12 teams have never won Stanley Cup and Canucks' drought is tied for the longest

For just the fifth time in the last 30 years, this year’s Stanley Cup Final will be played between two franchises that have never been crowned champions before: the Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights.

It means that the list of current teams that have never won a Cup, which is 12 teams long, will soon be reduced by one.

Not only are the Vancouver Canucks on that list, along with the Buffalo Sabres, they’ve been on it the longest.

The 1970 expansion cousins have never lifted Lord Stanley’s mug, despite being in the league for 53 years. Their droughts stand alone atop the list of teams that have never won.

1. Vancouver Canucks (1970)
2. Buffalo Sabres (1970)
3. Arizona Coyotes/Winnipeg Jets 1.0 (1979)
4. San Jose Sharks (1991)
5. Ottawa Senators (1992)
6. Florida Panthers (1993)
7. Nashville Predators (1998)
8. Winnipeg Jets/Atlanta Thrashers (1999)
9. Columbus Blue Jackets (2000)
10. Minnesota Wild (2000)
11. Vegas Golden Knights (2017)
12. Seattle Kraken (2021)

All 11 current franchises that have been in the NHL longer than the Canucks and Sabres have won championships. So have seven other franchises born in the 1970s, including the Calgary Flames (1972), New York Islanders (1972), New Jersey Devils (1974), Washington Capitals (1974), Edmonton Oilers (1979), Carolina Hurricanes (1979), and Colorado Avalanche (1979).

40 years of sadness in the same market is the minimum requirement. Can’t have won a Cup before at any time. https://t.co/YpZW8RHKJX

— Jason Brough 🙁 (@SadClubCommish) May 30, 2023

The Canucks are members of Jason Brough’s “sad club” and their fans have reason to be the saddest.

Seven of the 12 teams on the no-wins list have been to the Stanley Cup before, but none more than the Canucks, who have lost the Cup Final three times (1982, 1994, and 2011). The Sabres are the only other team on the list that has lost multiple Cup Final appearances, doing so in 1975 and 1999.

The Canucks are the only team on the list to have lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, which they have done twice, in 1994 and 2011.

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