The Florida Panthers are only two wins away from hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time. Forward Evan Rodrigues and netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, who both went undrafted, have played a pivotal role, and if they can help their team seal the deal, they could join a rare group.
Here are four players who didn’t hear their names called on draft day and went on to shine on the sport’s biggest stage.
Andy McDonald, Anaheim Ducks (2007)
Hall of Fame defenseman Scott Niedermayer led the Anaheim Ducks as captain to their sole Stanley Cup victory in 2007 and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy.
However, Andy McDonald played a crucial yet underappreciated role, netting several key goals during the Ducks’ five-game triumph over the Ottawa Senators.
McDonald scored 10 goals throughout the playoffs, ranking second only to the Senators’ Daniel Alfredsson, who scored 14. He delivered his best performance in the Final, scoring half of his playoff goals in that series.
McDonald scored two goals in the second period of Game 4, leading to a 3-2 victory, and opened the scoring in Game 5, which set the tone for a decisive 6-2 win to clinch the series.
Ed Belfour, Goalie Dallas Stars (1999)
By the time Beflour joined the Stars ahead of the 1997-98 season, he was already a well-established goaltender, but a Stanley Cup eluded him. He changed all that a year later, coming up clutch in a head-to-head battle against another future Hall of Fame goaltender, the Buffalo Sabres’ Dominik Hasek, in the 1999 Final.
Belfour posted a .941 save percentage over six games and played his best over the final two contests of the series. With the series tied 2-2, the 33-year-old posted a shutout in Game 5 before outdueling Hasek in a 3OT thriller, won by Dallas, 2-1, in the Game 6 clincher.
Jonathan Marchessault, Vegas Golden Knights (2023)
Marchessault is the most recent example, but like many others, he had to wait a while to taste success. Already a veteran in his 10th season, Marchessault played an integral role in the Golden Knights’ historic title run last season.
After going goalless over the first seven games of the playoffs, he ended the postseason with 13 tallies, more than any other player. Meanwhile, Marchessault notched a point in all five games (four goals, four assists) against the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final, becoming only the second undrafted player to win the Conn Smythe Award.
Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers (1988)
This is an odd one, but it’s true. Wayne Gretzky, arguably the best player to ever lace up a pair of skates, went undrafted.
In 1978, Gretzky signed with the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association (WHA), a rival professional league, when he was only 18 and well below the NHL’s minimum age of 20. The Racers soon folded, and the Edmonton Oilers, then a member of the WHA, bought his contract. A year later, the league merged with the NHL.
Roughly a decade later, in 1988, the Oilers would win the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in five years, led by an all-time performance from “The Great One.”
Gretzky helped Edmonton defeat the Boston Bruins in five games, posting 13 points (three goals, 10 assists), still the most by any player in Stanley Cup Final history.
