29 CHL Alumni Take the Ice in 2026 Stanley Cup Final

The 29 CHL alumni competing in the 2026 Stanley Cup Final account for roughly half of all players in the series — more than any other development hockey league in the world.

With the 2026 Stanley Cup Final now underway between the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights, a total of 29 alumni from the Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) are competing in this year’s National Hockey League (NHL) championship series.

Together, those 29 CHL alumni account for roughly half of all players in the series, marking the highest representation of any development hockey league in the world. The Vegas Golden Knights lead the way with 19 CHL alumni on their roster, while the Carolina Hurricanes feature 10. Across the full series, 15 alumni come from the WHL, eight from the OHL, and six from the QMJHL.

The series also features CHL alumni wearing the ‘C’ on both sides, with Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL) alumnus Mark Stone captaining the Golden Knights and Peterborough Petes (OHL) graduate Jordan Staal leading the Hurricanes. Stone, the only captain Vegas has ever known, is chasing his second Stanley Cup after helping deliver the franchise’s first championship in 2023, when he became the first player in more than a century to record a hat trick in a Cup-clinching win. Staal, the longest-tenured player and captain in Hurricanes history, is also pursuing his second Stanley Cup after first winning with Pittsburgh in 2009, while looking to complete a full-circle run with the organization he joined 14 years ago.

At the club level, 25 CHL teams are represented in this year’s Stanley Cup Final, with the Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL) leading the way with three alumni in the series. Six other CHL clubs — the Barrie Colts (OHL), Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL), Kelowna Rockets (WHL), Portland Winterhawks (WHL), Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (QMJHL), and Windsor Spitfires (OHL) — each have two former players competing, while several clubs, including Barrie, Halifax, Portland, and Rouyn-Noranda, have alumni on both sides of the Final.

Since 2014, 156 of the 294 players to have had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup — 53% overall — have come through the CHL. That total includes 10 members of last year’s championship-winning Florida Panthers, who extended a dominant trend as the seventh consecutive Stanley Cup champion to feature at least 10 CHL alumni on its roster.

Over the course of the 2025-26 season, 478 alumni from the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL played at least one NHL game, accounting for 46.1% of the 1,038 players who appeared in the league — the highest share of any development league in the world. That league-wide presence was evident from the start of the season, when 402 CHL graduates were named to NHL Opening Night rosters, representing nearly half of all players across the NHL’s 32 teams.

Quick Facts:

• Having first lifted the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, Jordan Staal (Peterborough Petes / OHL) — the oldest player in the 2026 Stanley Cup Final at 37 — is aiming to become the first player in NHL history to go at least 17 years between his first and second Stanley Cup victories.
• Mark Stone (Brandon Wheat Kings / WHL) leads the 2010 NHL Draft class in career playoff points despite being selected 178th overall, ahead of a group that includes fellow CHL alumnus Taylor Hall (Windsor Spitfires / OHL), who was taken first overall that year.
• Hall, who was ranked No. 48 on the CHL’s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years list, is making his Stanley Cup Final debut nearly 16 years after being selected first overall in the 2010 NHL Draft. A two-time Memorial Cup champion with the Windsor Spitfires, Hall also remains the only player in tournament history to twice earn Memorial Cup MVP honours.
• Former London Knights (OHL) star Mitch Marner entered the Stanley Cup Final as the NHL’s leading scorer in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Marner, who led London to both OHL and Memorial Cup titles in 2015-16, is appearing in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time.
• Moncton Wildcats (QMJHL) alumnus Ivan Barbashev and Saginaw Spirit (OHL) graduate Brandon Saad are the only two-time Stanley Cup champions on either roster, with both looking to become three-time Cup winners.
• Several CHL alumni in the series already own Stanley Cup rings, including Barbashev, Saad, Stone, Adin Hill (Portland Winterhawks / WHL), Brett Howden (Moose Jaw Warriors / WHL), Keegan Kolesar (Seattle Thunderbirds / WHL), Brayden McNabb (Kootenay Ice / WHL), Shea Theodore (Seattle Thunderbirds / WHL), William Carrier (Cape Breton Eagles & Drummondville Voltigeurs  / QMJHL), and Staal.
• Staal and Carrier are Carolina’s only players who have appeared in a Stanley Cup Final before, while Vegas features a much larger group with previous Final experience, including CHL alumni Barbashev, Saad, McNabb, Theodore, Stone, Hill, Howden, Kolesar, and Sissons.

Complete list of the 29 CHL alumni competing in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final

Carolina Hurricanes (10)
William Carrier (Cape Breton Eagles & Drummondville Voltigeurs / QMJHL), Jalen Chatfield (Windsor Spitfires / OHL), Nicolas Deslauriers (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies & Gatineau Olympiques / QMJHL), Nikolaj Ehlers (Halifax Mooseheads / QMJHL), Taylor Hall (Windsor Spitfires / OHL), Seth Jarvis (Portland Winterhawks / WHL), Jordan Martinook (Vancouver Giants / WHL), Jordan Staal (Peterborough Petes / OHL), Logan Stankoven (Kamloops Blazers / WHL), Andrei Svechnikov (Barrie Colts / OHL)

Vegas Golden Knights (19)
Rasmus Andersson (Barrie Colts / OHL), Ivan Barbashev (Moncton Wildcats / QMJHL), Braeden Bowman (Guelph Storm / OHL), Dylan Coghlan (Tri-City Americans / WHL), Carter Hart (Everett Silvertips / WHL), Adin Hill (Portland Winterhawks / WHL), Brett Howden (Moose Jaw Warriors / WHL), Keegan Kolesar (Seattle Thunderbirds / WHL), Kaedan Korczak (Kelowna Rockets / WHL), Jeremy Lauzon (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies / QMJHL), Raphael Lavoie (Halifax Mooseheads & Chicoutimi Saguenéens / QMJHL), Mitch Marner (London Knights / OHL), Brayden McNabb (Kootenay Ice / WHL), Brandon Saad (Saginaw Spirit / OHL), Akira Schmid (Lethbridge Hurricanes / WHL), Colton Sissons (Kelowna Rockets / WHL), Mark Stone (Brandon Wheat Kings / WHL), Shea Theodore (Seattle Thunderbirds / WHL), Kai Uchacz (Seattle Thunderbirds & Red Deer Rebels / WHL).