Streak of Former Flyers in the Stanley Cup Final Reaches 18 Years

When the puck dropped Tuesday night at Lenovo Center for Game 1 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final, one of the NHL’s longest – and most obscure – streaks continued.

Earlier that day, The Athletic’s David Aldridge published an article detailing the lengthy history of former Washington Wizards players competing in the NBA Finals (from “Want to go to the NBA Finals? Add a former Washington Wizard to your team,” The Athletic, June 2, 2026). At least one has participated every year since 2009, from depth players to aging veterans to key pieces. The New York Knicks’ Landry Shamet is the latest in that lengthy, obscure tradition.

But the NHL has its equivalent. The Carolina Hurricanes’ Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker, as well as the Vegas Golden Knights’ Carter Hart, made it 19 consecutive Stanley Cup Finals with at least one previous member of the Philadelphia Flyers. This year’s Final has bonus connections behind the bench, with former Flyers head coaches John Tortorella and John Stevens on the Vegas staff and longtime Flyers player Rod Brind’Amour coaching the Canes.

The History

In 2008, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings met in the Stanley Cup Final, with not a single former Flyer to be found. But by the time they rematched a year later, Ruslan Fedotenko and Mark Eaton had joined them, and thus the run began.

You could argue that maybe it’s not appropriate to start the streak until 2011, given the Flyers made the Final in 2010. However, they had to watch two of their own in Patrick Sharp and Ben Eager hoist the Cup in their building when the Chicago Blackhawks won in six games. Sharp’s presence extended to two more Finals with Chicago in 2013 and 2015.

The following five years were fertile ground for former Flyers in the Final. At least three former Flyers appeared in every Stanley Cup Final from 2011-2015, with a record four appearing every year from 2012-15. The Jeff Carter and Mike Richards trades paid off for the Los Angeles Kings in 2012 and 2014, as they reunited with Justin Williams on both runs, plus their former Philadelphia teammate Simon Gagné in 2012.

Mark Recchi rode off into the sunset with his third Cup in 2011 with the Boston Bruins, along with a former sixth-round Flyers gem in Dennis Seidenberg (they also went against defenseman Andrew Alberts). When the Boston Bruins returned two years later, Seidenberg was still there, along with Jaromír Jágr just a year after he came to Philadelphia for his NHL return. The Blackhawks counted with a wily veteran of their own in Michal Handzuš, who captured his first championship that year.

Dan Carcillo joined the trio of Kings for the 2014 party with the New York Rangers after opening the scoring in New York’s 2-1 Game 7 win over the Flyers in the first round. By far the happiest Flyers fans likely were to see one of their own win it all was when Kimmo Timonen capped his tremendous career on Chicago’s third championship team in six years. That denied 2010 teammates Braydon Coburn and Matt Carle on the Tampa Bay Lightning side.

We haven’t seen a Final jam-packed with Flyers until 2026, the first time since then with more than two Flyers. In fact, from 2016 to 2021, only in 2018 (Pierre-Éduoard Bellemare and Luca Sbisa) were there multiple representatives. Dainius Zubrus and Harry Zolnierczyk kept the streak alive in 2016 and 2017. Brayden Schenn in 2019 was the first former Flyer to win the Stanley Cup since Timonen and Sharp, and then brother Luke repeated the feat in the bubble with the Lightning.

He was gone by the following season, but Tampa Bay’s opposition in the Montréal Canadiens were kind enough to acquire Erik Gustafsson from the Flyers at the trade deadline. The next year was a matchup of former bottom-six forwards in Bellemare, now with the Lightning, and the Colorado Avalanche’s Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, who had one of the Cup’s most infamous celebrations.

The Florida Panthers’ three-peat of Prince of Wales Trophies extended things on its own thanks to the presence of the one that truly got away, Sergei Bobrovsky. Nick Cousins joined him in 2023 and 2024, as did Radko Gudas in 2023 and Anthony Stolarz in 2024. And when Bobrovsky looked across to the other crease at the start of last year’s Final, he saw Calvin Pickard, one of the record-setting eight goalies the Flyers used in 2018-19. His final game as a Flyer was the last straw of the Ron Hextall era in November.

The Biggest Impacts

Of the 31 former Flyers to appear in a Stanley Cup Final since 2009, not all have made the same impact. Eighteen have their names engraved on hockey’s ultimate prize, but some drove their teams to victory (or at least closer to it) more than others.

One of the most recent faces has been one of the best on the sport’s biggest stage. Bobrovsky posted a .919 save percentage (SV%) in last season’s Final, and although his .899 SV% the year prior isn’t stellar, he secured championships both times to solidify his Hall of Fame résumé. This is the fourth straight year with a former Flyers goalie in the Stanley Cup Final, a turnaround from there being none in the prior seasons of the streak.

The last skater to play a critical role on a Cup champion was Brayden Schenn in 2019. His three goals in the St. Louis Blues’ first title were second-most in the 2019 Final, and his third-period strike in Game 7 essentially put the series out of reach.

No Flyer accounts for more Finals appearances during this stretch than Sharp with three (Williams has also been to three Finals, but one came before this streak in 2006). Unfortunately for the Orange and Black, Sharp’s best performance came at their expense, as he scored four goals and seven points against Philadelphia in 2010.

The trio of Richards, Carter and Williams up front led both Kings championships. The latter won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2014, leading L.A. with seven points in five games (three more than any other King). Carter scored the Cup-winning goal in 2012, one of a team-high four in the series, and the same amount of assists Richards had.

Among players who didn’t win, Braydon Coburn and Matt Carle played consistent roles on the 2015 Lightning team that truly ushered in a decade-plus of excellence in Tampa. Though Coburn didn’t play in the 2020 Final, he played enough during the regular season for his name to be engraved on the Cup.

How Long Can It Last?

If this year’s conference finals had gone the other way, this streak would be on its deathbed. Neither the Canadiens nor the Colorado Avalanche had any former Flyers on their rosters, but a matchup between those two wasn’t in the cards this season. In fact, eight of this year’s playoff teams didn’t include an ex-Flyer, and another was the Flyers themselves.

Ultimately, streaks like this are largely random and trivial (which is a lot of the fun of them in the first place). A small trade or signing can set up another decade of this, or its end as soon as next season.

Watching former players compete for championships can sometimes be fun, but is often a frustrating feeling for fans. The best way to lower the odds of this continuing, of course, is by getting back to the Final. That doesn’t guarantee anything, as the 2010 portion of this article confirmed. But if you win, nobody will care whether it extends or not.