Six NHL Veterans Without a Stanley Cup and One Year Left On Their Deals

Around the league, there are plenty of players nearing the twilight of their careers who have yet to win a cup. Amongst them are six veterans with just one year left on their deal, but would they jump ship for a better shot at the Cup?

Speaking on the Coming In Hot Podcast, NHL veteran Claude Giroux said he hasn’t given much thought or talked with the Ottawa Senators about a new contract. 

Wanting to focus on the season and likely looking to keep his options open in the event the Senators’ season takes another negative turn, Giroux is the kind of player who could be useful at or around the 2025 NHL trade deadline to a contender.

He’s not the only long-time NHL player who has yet to win a Stanley Cup. A handful of experienced NHLers and leaders want a shot as their careers wind down. Here are some of them with one year left on their contracts and whether their best shots at a Cup are with their current teams or potentially somewhere else.

Speaking of Giroux, he tops the list as someone worth watching. He’s been a solid player for the Senators since he arrived in 2022, but the team hasn’t exactly lived up to their end of the bargain, failing to make the playoffs or go on the run most insiders had predicted was coming as the team took steps towards improving their roster and contending. How long is the 36-year-old willing to wait?

Giroux spent 15 seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers before they started rebuilding and he signed with Ottawa. He’s making $6.5 million in the final year of his current deal and on a salary retained trade, adding a 60-75 point forward at $3.25 million might be a move a contender makes.

If he doesn’t win this season, he may look to sign a team-friendly deal with one of many contenders in the summer of 2026.

From everything we know about John Tavares, he has no desire to play anywhere but Toronto. That said, the Maple Leafs continue to fall short of expectations, Tavares hasn’t won a Stanley Cup, and there is talk that the Leafs might want to move on.

Tavares is coming off an $11-million per season contract and there’s no way he makes that much on a new deal. He’s still tremendously productive, but he’s not worth that much, and the Leafs certainly don’t have that kind of money to keep spending, even if they contend this year and want to retain him. Would another team be willing to give Tavares between $5 million and $6 million and a shot to win the Cup? Would Tavares jump at it? He might.

That’s more money than most on this list will make, but it still might be good value if a contender has a little extra cap space. He’s also the youngest player on this list at age 33. That means he’ll get more than the others.

Jamie Benn is not the player he once was, but he’s still a 20-goal forward who has yet to win a Stanley Cup as a member of the Dallas Stars. Their team has come close — most notably their Cup final appearance in 2020 — and they’re still solid. Are they solid enough? Some would argue yes, so it’s as fair to suggest he’ll look at the Stars more than anyone else.

Benn will be coming off a contract that sees him as a $9.5-million cap hit to Dallas, and he’s inevitably going to have to take a lot less than that regardless of where he plays. If the Stars aren’t the club he thinks can win it all, would the 35-year-old jump to a different organization and sign a one-year, team-friendly deal to add some grit and size to their lineup in a lesser role? It’s hard to see Benn in another uniform, but there has been trade talk in the past during his career and it feels like we’ve seen a lot of players like locations no one ever imagined they would.

Defenseman Brent Burns has played on some very solid hockey teams, spending years with the contending San Jose Sharks and then going over to the Carolina Hurricanes in a trade. Both teams got close but never could reach the mountaintop. Burns is now 39 years old and he might be the latest to bail on the Hurricanes, a trend that seemed to start this offseason.

The Canes lost Brady Skjei, Jake Guentzel, and Brett Pesce, among others. They did what they could to replace them and they aren’t throwing in the towel, but more than a few insiders don’t expect them to be a Cup-contender lock like they’ve been for years. 

This one might be about what Carolina does out of the gate. If they’re playoff contenders all season and make a run, he’s not going anywhere. If they take a huge step backward, Burns is older and he’s got lots left in the tank. He might see the writing on the wall and wonder if those who left were onto something.

Brock Nelson is a productive forward playing on an often underwhelming New York Islanders team. That group has made runs in the past, but consistency has been their issue. In 2025, Nelson will be a pending UFA coming off of a $6-million cap hit. Depending on the kind of season he has, he could be a big fish in free agency looking for his last big contract or he could sign a shorter-term deal with a contender at a reasonable cap hit.

He scored 34, 36, and 37 goals in each of the last three seasons. This is not a player who will be taking a huge discount to sign somewhere. That said, he’s played 11 seasons with the Islanders and a total of 78 playoff games. How important is it to him that he signs in a place he thinks he can contend? And, how much is a contending team with some cap room willing to pay for a 30-goal guy?

Despite his whopping 937 career regular season games, defenseman Jeff Petry has played all of 48 playoff games. There’s an argument that he hasn't got much left to give, and he could see the biggest salary dropoff of any player on this list, but if he wants to play on a contender, he’ll need to be okay with a lesser role and a lot less money compared to his current $6.25-million per year deal.

Petry spent seasons with the Oilers, Canadiens, Red Wings, and Penguins. He’s 36 years old and a right-shot. Next season might be one of his last chances to take a run at a Cup if a Cup-contending team will have him.