NHL History: 30 best teams to not win the Stanley Cup

Every NHL season, there are a few fanbases who spend six or seven months going through the regular season and watching their team dominate. Many of them end up winning the President’s Trophy, and others just watch as one of the most talented teams in franchise history go into the playoffs with all of the momentum. Then, it all falls apart when it matters most.

Some of the best teams in history lose in the most disappointing ways possible. A team’s fanbase that was riding for six months sees it all fall apart in four to seven games. Everything that went well just doesn’t in the playoffs. Sometimes it’s actual flaws in the roster, but sometimes it’s just the Hockey Gods taking over and making everything go wrong that’s humanly possible.

In the more than 100 years of existence, some amazing NHL teams are lost in existence because their name is not currently on the Stanley Cup. There’s no wing of the Hall of Fame for the teams that “should” win it all. Only champions find a place in history.

So, this list is to find those teams that might have been considered the best of the league, but they never won the Cup. It might be a dynasty year gone wrong, or it could be a non-traditional team going all in just to fall short. Some of the best players in the history of this league are on these teams, and they lost in some of the most disappointing fashions.

There are a plethora of teams to choose from, but these 30 teams stand out. Some went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final just to disappoint everyone, while others literally couldn’t win one game in the playoffs. Which team should have won it all but didn’t?