The NHL playoffs are among the most unpredictable in pro sports, and in most seasons, at least one lower-seeded team makes a surprisingly deep run that feels like it comes out of nowhere. Every single spring, at least one team rises from nowhere to shock everyone.
These are not flukes or lucky bounces alone. They are full, memorable playoff runs where absolutely nobody saw them coming. The teams on this list rewrote history and left the entire hockey world completely speechless.
Read on and discover the Stanley Cup runs nobody ever saw coming.
When last place became champions
The Blues went from worst in the NHL to Stanley Cup champions in one season. On January 2, 2019, the St. Louis Blues held the worst record in the entire NHL with just 34 points total. Their head coach had been fired. Nobody believed they could actually survive the season.
Yet they turned it around in spectacular fashion. A 30-10-5 run pushed them into the playoffs, where they beat Winnipeg, Dallas, and San Jose before defeating Boston in a seven-game Stanley Cup Final to claim their first championship.
A brand new team in the finals
Vegas proved that a first-year team could compete with the very best.
The Vegas Golden Knights entered the NHL as a brand-new expansion team in 2017. Most experts predicted a rough rebuilding year with few wins. Instead, they finished first in their division with 109 points.
They went 12-3 through the first three rounds and reached the Stanley Cup Final in their very first NHL season. Marc-Andre Fleury posted a .947 save percentage. Washington ultimately beat them in five thrilling games.
The underdog Oilers, Edmonton’s 2006 miracle run
An eighth seed walked into Detroit and shocked the entire hockey world.
The 2006 Edmonton Oilers barely squeaked into the playoffs as the eighth seed with just 95 points. Their first round opponent was the Detroit Red Wings, who had finished the regular season with 124 points.
Edmonton shocked the Red Wings in six games and rolled past both Anaheim and San Jose, too. They pushed Carolina all the way to a deciding Game 7 in one of hockey’s most breathtaking runs.
The coaching changes that sparked championship runs
Sometimes, firing a coach midseason is the boldest and best decision a franchise can ever make.
Five Stanley Cup winners since 2000 have fired their coach midseason and still won it all. Both the 2019 Blues and the 2012 Kings made that bold move and went on to lift the Stanley Cup.
Mike Sullivan took over the Pittsburgh Penguins in December 2015 and won back-to-back Cups in 2016 and 2017. That proved a new coach can be the only spark a lost team truly needs.
Fun fact: Dan Bylsma replaced the Penguins’ fired coach in 2009 with just 25 games left in the season. He lifted the Stanley Cup in only 49 total games behind the bench.
The first 8-seed champion
The Kings became the most unlikely champions in North American sports history. They needed their very final regular-season game just to clinch a postseason spot. No analyst predicted what followed.
The Kings beat the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks four games to one and never slowed down after. They became the first No. 8 seed in NHL history, and the first from a major North American pro sports league, to win a championship, finishing the playoffs 16–4.
Why the NHL playoffs breed upsets like no other sport
The NHL is simply built differently, and the numbers back that up.
Unlike basketball or baseball, hockey playoff series are decided by razor-thin margins every single night. A scorching hot goaltender can steal an entire series alone. Low seeds genuinely thrive here more than anywhere else.
Historically, most No. 8 seeds lose in the first round, with upset wins happening roughly a quarter to a third of the time. The 2012 Kings defied that completely in stunning fashion. Their championship remains the gold standard for underdog success in all of professional sports.
The power of goaltending in Cinderella stories
Jordan Binnington took his very first NHL start in January 2019 and went on to win 24 games that season. Jonathan Quick posted a 1.41 goals against average in the Kings’ historic 2012 playoff run.
Marc-Andre Fleury recorded four shutouts and a near-perfect save percentage across three playoff rounds for Vegas in 2018. Dwayne Roloson guided Edmonton brilliantly before his run ended with a knee injury in Game 1.
The role of belief and team chemistry
Sometimes one song or one moment can change everything for a team.
Fun fact: The Blues adopted the song Gloria as their anthem after several players heard it in a Philadelphia bar in January 2019. That one moment united a locker room that was completely written off by every hockey expert.
Vegas was built largely from players that other NHL teams chose not to protect in the expansion draft, plus a handful of strategic trades and signings. Edmonton in 2006 played with nothing to lose. That freedom became each team’s single greatest competitive weapon.
What these runs teach us about hockey
In hockey, the regular season only tells you part of the story.
The NHL playoffs do not reward the most talented roster on paper. They reward the hottest team at precisely the right time. Peaking in April and May always matters far more than dominating in November.
Fans and analysts will keep getting surprised every single spring because the NHL is simply built that way. Goaltending variance, parity, and lucky bounces make every playoff a blank slate for the next miracle story.
TL;DR
- The 2019 St. Louis Blues went from dead last in the entire NHL on January 2 to Stanley Cup champions in June, the greatest single-season reversal in league history.
- The 2012 Los Angeles Kings became the first No. 8 seed in NHL history, and the first from a major North American pro league, to win a championship, going 16-4 in the playoffs.
- The 2018 Vegas Golden Knights, a first-year expansion team given 500-to-1 odds, reached the Stanley Cup Final in their very first season of NHL play.
- The 2006 Edmonton Oilers knocked off the 124-point Detroit Red Wings as an eighth seed and pushed all the way to a deciding Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
This article was made with AI assistance and human editing.
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