The former Capitals forward is now a two-time Stanley Cup champion.
The Vegas Golden Knights are the 2023 Stanley Cup champions, and a lot of it is thanks to one of the Washington Capitals that denied them of their first title back in 2018: Chandler Stephenson.
Stephenson picked up an assist as Vegas got a hat trick from Mark Stone -- who had a point in each game this series -- and three assists from Jack Eichel, as well as additional goals from Alec Martinez, Reilly Smith, Nicolas Hague, Ivan Barbashev and Nico Roy en route to a dominant 9-3 victory on Tuesday, which secured the championship in a five-game Finals series.
The win made Stephenson just the second member of the 2017-18 Washington championship team to win another Cup since then, and he's also won both in Vegas. He joins Andre Burakovsky, who won his second title with the Colorado Avalanche just a season ago.
Stephenson has broken out since being traded to Vegas for a 2021 fifth-round pick back in 2019. Washington used that selection to draft German center Haakon Hanelt.
Over the last two seasons with the Golden Knights, Stephenson has put up back-to-back 60-point seasons. He finished these playoffs with 19 points in 22 games, including two goals and three assists for six points in five games in the Stanley Cup Finals.
In addition to Stephenson, six original Golden Knights who fell to the Capitals in that first Finals appearance got to hoist the Cup: Smith, Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, Shea Theodore, Brayden McNabb and William Carrier.
The Capitals have just six of the team's winners remaining on the team to this day: Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Tom Wilson, Evgeny Kuznetsov and John Carlson.
Now, Stephenson will see his name appear on the coveted trophy a second time and get another memorable day with the Cup. In 2018, he took it to the city of Humboldt to honor and pay tribute to the fallen Broncos team.
Former Capitals general manager George McPhee also won his first Stanley Cup as the Knights' president of hockey operations.
Radko Gudas, another former Washington player, also appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals as one of the Panthers' most physical presences and relied-upon defensemen. Gudas, who had been acquired in 2019 for Cup-winning defenseman Matt Niskanen, had three assists in 21 games this postseason.