Dubbed the “Roadrunner” for his small frame and blazing speed, Yvan Cournoyer played his entire career with the Montreal Canadians and won a whopping eight Stanley Cups. Cournoyer was not just a participant in those excellent Habs teams but was one of its stars.

One of the best New York Rangers of all time, Rod Gilbert may never have drank from the Stanley Cup, but the career long Ranger was a consistent producer on Broadway and a regular at the annual All Star game. Gilbert’s best seasons came in the early 70’s, when New York was icing a good team (the teams in the mid 60’s were not particularly good) and he was on a line with Jean Ratelle and Vic Hadfield where the GAG (Goal a Game) Line, which became one of the most feared in the NHL. The Rangers still did not win the Cup, but they were bona fide contenders and Gilbert posted his best offensive statistics during this period. Gilbert was named as the second greatest New York Ranger of All time, and if you hold that spot in any Original Six roster, you should be considered a Hall of Fame player. 

Although Norm Ullman never won a Stanley Cup, it was not because he didn’t give everything he had as shown by him being the leading scorer in the playoffs twice. That was no surprise as Ullman was always a good scorer and had sixteen seasons where he at least put the puck in the net twenty times, and he did win the goal scoring title in 1965. Eight times, Ullman would finish in the top ten in scoring and would retire with 1,221 points (and 130 in the WHA). Had he not been in the shadow of more famous teammates, our bet is that Norm Ullman would be a bigger name today.

A former backup NHL Goaltender (he played in 95 games), Emile Francis played in the minors before moving on to coaching. Francis would work his way to the New York Rangers system and eventually took over the helm for New York and coached that team to their best record in decades. He would also take over as the team’s General Manager and would follow suit with the same role for the St. Louis Blues, turning them into a serious contender. As respected as Francis was as a Coach and a GM, it should be noted that he never won a Stanley Cup in those roles. Should he not have won at least one, before he got selected to the Hall of Fame, as building a Stanley Cup contender in large and mid-size markets is not as hard as doing it in a smaller one? Just a thought.