Written by Joseph Tucciarone at The Sports Quotient
Throughout all of sports, a player’s positioning in the sport is all based on how many championships he/she wins. Winning is the true definer of where a player ranks in the realm of their sport. When the greatest players are talked about, the ones put at the top of the list have usually won a championship.
For those players that haven’t won, they are still talked about as some of the best, but often get edged out for the likes of those that have a championship ring. When Dan Marino retired, he led the NFL in completions, yards, and touchdowns. He is often talked about as a top-10 NFL quarterback, but the one blemish on his career was his inability to win a Super Bowl. With just one win, he could have been considered the greatest of all time.
Just like every other sport, hockey players are ranked the same way. Some of the NHL’s best players have never won, let alone come close to winning, a Stanley Cup.
Adam Oates finished his career with over 1,000 assists and lost two finals. Pat LaFontaine joined the New York Islanders the year after their fourth Stanley Cup in a row and lost in the finals going for their fifth. He never came close to returning again. The most unfortunate circumstance is for Marcel Dionne, the NHL’s number six all-time leading point scorer. Playing on mostly bad teams during his career, Dionne played 18 seasons in the NHL and never made it past the second round of the playoffs. Despite all of his accomplishments, he is the greatest NHL player that has never won a Stanley Cup.
Whether it be bad luck, bad teams, or an inability to win the big games, there are a multitude of reasons why a player never wins a championship. For the players playing today, as well as future ones, the goal is to win the Stanley Cup. A championship victory puts them in an elite class of people, but at the same time, takes them out of a group no player wants to be in.
Here are a few active players that are seeing their chances of winning a Stanley Cup dwindle further every year:
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