Seven players who took major steps in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs
There’s no better time to shine than the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Not only do players have more eyes on them in the postseason, but a strong performance also gives them more street cred. If a player steps up his game when the lights are brightest, everyone talks about how he can handle the pressure or how he “knows how to win.”
Every year, the playoffs gives attention to new players when they have strong breakout performances. They become household names in their local markets. If they play well (or long) enough, they may even become everyone’s go-to “most underrated player” amongst the national market. So long as that form continues going forward, they’ve now established themselves as high-end players in the league.
So as the playoffs winds down to the final few games, let’s dive into some players who saw significant strides in their games in the playoffs and cemented themselves as more prominent names in the hockey community. The only requirement is the element they brought to their game in the playoffs wasn’t present prior to it or at least not popularly known, whether it’s scoring, defense, stopping pucks or being a pain in the ass. It also has to be a sustainable performance, so players like Carter Hart (who is already regressing in the Stanley Cup Final) and Brett Howden (37.8 percent shooting!!!) don’t make the cut. Also, a player doesn’t have to be young for consideration – sometimes it takes them this long to get the role they deserved.
Zach Benson/Josh Doan, Buffalo Sabres
At first glance, you may think I’ve already broken my first rule by mentioning Benson and Doan. Their breakouts have taken place over the entirety of the 2025-26 season, as their scoring levels were almost identical from the regular season to the playoffs. They played excellent defensive hockey in the postseason, but that was also a well-established element of their games. So besides getting more eyeballs on their performances, how have they progressed in the playoffs? By playing like assholes.
Doan should come as no surprise. He’s not massive at 6-foot-2 and 198 pounds, but he still has plenty to throw around. Considering his strong forecheck game, he was going to have an impact in the playoffs. Add in the fact he’s Shane Doan’s son, and you knew Josh was going to come with some tenacity.
Benson, on the other hand, is slightly more shocking, but only if you never paid attention to him before. He is a bit smaller than Doan at 5-foot-10 and 177 pounds, but Benson is not shy to get into the dirty areas and cause problems. While penalty minutes aren’t a great measurement for how good a player is, the fact Benson had 64 in just 13 playoff games showcases he’s not one to shy away from scraps. But again, if you paid attention to him before the playoffs, you knew this was coming. When he fell to 13th overall in the 2023 Draft, the Sabres thought they were getting a talented player, but they got something even better: they got the second coming of Brad Marchand. Benson needs a new contract this summer, and how the Sabres handle it could very well dictate their future.
Jackson Blake/Logan Stankoven, Carolina Hurricanes
Much like Benson and Doan, Blake and Stankoven are bunched together, largely because they’ve spent most of this season on the same line. This chemistry had already allowed Blake and Stankoven to take major strides during the regular season, as they set career highs with a respective 53 and 44 points. But this production has progressed more in the playoffs, as Blake is clipping at above a point-per-game pace with 18 points in 17 games, while Stankoven is just under that in points with 15, but leading Carolina with 11 goals. Their line with Taylor Hall has been the Canes’ driving offensive force during their run to the Stanley Cup Final.
Now, both come with some unsustainability with these performances. Stankoven isn’t going to always shoot 16.8 percent and the Canes aren’t going to shoot 12.93 percent while Blake is on the ice. But both players aren’t even 24, and while they fall on the smaller side (Blake is five-foot-11 and 185 pounds, while Stankoven is five-foot-eight and 165 pounds), seeing their games thrive in the playoffs already is a great indicator of Carolina’s future. Stankoven and Blake are also driving play quite well with 5v5 xGF% Rel of +15.97% and +13.08%, so this level play isn’t entirely unsustainable either.
Jakub Dobes, Montreal Canadiens
In a playoff year where all the big-name goaltenders were either knocked out of the first round (Jake Oettinger, Jeremy Swayman, Andrei Vasilevskiy) or didn’t make the playoffs (Sergei Bobrovsky, Connor Hellebuyck, Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin), Dobes was THE goalie of the 2026 postseason. After a poor start to the regular season, Dobes turned it on down the stretch to secure the starting goaltender role for the playoffs. While his .908 save percentage was only seventh among the regular starters in the postseason, his 11.9 5v5 goals saved above expected leads all goalies. Considering the Habs had the worst 5v5 expected goal share among any team in the playoffs, they needed a strong performance from Dobes to get them to the Eastern Conference Final, especially in two Game 7s which saw Montreal get dominated in the shot count.
Out of the players I have listed here, Dobes’ performance has the most sustainability concerns. It’s the best stretch of hockey he’s played in his limited NHL career, but with so little of a sample size to work from, we don’t know if this is his ceiling or if this is the norm for him. Even if you want to say this breakout established him as a starter in the NHL, it’s still not a certainty – or at least, not with the Canadiens. Jacob Fowler is the bigger prospect of the two, played similarly well in the regular season, and looks poised to be the future of Montreal’s crease down the road. He still needs more experience before that happens, so Dobes will likely act as the 1A in a tandem to start next season. But unless Fowler struggles at the NHL level going forward, Dobes’ future in Montreal isn’t a given, even with his performance in the playoffs.
K’Andre Miller, Carolina Hurricanes
Miller had established himself as a sturdy defenseman in the New York Rangers‘ top four for five seasons prior to this year. But when the time came to pay up, New York decided to move on amidst a retool, with the Hurricanes more than happy to acquire his services. Miller had already played a bigger role during the 2025-26 regular season with Carolina, as he was 42nd among defensemen with 500 minutes with a -0.106 regularized adjust plus minus expected goals against per 60 minutes while facing the second-toughest minutes amongst healthy Canes blueliners (quality of competition of 0.023 5v5 RAPM xG +/- per 60). But he got that role because Jaccob Slavin missed half of the season. So the real question was always going to be: would Miller see that same role in the playoffs, especially with a healthy Slavin?
Not only has Miller maintained this role, he’s actually seen it grow. As Slavin has struggled at points in the playoffs with a +0.11 5v5 xGA/60 relative to his teammates, Miller has thrived with a -0.25 5v5 xGA/60 Rel, all while playing the same tough minutes as Slavin with a quality of competition of 0.068 RAPM xG +/- per 60. Even putting aside the comparisons to Slavin, just having a high-end shutdown defenseman on both pairings has played a big role in the Hurricanes’ run to the Stanley Cup Final, and Miller’s offensive flare (nine assists in 17 games) adds a different dynamic to their blueline. Any questions about Miller’s $7.5-million AAV have been answered this postseason.
Shea Theodore, Vegas Golden Knights
Theodore is pushing the limits of this list’s qualifications. He’s in his 11th season in the NHL, has produced 0.63 points per game in his career, has Norris votes in three separate seasons (finishing sixth in voting twice), has a Stanley Cup under his belt and has suited up for Team Canada twice. Everyone should know he’s good, right? What more steps are there to take?
While Theodore is a well-established name in the hockey sphere, it’s largely for his offensive game, as his defensive game was never his strongest suit at the NHL level. Over the course of his career, he had an underwhelming 0.017 5v5 RAPM xGA/60 and only had a positive defensive impact in three of his 11 seasons. When the Golden Knights announced Alex Pietrangelo would be out for the entirety of the 2025-26 season, one of the biggest concerns was how Vegas would replace his minutes as a shutdown defenseman, as Theodore was not equipped to fill that role at the time.
But Theodore has managed just fine. His -0.44 5v5 xGA/60 Rel in the playoffs is second amongst Vegas blueliners only to defense partner Brayden McNabb, and Theodore seeing some of the toughest minutes on the Vegas corps, with both top pairs facing the same workload (the other pairing, Rasmus Andersson and Noah Hanifin, have faired much worse with a respective 0.35 5v5 xGA/60 Rel together). Now, McNabb helps with Theodore’s numbers, and he’s the true shutdown defender on this team. But even away from McNabb, Theodore is a strong shutdown option with a -0.22 5v5 xGA/60 Rel. He may be 30 years old, but he’s still adding new elements to his game and proving he can be the top dog on the Vegas blueline.
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Advanced stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Evolving Hockey.
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