Lifting the NHL's Stanley Cup is one of the hardest accomplishments in sports to achieve. A team has to win 16 games in a maximum of 28 tries. That would mean two teams (the finalists) could potentially play up to an additional 34 percent of the season.
The other great thing about the NHL's postseason is the fact that the best teams in the regular season aren't guaranteed to breeze through the bracket. Sometimes it's just the hottest team entering the playoffs that goes all the way.
In the modern era of the NHL, the league has altered the format of the playoffs to allow more teams to participate and shift the seeding to favor division winners. That's caused more opportunity for wild cards to take full advantage of a more level playing surface.
Top 10 underdogs to win the Stanley Cup
1967 Toronto Maple Leafs
This was the last time the Toronto Maple Leafs earned the honor of being crowned NHL champions. The Maple Leafs have been searching ever since for a title, and they may need to topple one of the top seeds this season just as the 1967 team did.
Granted, that squad played in the Original Six era, in which only four teams qualified for the playoffs. No. 3 seed Toronto upset the top-seeded Chicago Blackhawks in the semifinals in six games, then defeated No. 2 seed Montreal in the final in another six-game affair.
2015 Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks may have finished third in the Central Division, but they were just three points from missing out on the playoffs altogether. That's how tight the Western Conference was in 2015.
Chicago pulled off three series upsets on its way to lifting its third Stanley Cup in the past six seasons, solidifying a modern dynasty once thought improbable given the franchise's poor prior postseason history. Most notably, the Blackhawks downed the Western Conference-leading Anaheim Ducks in the conference finals and then the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final, a team that finished with six more standings points during the regular season.
2011 Boston Bruins
This Boston Bruins team wasn't a traditional underdog in the sense that it defeated multiple higher seeds to reach the NHL's mountaintop. Instead, their status here is based on the fact that they entered the Stanley Cup Final as the East's No. 3 seed and had to take on the juggernauts that were the President's Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks out of the West.
Boston went down 2-0 and 3-2 in the series but answered each time to tie things and send the final to a winner-take-all Game 7. While on the road in Vancouver, the Bruins shut out the Canucks 4-0 to win the franchise's first Stanley Cup title since 1972.
2014 Los Angeles Kings
This squad established its own dynasty, following up the franchise's greatest achievement just two years prior (keep scrolling for that) with another cup. Los Angeles, a No. 3 seed, pulled off the upset in each series it played during the 2014 postseason before lifting the Stanley Cup for the second time in three years.
The Kings won three consecutive seven-game series: first against No. 2 seed San Jose, then No. 1 seed Anaheim and then the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks. They won each Game 7 on the road before heading to the finals and toppling the No. 2 seed New York Rangers in a dramatic Game 5 double-overtime thriller.
2009 Pittsburgh Penguins
The Penguins entered the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's No. 4 seed, and once they battled their way to the final, they had to get through an old foe: the Detroit Red Wings, the team that had denied them the Stanley Cup just one year prior.
The Penguins went down 2-0 and 3-2 in the series before climbing back each time. They finally reclaimed the Cup after winning Game 7 and ending Detroit's run of dominance (the Red Wings haven't been back to the final since).
2000 New Jersey Devils
After lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history in 1995, the Devils returned to the final after upsetting some of the hottest squads in the league in 2000. New Jersey won three straight playoff series in which it was the lower seed on its way to lifting the club's second Stanley Cup.
The Devils defeated No. 3 seed Toronto and top-seeded Philadelphia before having to face the defending champion Dallas Stars. The title-clinching goal came in double-overtime of Game 6 in which New Jersey's Jason Arnott buried the puck and completed one of the most iconic playoff runs in NHL history.
2018 Washington Capitals
Despite winning the Metropolitan Division and finishing as the Eastern Conference's No. 2 seed, Washington entered the 2018 playoffs as a serious underdog by reputation alone. The two previous seasons had seen the team earn the President's Trophy only to fall short in the second round each time. Combined with playoff failures in each of the nine seasons prior, it seemed like Washington was cursed to never lift Lord Stanley's Cup after also falling four wins short in 1998.
But in 2018, without the President's Trophy curse hanging over its neck, Washington vanquished its demons and claimed the title for the first time in franchise history. Regardless of seeding, it was one of the greatest underdog and redemption stories the NHL has ever seen.
1995 New Jersey Devils
Like the 2000 team above, the Devils hardly had the easiest path to the Stanley Cup Final. Before lifting the Cup for the first time in franchise history in 1995, the Eastern Conference's No. 5 seed pulled off upsets in each of the four playoff series it participated in.
New Jersey toppled the No. 4 seed Boston Bruins, No. 3 seed Pittsburgh Penguins and No. 2 seed Philadelphia Flyers before ultimately sweeping the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings. That was a shock to the NHL world, as Detroit was considered the clear favorite to claim its first title since 1955 ā but instead that 40-year quest was delayed by one season.
2019 St. Louis Blues
Fans can't take St. Louis' 2019 title at face value based on its seeding. Exiting the All-Star break that season, the Blues were well outside of the playoff field but stormed into it as one of the hottest teams in the league.
While that form perhaps wouldn't qualify it as an underdog per se, the team's status as a playoff outsider-turned-champion is worthy of this list. The Blues also upset each opponent they faced in the four series they played in. It took a massive Game 7 effort in the Stanley Cup Final ā ironically against the Boston Bruins, which robbed the franchise of its first title way back in 1970 (i.e., the Bobby Orr goal) ā for St. Louis to finally reach the NHL mountaintop.
2012 Los Angeles Kings
Arguably one of the greatest wild card performances in sports history, the 2012 Los Angeles Kings took the NHL by storm in the playoffs. They entered the field as the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference (No. 14 overall) but got hot when it mattered most.
The Stanley Cup Final that season was a matchup of underdogs, with the No. 6 seed New Jersey Devils being Los Angeles' opposition. The Kings won that series in six games, becoming the first No. 8 seed to win the Stanley Cup in NHL history. Only one other No. 8 had even reached the final before them (the 2006 Edmonton Oilers).