Top 10 Active NHL Players With The Longest Playoff Droughts
By Jack Sponagle, The Hockey News Intern
Jeff Skinner's streak of 1,078 games without making thepost-season is over, as he has played one playoff game with the Edmonton Oilers this spring. Ron Hainsey used to have the record of 907 games before he finally gotinto the 2016-17 playoffs with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and then went all theway to a Stanley Cup victory.
While both of those droughts were long, at least theycame to an end. That wasn't the case for Guy Charron, who saw action in 734 NHLgames in the 1970s and early 1980s with the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit RedWings, Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals and never once made it intothe post-season.
Here are the 10 active NHL players with the most gamesplayed without ever making the playoffs.
With Skinner's 1,000-plus game drought over, thehard-hitting Philadelphia Flyers blueliner is now the league leader in thisunfortunate stat. He has played in the NHL for 12seasons, eight with the Buffalo Sabres and four with the Flyers.
The Buffalo Sabres defenseman – and No. 1 overall draftpick in 2018 – made the jump to the NHL at age 18. He's now 25 and stillwaiting to see post-season play. The Sabres lastmade the playoffs in 2010-11, when Dahlin was 11.
The third consecutive player to have ties with theSabres, Thompson was traded to Buffalo by the St. Louis Blues in the deal thatsent Ryan O'Reilly the other way. O'Reilly helped lead the Blues to thefranchise's first Cup. Thompson, meanwhile, hasn't played in the first roundyet.
The 27-year old University of Denver product is 73 gamesaway from his 500th outing without his chase for Lord Stanley's Cup ever reallystarting. Terry has been with the Anaheim Ducks for all eight of his seasons inthe NHL, but has yet to appear in the post-season.
Ferraro is another veteran player on another strugglingCalifornia team. The San Jose Sharks haven't made the playoffs since 2018-19,and Ferraro played his first game with the Sharks the following season.
The final player on this list to have spent time inBuffalo is Jokiharju, who's now with the Boston Bruins. The defenseman spentsix seasons with the Sabres after one year with the Chicago Blackhawks. He wasdealt to the Bruins at this year's trade deadline, and the team failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16.
The ninth-overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft is a memberof a Red Wings team that has missed out on the playoffs for the ninth-straightyear. Rasmussen has been with the team for six of those seasons.
The 25-year-old Swede is still relatively early in hiscareer, which has been entirely spent with the Ducks. His teammates, TrevorZegras (268 games) and Mason McTavish (229 games) are both headed for spots onthis list if Anaheim can't turn in some positive results.
Lundestrom's countryman Raymond is another young,promising forward who has yet to get a crack at the playoffs. He's an importantcog in the Red Wings' machine, as one of many promising young players that Detroithas picked up in the last nine years of being in the draft lottery.
The final player to crack the top 10 is the 25-year-old Blackhawks center. A fourth-round choice in 2018, the Swiss native has featured in over300 matches with the Hawks, none coming after the regular season's 82nd game.He edges out Calgary's Morgan Frost (310) and Blackhawks teammate Joe Veleno(306). Perhaps not the honor he would most want to have.
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