Ducks in 2006, having made his NHL debut for the Blackhawks in 2002 but never playing in more than 13 games in a season for the team. During the 2006-07 season, he would play in 48 games for the Ducks as they would win the Stanley Cup at the end of the season.
Thornton would sign for the Boston Bruins for the 2007-08 season, and he would stay in Boston for seven seasons, winning the Stanley Cup in 2011. Additionally, Thornton would have the best season of his career during the 2010-11 season, scoring career-highs in goals (10), assists (10), and points (20).
After the 2011-12 season, Thornton would never again be the same player, never having more than eight points and playing in more than 50 games just once over his last five seasons. After three seasons with the Florida Panthers, Thornton would retire at the end of the 2016-17 season.
Daniel Carcillo
A long-time enforcer, Carcillo played in the NHL from 2006-2015, winning two Stanley Cups with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013 and 2015. A third round pick in 2003 by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Carcillo would be traded to the Phoenix Coyotes before ever playing a game for the Penguins.
Carcillo would make his first starts in the NHL for the Coyotes during the same season, and would first see major playing time during the 2007-08 season. During the 07-08 season, Carcillo led the NHL in penalty minutes with 324 despite only playing in 57 games, tallying 13 goals and 11 assists at the same time, both of which would be career highs.
He would be traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in the middle of the 2008-09 season, continuing to rack up penalty minutes and points until he would leave the Flyers at the end of the 2010-11 season. After he left the Flyers, however, he would never be the same player, as he would only play in more than 40 games one more time during his career.
Carcillo would sign for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2011, and he would be ruled out for the rest of the season on January 2, 2012 after tearing his ACL on a hit to Tom Gilbert. He would re-sign with the Blackhawks for the 2012-13 season, where he would win his first Stanley Cup while playing in 23 games during the regular season and four during the playoffs.
He would be traded to the Los Angeles Kings before the 2013-14 season, and he would be traded to the New York Rangers mid-season, before returning to the Blackhawks for the 2014-15 season, where he would play in 39 games and record eight points, before not playing at all in the playoffs where the Blackhawks would win their second Stanley Cup in three years.
Jordan Nolan
Nolan was a seventh round draft pick by the Los Angeles Kings in 2009, before being called up to join the Kings in the NHL in early 2012. He would stay with the Kings until 2017, earning two Stanley Cup wins in 2012 and 2014. In 2012, he played in every game the Kings played in during the playoffs, tallying one goal and one assist, but in 2014, he got injured early on, only playing in three playoff games.
After the 2016-17 season, Nolan was waived by the Kings, and he was picked up off waivers by the Buffalo Sabres. He would play one season as a Sabre, mostly as a third or fourth line forward, before signing as a free agent with the St. Louis Blues for the 2018-19 season, where he would only play in 14 games, the final games of his career.
Colin Fraser
Fraser was a third round pick by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2003, but he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in early 2004. Fraser would make his NHL debut in the 2006-07 season, dressing for one game for the Blackhawks, and in the 2007-08 season, he would raise his total of games dressed for to five.
In 2008-09, he would become a regular in the NHL, playing in 81 games and tallying 17 points from the center position. In the 2009-10 season, Fraser played in three playoff games as the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, his first, after playing in 70 games and setting career highs in goals (7), assists (12), and points (19).
Fraser would be traded to the Edmonton Oilers before the 2010-11 season, where he would play in 67 games and score five points. After that season, he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings, where he would win his second Stanley Cup in 2012. He would continue to play for the Kings until the end of 2014, where the Kings would win the Stanley Cup again; because Fraser did not play in any playoff games, his name was left off the winning roster.
After 2014, he would play in one more game in the NHL for the St. Louis Blues during the 2014-15 season, spending most of the season in the AHL. Fraser would retire in late 2015 after playing in Germany for part of the year.
Grant Jennings
Jennings was signed as an undrafted free agent in 1985 by the Washington Capitals, who he would join during the playoffs in 1988, playing in one game for the team. Following the season, he would be traded to the Hartford Whalers, who he would play for until midway through the 1990-91 season, when he would be traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
He would win two Stanley Cups for the Penguins, in 1991 and 1992, playing in 13 games and scoring one goal and one assist during the 1991 playoff run and playing in ten games with no statistics during the 1992 playoff run. He would stay with the Penguins until the middle of the 1994-95 season, when he would be traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he would play ten games during the regular season and just four during the playoffs.
For the 1995-96 season, Jennings would sign with the Buffalo Sabres, and he would play in six games for the Sabres during the season, those six being the final in his NHL career. He would play in the IHL for a few more seasons before retiring from professional hockey in 1998.
Chris Simon
A second round draft pick by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1990, Simon never played for the Flyers as he was traded to the Quebec Nordiques before he ever played in a professional game. Simon made his NHL debut for the Nordiques in 1993, and he would have a breakout season in the 1995-96 season, where he would have 16 goals and 18 assists in 64 games for the newly-relocated Colorado Avalanche. The season would culminate in a Stanley Cup for the Avalanche, the only one of Simon’s career.
For the 1996-97 season, Simon would sign for the Washington Capitals, and for the next three seasons, the most games he would play would be 42 due to a combination of injuries and suspensions. In the 1999-2000 season, however, he would have what would be by far his greatest season, setting career highs in goals (29) and assists (20) while playing in 75 games.
Simon continued to produce for the Capitals until early on in the 2002-03 season, where he would be traded to the Chicago Blackhawks after ten games. He would then sign for the New York Rangers, who would trade him to the Calgary Flames in early 2004, a place he would stay until the end of the 2005-06 season. After his stint with the Flames, Simon signed for the New York Islanders for the 2006-07 season, where he would stay until early 2008, when he would be traded to the Minnesota Wild; the ten games he played for the Wild would be the last ten of his career.
Ilya Bryzgalov
Bryzgalov was a second round pick in the 2000 draft to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, but he would never gain a consistent presence in the NHL until the 2005-06 season. Before that season, he had only appeared in two games for the franchise, but he stepped up as the team’s backup goalie to Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
Injuries to Giguere meant that Bryzgalov was thrust into the starting lineup for 26 games, posting a 13-12-1 record in 05-06 as a starter. In the 2006-07 season, he accumulated a record of 10-8-6, and he would earn his place as a member of the Ducks’ Stanley Cup winning team that season.
Early in the 2007-08 season, Bryzgalov would be traded to the Phoenix Coyotes, and he immediately became their starter, posting a record of 130-93-27 over his four seasons as their starter. He was then traded to the Philadelphia Flyers before the 2011-12 season, spending two seasons with the franchise and earning 52 wins across his two seasons. After the 2012-13 season Bryzgalov would bounce around the league, playing games for the Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild, and Ducks before being out of the NHL after 2015.
Jim Dowd
Dowd was an eighth round draft pick for the New Jersey Devils in 1987, and throughout his 17 year hockey career, he played for ten different NHL franchises. It took Dowd until 1992 to make his first NHL start for the Devils, and he would not play more than twenty games in the NHL until the 1995-96 season. However, he did score the game winning goal in Game 2 of the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals, a series that his Devils would go on to sweep the Detroit Red Wings in.
In the middle of the 95-96 season, Dowd would be traded to the Vancouver Canucks, and he would spend the rest of the season there, playing in 38 games and tallying seven points. From that point in his career, he would not become a consistent starter in the NHL again until 1999, when he played in 69 games for the Edmonton Oilers and tallied 23 points.
Following the 1999-2000 season, Dowd would sign for the Minnesota Wild, where he would spend the best seasons of his career. His best season was in 2001-02, where he scored 13 goals and 30 assists, both career highs. After he was traded to the Canadiens in early 2004, Dowd once again bounced around the league from team to team until he retired in early 2009.
Jim McKenzie
A fourth round pick in the 1989 draft by the Hartford Whalers, McKenzie was primarily used as an enforcer throughout his career, which saw him play for nine teams across 15 seasons in the NHL. He would make his NHL debut in early 1990, playing in five games for the Whalers.
He would remain with the whalers until midway through the 1993-94 season, when he was traded to the Dallas Stars. His stint with the Stars would only last 34 games, however, as he would be traded later in the same season to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
He would continue to bounce between teams, including the Winnipeg Jets, Phoenix Coyotes, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, and Washington Capitals, until the 2000-01 season, when he would sign for the New Jersey Devils and spend the next three seasons with them. It was with the Devils in 2003 that McKenzie won his lone Stanley Cup, and after the season, he would sign for the Nashville Predators, where he would play his final season before retiring in 2004.
