4 Stanley Cup Finalists With Pittsburgh Penguins Ties

After six weeks of grueling playoff rounds that saw everything from lopsided blowouts to improbable sweeps, the 2026 Stanley Cup Final has finally been decided. For the ninth consecutive season, the Pittsburgh Penguins will not be taking part as the Eastern Conference champion. That honor will go to the Carolina Hurricanes, a team that seemed to have the Penguins’ number almost every time the two teams met in 2025-26.

Opposing them will be the Vegas Golden Knights, an organization that has enjoyed arguably the greatest first nine seasons of any NHL expansion franchise. Making its third appearance in the Cup Final in its existence — falling in 2018 to the Washington Capitals and defeating the Florida Panthers in 2023 — Vegas will look to keep its momentum going against a juggernaut Hurricanes squad after sweeping the Colorado Avalanche, the only team that finished ahead of Carolina in the standings.

While it’s hard to say who Pittsburgh fans should root for in this high-octane clash, there are certainly Pittsburgh connections that exist on both sides of this series that may help sway some in a certain direction.

Jordan Staal (Penguins Forward, 2006-2012)

The last time Jordan Staal made it to the Stanley Cup Final, he was in just the third season of his NHL career. After falling to the Detroit Red Wings in six games the season prior in 2008, he didn’t have to wait long to get another crack at glory. He helped guide Pittsburgh to a rematch with Detroit in 2009, and this time it came out on top in a seven-game series. Staal cemented himself in Penguins lore with nine points amid the franchise’s run to its third championship, which included two goals and an assist in the championship round.

But fast forward to today, and Staal has become much more synonymous with the Hurricanes than the Penguins. Since he was acquired by Carolina from Pittsburgh in a trade on June 22, 2012, Staal has made a name for himself as one of the greatest Hurricanes of all time alongside his brother Eric. At 1,074 games, he’s now played more than anyone in a Carolina uniform. However, despite the many milestones he’s hit in Raleigh, he’s yet to win any actual NHL hardware since hoisting the Cup for the first time.

If Staal does wind up winning it all with the Hurricanes in a matter of weeks, he would set a new record for the longest time between Stanley Cup wins by any player at 17 years, per NHL.com. It’s also not out of the question that he would invite current Penguins stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang to celebrate with him.

Mark Jankowski (Penguins Forward, 2020-2021)

Mark Jankowski played for four different NHL teams over nine seasons before he was acquired by the Hurricanes in a trade that sent a fifth-round pick to the Nashville Predators on March 7, 2025. One of those teams was the Penguins, as then-general manager Jim Rutherford inked Jankowski as a free agent to a cheap $700,000 deal in early Aug. 2020. The idea was for Jankowski to slide in as a depth piece, and he filled that role well amid an otherwise odd season for Pittsburgh as the league began to return to normalcy following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Filling the role of center and left wing in the Penguins’ bottom six, Jankowski spent most of his short stint as a Penguin centering Colton Sceviour and Sam Lafferty. He also served as a winger on a line with Zach-Aston Reese and Lafferty, recording all 11 of his points in Pittsburgh at even strength. Jankowski didn’t see the ice during Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup playoff run, but he didn’t miss much as the Pens were bounced in the first round by the New York Islanders in six games. He played just 45 games that season.

Following four years between the Buffalo Sabres and the Predators, Jankowski has spent the past two seasons in Raleigh. After appearing in just 19 games throughout the 2024-25 regular season, he was given a much more prominent role this season as a bottom-six center for the Canes. Jankowski wrapped up the campaign with 21 points in 68 games, the third most of his career.

His efforts earned him a spot in Carolina’s playoff lineup, where he’s remained for the team’s entire postseason run. He currently centers William Carrier and Eric Robinson on Carolina’s fourth line, where he’s playing worlds better than he did in Pittsburgh with four assists so far.

Mark Jankowski giving it to the Montreal crowd 🫢 pic.twitter.com/Sk4hlUTPWW

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 28, 2026

Now, he’ll have a chance to cap off one of the best seasons of his career by engraving his name on Lord Stanley.

Reilly Smith (Penguins Forward, 2023-2024)

Like Jankowski, Reilly Smith’s time in Pittsburgh didn’t last more than one season. Fresh off capturing his first-ever Stanley Cup with the Golden Knights in 2023, Smith was dealt to Pittsburgh only days afterward in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.

But as one of Pittsburgh’s veteran players, it seemed likely his tenure in Pittsburgh wouldn’t last too long. After all, ahead of the 2023-24 season, Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas was looking to gradually make the team younger, not older. Smith was exposed to that youth movement nightly. During his 76 games that season, he shared the ice with players closer to his age in their thirties like Evgeni Malkin and Rikard Rakell, while also being tasked to play on lines with less experienced forwards like Valtteri Puustinen and Drew O’Connor, who were always looking for extra reps.

Reilly Smith with a GROSS goal splitting the D 🤢🚨

Knights went from down 2-1 to up 4-2 in just 4 minutes 😳⚔️ pic.twitter.com/eWVvWVLYqf

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 26, 2026

Smith wasn’t a top scorer for Pittsburgh by any means, but he still enjoyed some shining moments. He closed his campaign with 40 points (13 goals, 17 assists), which included eight multi-point games. Smith’s best outing in a Penguins uniform came during Pittsburgh’s most one-sided victory of the campaign, a 10-2 stomping of the San Jose Sharks on the road. Smith finished the evening with two goals and two assists, but never quite looked like he truly fit into the Penguins’ future.

As expected, Dubas flipped Smith to the New York Rangers for two late-round draft picks over the summer that followed, but the veteran forward eventually found his way back to Vegas as the 2024-25 season started to wind down.

Inked to a $2 million deal with the Golden Knights this season, Smith has been a key depth piece for the team when called upon. He’s only appeared in six games this postseason, but he’s still eligible to have his name engraved on the Cup again, even if he’s scratched for the entirety of the Stanley Cup Final.

Brandon Saad (Pittsburgh Native)

While Brandon Saad technically never played a game for any team within the Penguins organization, he got to know it quite well as he was growing up. Living about 15 miles outside downtown Pittsburgh, Saad watched Penguins greats while competing in the Pittsburgh area for local youth teams.

“Growing up in Pittsburgh it was (Mario Lemieux) and (Jaromir Jagr) a lot,” Saad said in an interview with The Sporting News. “Even when (Sidney Crosby) and (Evgeni Malkin) were drafted to Pittsburgh and played, I was still a teenager and young, so I looked up to them as well.”

When it came time for him to be drafted in 2011, former Pittsburgh general manager Ray Shero actually had a chance to draft Saad, but passed on him for a defenseman. The Blackhawks then decided to take a chance on the young sharpshooter and selected him with the 43rd overall pick. Ever since, Saad hasn’t looked back.

Most of Saad’s success in the awards category came during his first four years in the NHL, where he won the Stanley Cup twice with Chicago alongside Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews while each was in their prime. He went on to play for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Colorado Avalanche, and St. Louis Blues for the first 15 years of his career before finding his way to Vegas. After being picked up by the Golden Knights midway through the 2024-25 campaign as a free agent, general manager Kelly McCrimmon inked Saad to a one-year, $2 million contract to keep him around the following season.

That decision turned out to be a good one. Without eating much into the cap, Saad has been a reliable backup option — much like Smith — for the Golden Knights this season. After logging nine points in 49 regular-season games, Saad was a big reason Vegas was able to advance past the Anaheim Ducks and Colorado in the playoffs despite temporarily losing Mark Stone to injury. Vegas’ depth was tested, and thanks to Saad, it passed with flying colors.

While each of these players will likely receive a different amount of ice time throughout the 2026 Stanley Cup Final, there’s always the chance one of them could wind up making a series-winning play. After all, that’s the best part about the playoffs. Anyone can be a hero.