10 star NHLers in salary-cap era who found playoff glory after changing teams
It has to sting, but if you know Toronto Maple Leafs fans, you’ll know they saw this coming.
Mitch Marner, Stanley Cup playoff scoring leader. Yep, he’s lighting it up for 16 points in 10 games so far this postseason with his new team, the Vegas Golden Knights. That includes six goals, a career postseason high and as many as he had in his previous three playoff runs combined across 31 games. Marner, notorious for only doing damage in the early part of a playoff series, even put up two goals and four points across Games 5 and 6 to help oust the Utah Mammoth in Round 1.
If Marner’s Golden Knights win two more games in Round 2 against the Anaheim Ducks, he’ll officially be farther than he ever got in nine playoff runs as a Leaf. And he’ll be halfway to becoming the latest veteran star to win a championship after being traded.
Who are some other prominent players in the cap era who had to leave the teams with whom they built their stardom in order to achieve true playoff glory?
Here’s a look at the highest-profile cases. To qualify, they must have played some postseason games with previous teams and experienced some heartbreak – meaning Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart don’t qualify. We’ll also only include Stanley Cup winners.
Sam Bennett
The scrappy Bennett was hailed by scouts as a Doug Gilmour type of player leading up to the 2014 NHL Draft. Bennett was a bust as a Calgary Flame, though the 11 goals in 30 playoff games hinted at his potential. The Panthers bought low on him, giving up a package including a second-round pick and then-prospect Emil Heineman, and Bennett was pretty much an instant game changer as a Florida Panther. He averages 27 goals and 57 points in the regular season since the 2021 trade, but he’s really excelled in the playoffs. As a Panther: 29 goals and a whopping 338 hits in 77 games, including 15 goals in the 2024-25 postseason and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. As a two-time champ with Florida, Bennett has become the power forward that was promised when Calgary drafted him.
Jeff Carter
The Philadelphia Flyers blew up their core in 2011, sending Carter and good friend Mike Richards out in franchise-altering trades that were believed to be more about their off-ice lifestyle than their on-ice play. Carter wound up with the Columbus Blue Jackets for less than a full season, battling injuries and unhappy in his new environment, and Columbus sold low on him later that season. He proved a crucial addition to a Los Angeles Kings team that had acquired Richards months earlier. Carter scored a league-high eight playoff goals to help the Kings win their first Stanley Cup in 2011-12 and was a key component of their 2014 Cup run as well. He sits fifth on the Kings’ all-time playoff goals leaderboard.
Zdeno Chara
In summer 2006, the Ottawa Senators infamously bet on the wrong UFA. They couldn’t afford to keep both their star defensemen, Chara and Wade Redden, and opted not only to sign Redden, but to gamble on a just a two-year contract. Chara inked a five-year deal with the Boston Bruins at a $5.75-million AAV. He was already one of the game’s most feared all-around defensemen by then, but he achieved hockey immortality as one of the sport’s all-time great captains after leaving Ottawa. As a Bruin, Chara won the 2008-09 Norris Trophy and led them to a 2010-11 Stanley Cup, not to mention Final berths in 2013 and 2019. He retired in 2022 as the NHL’s all-time games leader among defensemen.
Marian Hossa
An uber-talented two-way forward, Hossa was a notorious spring underachiever in the early part of his career as a Senator, scoring just 13 goals in 51 playoff games. After a stop with the Atlanta Thrashers, he made his mark in a mercenary role, reaching consecutive Stanley Cup Finals with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings, before he joined the Chicago Blackhawks in summer 2009 on a 12-year contract, the kind since outlawed by the NHL for cap circumvention. Hossa elevated from star to Hall of Famer during his run with Chicago, contributing to three Stanley Cup winners between 2010 and 2015 as one of the game’s best 200-foot players.
Nazem Kadri
Leaf fans know playoff Kadri as the talented but mercurial center who couldn’t figure out the right side of the line and got himself bounced in consecutive years from Round 1 series against the Bruins via suspension for illegal hits. The Leafs lost both those series in seven games, leaving their fans to wonder what could’ve happened if one of their most important and tenacious forwards had remained in their lineup. Naturally, the Colorado Avalanche version of Kadri, post-Tyson Barrie trade, was a force. He led the 2019-20 COVID bubble tournament with five game-wining goals and put up 15 points in 16 games during the Avs’ 2021-22 championship season. He’s back for a second tour in Denver after the Flames traded him there at the deadline this past winter.
Phil Kessel
Kessel simply was never a superstar, and that’s why he couldn’t lead the Leafs into contention during his time with them. But his electric playoff runs with the Penguins were, in hindsight, unsurprising. Kessel already was a postseason performer by then; he had 13 goals and 21 points in 22 games with the Leafs and, before them, the Bruins. In Pittsburgh, he had the insulation of superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin driving their own lines, while Kessel wreaked havoc on line 3, a.k.a. the ‘HBK’ line with Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino. Kessel racked up 45 points in 49 games across the Pens’ 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cup runs and was right there in the Conn Smythe discussions, particularly in 2016.
Ryan O’Reilly
We can’t say the Buffalo Sabres rue the day they dealt O’Reilly. Not anymore. The main component they received on the other side of the deal, Tage Thompson, is the top offensive weapon on the first Buffalo team to make the playoffs in 15 years. But that first year post-trade was painful. O’Reilly had lamented about losing his love for the game and the Sabres becoming too comfortable with losing before they dealt him to the St. Louis Blues; in Year 1 with St. Louis, O’Reilly captured the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward and the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP as the Blues won their first and only Stanley Cup. Talk about experiencing the polar opposite in team cultures at the time.
Chris Pronger
The towering Pronger was a league MVP on some dominant but disappointing Blues teams in the early 2000s. He almost singlehandedly carried the Edmonton Oilers to a Stanley Cup in 2005-06. But he infamously forced his way out of town after that summer due to regret over, as he claims in his new 2026 book, signing a contract extension while intoxicated in 2005 without consulting his wife. The Oilers dealt him to the Ducks, where he formed a devastating pairing with fellow Norris Trophy winner and future Hall of Famer Scott Niedermayer. Pronger hoisted the Cup his first season as a Duck.
Mark Stone
The Senators of 2016-17 were an overtime goal away from reaching the Final. But they hit the skids in the seasons that followed and took apart their team piece by piece. Stone’s time came on Trade Deadline Day 2019, when the headed to Vegas and quickly signed an eight-year extension. He has been as important as any player in the franchise’s short history, captaining the Golden Knights to the Cup in 2022-23, providing elite two-way play and even, notoriously, repeatedly landing on LTIR at opportune moments and giving Vegas room to add more veterans. The new playoff salary cap doesn’t make the latter move possible anymore, but Stone remains as valuable as ever when he’s healthy.
Matthew Tkachuk
The Flames were backed into a corner. Tkachuk was coming off a 104-point season as part of Calgary’s powerhouse top line, but he was an RFA and simply wanted a change, telling then-GM Brad Treliving an extension wasn’t happening. The Flames did well in theory to land a package for Tkachuk including Jonathan Huberdeau coming off a 115-point season and a stud all-around defenseman in MacKenzie Weegar, both of whom signed max-term extensions. But Tkachuk was the unicorn who fuelled Florida’s three consecutive trips to the Cup Final and two championships. Huberdeau’s game fell apart to a shocking degree after the trade, and Calgary dealt Weegar to the Mammoth this season before the deadline.
Honorable mentions: Sergei Bobrovsky, Sergei Gonchar, Seth Jones, Mike Richards, Marian Gaborik
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