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NHL NHL Playoffs Erik Karlsson's beard may not be as grey as other veterans on this list, but he makes for a great story as an OGWAC. Michael Reaves / Getty Images It’s OGWAC time, as we celebrate one of the best running subplots of any NHL postseason: The Old Guy Without a Cup. That grizzled veteran who’s done it all over a long career, but has yet to get their name on the sport’s most hallowed trophy. Can they finally win the big one? Will they run out of time? Will they get the first pass from the team captain, and if so, will they cry? Will we all cry? Advertisement You know the drill. The greatest OGWAC story ever told was Ray Bourque back in 2001. Teemu Selanne’s was pretty great. So was Lanny Mc Donald way back in 1989. Then again, we’ve spent years pumping the tires of OGWAC legends like Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski, and they never got their happy endings. Nothing is promised in OGWAC world. Our criteria for being “old” remains the same as past years: An old player will be at least 33 years old when the Cup is awarded, and must have at least ten seasons of NHL experience. The older the better, and that’s especially true if the player has had some agonizing near-misses in their history. Ideally, our candidates will be playing an important role for a team with a legitimate shot at winning it all. We’ll try to work in a candidate for as many teams as we can, and we’ll limit ourselves to a max of three picks from any individual team. We’ll start at 20 and work our way down to year’s best OGWAC. We said we’d try to get to as many teams as possible, and Dowd is our only option in Vegas. (According to his birth certificate, Mitch Marner is still an OGWAC in spirit only. ) Dowd is in his 11th season and is about to turn 36, and has never been out of the second round. Worse, he’s had a tendency to show up just a bit late to a Cup-winning party, debuting in Los Angeles two years after their two titles and then getting to Washington the year after they won theirs. He’s a relatively young OGWAC, in just his 11th season, but with Ian Cole and Nate Schmidt already having Cups, Tanev is our only option in Utah. He’s been on some good teams over the years, including last year’s Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets, but hasn’t been past the conference final yet. A classic “Oh right, he’s on that team” guy, which is an underrated subgenre of OGWAC narrative. He’s just turned 33, but he’s been to the final with both the Nashville Predators and Edmonton Oilers. He’s trying his luck in the Eastern Conference this time, and was an underrated part of the Bruins’ surprise season. He and Sean Kuraly are our only options in Boston, and it’s hard to rank them all that high given the Bruins’ underdog status. Advertisement I only have room for one Oiler, which is tough because they have a league-leading seven guys who qualify. That list includes Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who’ll serve as this year’s annual “guy whose newfound OGWAC status makes us all feel really old. ” In the end, I think Edmonton’s spot comes down to Henrique or Mattias Ekholm, and I went with the guy who’s been around a bit longer. Fun fact: Henrique has only been to the playoffs four times, and he’s either been swept or gone to the final each time. I triple-checked and yeah, he qualifies. At 33, Couturier is somehow already in his 14th NHL season. He’s never had an especially deep run, and hasn’t been in the postseason at all since the COVID bubble in 2020. Given some of the hurdles he’s had to get past over the years, he could become a fun story if the Flyers can pull off an unexpected run. The Wild are stacked with OGWACs, so much so that a 38-year-old Jeff Petry didn’t even come close to making their cut. Spurgeon does, thanks to 16 seasons and over 1, 000 games, all of which have been with the Wild, so you know he’s never had much in the way of playoff success. You might figure that a team as lovable as the Sabres would boast some solid candidates, but that’s not really the case. It’s still a relatively young roster, so the 34-year-old Zucker makes for a relatively easy pick over guys like Sam Carrick or Justin Danforth. If we’re being honest, the real OGWAC in Buffalo is Lindy Ruff, who’s yet to win a Cup either as a player or head coach, including a near miss in 1999 that some Sabres fans may vaguely recall. It’s OK to admit you briefly forgot about this trade, since it happened right before the big news of the Olympics being cancelled. The trade deadline OGWAC is a classic trope, and Panarin is close enough. He arrived in Chicago the year after they won their last Cup, and had some nice runs with the Rangers, but he’s never been to the final at 34. He’s not getting out of the first round this year, which is why I can’t rank him any higher despite his star power. Advertisement He’s only 33, but there are a lot of miles on the veteran of 14 seasons, enough that you wonder how many more shots he’s going to get. We don’t know how much we’ll see of him in Montreal this spring after he was a scratch down the stretch, which makes it a little tricky to call him a great OGWAC story just yet. But when he makes his inevitable return to the lineup as the inspirational old-timer, he could move up the list quickly. Goalies are always tricky in OGWAC world. For reasons we’ve never quite been able to nail down, the position doesn’t seem to lend itself to truly great OGWAC stories, with Dominik Hasek in 2002 being the only one that really stands out. Andersen is our only real option this year as far as starters go, although guys like James Reimer, Alex Lyon and Petr Mrázek could factor in. And he’s a good one, heading into his tenth playoff run as a starter at 36. He’s had some success, but also enough postseason struggles to make him an intriguing story. The Ducks are a tough team to figure out for OGWAC purposes. Nobody seems to love their odds of going on any sort of run, which makes it hard to justify giving them multiple spots on our list. That means decent candidates like Radko Gudas and Markus Granlund get passed over, but I think Kreider has to be the call here. He had plenty of close calls in ten tries with the Rangers, and winning a Cup in Anaheim while his old team crashes and burns would be a heck of a story. For this year at least, it might take a miracle. After placing near the top of last year’s rankings, Nelson becomes the rare OGWAC to move down the list. That’s for two reasons: his gold medal relieves a bit of the “can’t win the big one” pressure, and he’s no longer the top option on his own team. Still, you have to like his odds of making his first appearance in a Cup final. Everyone’s favorite tiny Norwegian has become a mainstay on this list over the years, having come as close as the Stanley Cup Final in his 16-year career. But now he’s 38 and in the last year of his contract, and … wait, are we getting close to end of the road for Zuccarello? I’m really not sure I’m ready for that. The Wild/Stars series is the top OGWAC matchup of the first round and it’s not all that close. The Duchene and Benn pairing returns to bring some star power to the Dallas side, no pun intended, along with 17 seasons apiece without a Cup. These guys both broke into the league way back in October 2009, but Benn’s trip to the 2020 bubble final is as close as either has come. Advertisement Hall’s been around forever, but only qualified for OGWAC status starting last year. This is his 16th season, and he’s seen the league from pretty much every angle — as the supposed franchise player in Edmonton, as an MVP in New Jersey, as a rental in Boston, and now as veteran depth in Carolina. Last year’s Hurricanes run was Hall’s deepest, so at least he’s trending in the right direction. OK, yes, this is cheating, since we’re cramming two names into one slot. Still, I think we can allow it. It’s not often you get to see a OBWAC act on the same team — have we had one since the Niedermayers way back when? The Foligno brothers have gone a combined 34 seasons without a Cup, and that’s before we mention that dad Mike played 15 years of his own without winning one. If the Wild win it all and the Cup goes from Spurgeon to Zuccarello to Marcus to big brother Nick, is that the greatest handoff chain ever? Discuss amongst yourselves. The Penguins are a sneaky-good OGWAC team, with newly qualified Rickard Rakell joining Kevin Hayes and Noel Acciari as options up front. But the clear pick here has to be Karlsson, one of the greatest players of his generation now finally making his return to the postseason after a seven-year absence. He’s never been to a final, but he’s come agonizingly close, most notably with the Senators back in 2017 against this very Penguins team. This is Giroux’s 11th trip to the playoffs across a 19-year career, with his nearest miss coming when he was 22 and the Flyers made it to the final in 2010. He’s yet to get back, despite a rental stint with the Florida Panthers that, in hindsight, came just a bit early. Now he’s pulling double duty as both an OGWAC and the hometown hero trying to lead his childhood team to their first championship. The Senators are long shots, but they’ve got a chance, and if they can get some momentum then Giroux’s Cup chase will be a big story. And as an added bonus, if Ottawa can upset the Hurricanes, there’s a good chance Giroux’s old Flyers team will be waiting for them in round two. The oldest player in the league is also our oldest OGWAC, and he’s well into the stage of his career where any playoff run could be his last. If this is it, it’s hard to imagine a better scenario than Burns taking regular shifts for the Cup favorite. He went to one Stanley Cup Final back in 2016 with the Sharks, and has won at least a round in each of his last five postseason appearances. Everyone expects the Avs to win at least one this year, and going four-for-four is absolutely in play. If so, Burns would have a case as the best OGWAC story of the decade. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle