16 Sleepers: A potential surprise hero for every 2024 Stanley Cup playoff team

Part of what makes the Stanley Cup playoffs so enthralling: their sheer unpredictability. Seemingly every spring, something happens that no one sees coming. That might involve a team, such as the Florida Panthers last season. It can also involve an individual performance. Goaltender Adin Hill, for instance, wasn’t even starting for the Vegas Golden Knights when the 2023 playoffs began, and we know how things ended up.

Who might be the surprise hero of the 2024 postseason? We present to you our 16 Sleepers, one potential surprise savior for each franchise competing for the Cup.

Boston Bruins: Pat Maroon

How far can the human Rabbit’s Foot take you? Merely placing Maroon on your team ups your odds of winning. He nabbed three consecutive Stanley Cups between 2018-19 and 2020-21 across two different teams and brings valuable experience to the Bruins room as someone who knows what sacrifices must be made to win it all. He has six career game-winning goals in the playoffs, including a series clincher in overtime as a St. Louis Blue during their 2019 title run. Maroon, a hulking 6-foot-3 and 234 pounds, should be a sneaky-important piece during the Bruins’ first-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. If Ryan Reaves tries to intimidate anyone, Maroon can answer the bell, and he can also soften up Toronto’s big, physical blueliners with his bludgeoning hits. – MATT LARKIN

Carolina Hurricanes: Evgeny Kuznetsov

Kuznetsov was one of the more surprising trade deadline additions this season, as not many people expected his contract to be moved at all, never mind to a Cup contender. But the Hurricanes were willing to take a flier on the Russian, and it isn’t completely out of left field. Just two seasons ago, he had 78 points in 79 games and five points in six playoff games, along with an impressive 32 points in 24 playoff games during the Caps’ Stanley Cup run in 2018. Age, along with on and off-ice issues, haven’t been kind to Kuznetsov, but if the Canes can get something – anything – out of him, that’s just some more depth scoring for a team that has always struggled to score come playoff time. – SCOTT MAXWELL

Colorado Avalanche: Sean Walker

Walker has been excellent for Colorado since getting traded from Philadelphia, recording six points in 17 games while playing 17:48 a night on the team’s second pairing. The Avs brought in the 29-year-old to add toughness, block shots and produce the odd splash of offense while strengthening the team’s blueline depth. Standing alongside Josh Manson, he’s done all of that and then some. Walker won’t get the praise Cale Makar or Devon Toews will, but if the Avs go far, Walker could prove to be as valuable as Manson was when they acquired him ahead of the 2022 Cup run. – STEVEN ELLIS

Dallas Stars: Craig Smith

My first instinct was to say Logan Stankoven, but Smith’s been so good for Dallas down the stretch. He has nine points in 17 games dating back to March 1, which is nearly half his season-long production. All of it has come at 5-on-5 while averaging just over 10 minutes a night on the Stars’ fourth line, which shows just how good the team’s scoring depth is. He’s energetic, works hard around the net, deflects shots and throws hits – all of which are valuable traits heading into the playoffs. He’s far from the middle-six scoring threat he was during his Nashville days, but he’s got plenty of playoff experience and still knows how to add the odd goal. – STEVEN ELLIS

Edmonton Oilers: Evander Kane

How could a $5 million player who always seems to be the center of attention be a sleeper pick? It kind of felt like Kane sleepwalked through a chunk of the regular season. Yes, he finished with 24 goals, which was just about career average, and good for fourth on the team behind Zach Hyman, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. Kane also went 21 consecutive games without a goal from Feb. 21 to April 3. Here’s the thing: Kane may be the Oilers’ X-factor for their whole playoff run. He can be that impactful. Remember two years ago when he first arrived in Edmonton with a lot to prove? Kane led the entire postseason in scoring with 13 goals – which is something because the Oilers were eight wins short on the quest for 16. Last year, he was banged up against Vegas, which made the Oilers a little more one dimensional and helped contribute to their second-round loss. If the Oilers want to go deep, Kane will need to find another gear. — FRANK SERAVALLI

Florida Panthers: Nick Cousins

Remember that anonymous player poll this past winter in which 28.57 percent of the league voted Cousins “the guy whose face you want to punch?” Few players get under opponents’ skin better than he can. With Carter Verhaeghe back from injury and Florida’s top-six forward group stacked, Cousins lurks on Florida’s fourth line, but don’t forget how nicely he fit alongside Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk on the second line last postseason. If the Panthers’ top six finds itself in a funk, expect Paul Maurice to “break glass in case of emergency” and reunite the bullying trio. Cousins is one of the few players in the league who can singlehandedly change the emotional tone of a series – whether he’s playing on the right side of the line or the wrong side. – MATT LARKIN

Los Angeles Kings: Viktor Arvidsson

The ‘Arvy Party’ has been on hold in L.A. for much of the current season. Arvidsson spent the first few months of the year on long-term injured reserve while recovering from back surgery and only made his season debut on Feb. 15. Since then, he’s looked quite a bit like his old self, racking up four goals and 12 points in 17 games. When he’s at his best, Arvidsson is as good a second-line winger as you’ll find in this league. His lengthy absence opened up a bit of an opportunity for guys like Quinton Byfield and Trevor Moore to take steps forward — and now that Arvidsson’s back, he’ll be a luxury for this team. If these Kings want to get past the Oilers, Canucks, and Golden Knights, they’ll need players like Arvidsson to go nuclear in the early rounds. – MIKE GOULD

Nashville Predators: Tommy Novak

Man, did David Poile ever make the right bet on which cards to hold and fold when it came to surprising breakout Predators. Tanner Jeannot scored 24 goals out of the clear blue sky in 2021-22. Tommy Novak poured in 17 in 2022-23. Poile kept Novak and parlayed Jeannot into first, second, third, fourth and fifth round picks from Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, Novak has just kept scoring. He will be making his Stanley Cup playoff debut this weekend, so we are wading into a bit of the unknown, but there is every reason to expect Novak will continue to be a clutch scorer. He followed up his 17-goal season with 18 this year. And for a player who never had more than 11 in one stint in the minors, Novak has proven he can be a high-percentage shooter who can do damage in the NHL. — FRANK SERAVALLI

New York Rangers: Alexis Lafreniere

When the Rangers made their run to the Eastern Conference Final two seasons ago, it wasn’t just because of their goaltending or the play of their top stars. It was also due to the Kid Line, which saw Filip Chytil, Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko dominate their minutes on the third line to make the Rangers difficult to match up against up front. Chytil will be lucky to get into any playoff games this season, and Kakko will probably never become the player many expected him to be, but Lafreniere is finally starting to play up to the level that many expected from him with 28 goals and 57 points this season. If he’s able to play to that level in the playoffs, or even take a step further, it could make the Rangers all the more dangerous to face. – SCOTT MAXWELL

New York Islanders: Pierre Engvall

I’ll always go to bat for this Swedish giraffe. This year saw Engvall have his least productive full season since joining the NHL, but he was still close to 30 points on the year and had at least 10 goals for the third straight season. Some of his down season can be attributed to the fact the Islanders are a low-offense team, but he also had the worst shooting-percentage among forwards this season. That should certainly go back to normal at some point, so maybe for the Islanders sake, it’s in the playoffs. On top of that, he’s consistently good defensively, making him the perfect player for a third-line role to both shut down the other team’s weapons and go the other way and create some offense himself. He has consistently struggled in the playoffs, only getting his first goal last year, so ideally he’s due for a turnaround. If he can find a way to get his playoff game into gear, he’s an excellent depth scorer to help the Isles during any upset in the playoffs, while still being able to play that Isles shutdown style. – SCOTT MAXWELL

Tampa Bay Lightning: Anthony Duclair

How Duclair continues to be overlooked and undervalued in his career is baffling, but the Lightning struck gold when they landed him for just a third-round pick and Jack Thompson at the trade deadline. He’s fit like a glove in Tampa, with eight goals and 15 points in 17 games as the perfect complementary piece to Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point on the top line. He’s also coming off a solid playoff performance last year during the Panthers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final with four goals and 11 points in 20 games, so he has that experience factor that oozes out of this Lightning roster. Should he keep up that play, he could provide quite the “bang for your buck” value to a Tampa squad that has taken some big cap casualties after their past Cup wins. – SCOTT MAXWELL

Toronto Maple Leafs: Connor Dewar

The Leafs’ penalty kill is the second-weakest of any team to qualify for the playoffs this season at 76.9 percent. But it did improve down the stretch, partially thanks to trade deadline addition Dewar. Speedy and tenacious, he’s one of the better penalty-killing forwards in the league and an occasional threat to burn an opposing power play, as evidenced by his three shorthanded goals last season with the Minnesota Wild. If the Leafs’ PK can operate even at a C+ or B- level in the postseason, they will be a threat given their offensive strengths. Dewar is essential to that happening. – MATT LARKIN

Vancouver Canucks: Dakota Joshua

There was a poignant moment in training camp when Joshua was called out directly by coach Rick Tocchet. Everyone had assumed, of course, that Dakota Joshua would make the team – probably even Joshua himself. And it’s not that it was ever in doubt, but Tocchet was clear: He needed to see more. Tocchet was a believer in Joshua – and more importantly, Joshua got the message. He was a critical cog for the Canucks this season. They went 9-7-2 without him in the lineup and 40-16-7 with him. Joshua racked up a career-best 18-goal season (in 63 games!) that not only put him on the map and earned him a (likely) big raise this summer – but it put the rest of the league on notice. Expect that notice to be served to an even larger audience these playoffs. — FRANK SERAVALLI

Vegas Golden Knights: Logan Thompson

Last year, Thompson didn’t get a chance to make his mark during the Golden Knights’ long playoff run. The up-and-coming goaltender suffered a lower-body injury late in the 2022–23 regular season and didn’t make a single appearance in the postseason. In the end, Vegas didn’t really need him: Adin Hill and Laurent Brossoit held the fort throughout the spring as the Golden Knights captured their first Stanley Cup championship. This time around, Thompson could get more of a chance to shine. The Calgary-born netminder has started the majority of the games for Vegas this season as Hill has missed time with various injuries. Hill is 19-11-2 with a .910 save percentage; Thompson is 25-14-5 with a .908. The Golden Knights wouldn’t have won it all last year if not for both of their goaltenders. The same could very easily ring true this season. – MIKE GOULD

Washington Capitals: Aliaksei Protas

Protas is an enormous Belarusian forward with untapped upside. Having only just turned 23 in January, Protas finished his first full NHL season with six goals and 29 points in 78 games with the Capitals. The 6’6″ Protas is capable of slotting in both at center and wing and currently plays on the left side of Washington’s second line with Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson. The Capitals are clearly huge believers in the 2019 third-round pick, having signed him to a hefty five-year extension carrying a $3.375 million AAV back on Jan. 19. Although it’ll be a big surprise if the Capitals are able to get past the New York Rangers in the first round, Protas is the kind of player who routinely pops — seemingly out of nowhere — under the bright lights. – MIKE GOULD

Winnipeg Jets: Vladislav Namestnikov

Finding consistency has been difficult for Namestnikov over the past few years. He has played for seven teams since the start of 2019-20. But he’s been a great addition to Winnipeg’s bottom six since getting acquired from Tampa Bay last year, giving the team a legit scoring threat on the fourth line. Namestnikov has 11 goals and 37 points in 78 games this year while averaging just 14:28 of ice time. Deeper down, his 13.4 goals above replacement and 2.2 wins above replacement are good for second on the Jets, and he’s third in assists-per-60 at 5-on-5 with 1.41. If the Jets need someone deeper in the lineup to step up and produce in spurts, Namestnikov’s their guy. – STEVEN ELLIS

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