Top 10 Active NHL Players With The Longest Playoff Droughts

By Jack Sponagle, The Hockey News Intern

Jeff Skinner’s streak of 1,078 games without making the post-season is over, as he has played one playoff game with the Edmonton Oilers this spring. Ron Hainsey used to have the record of 907 games before he finally got into the 2016-17 playoffs with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and then went all the way to a Stanley Cup victory.

While both of those droughts were long, at least they came to an end. That wasn't the case for Guy Charron, who saw action in 734 NHL games in the 1970s and early 1980s with the Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings, Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals and never once made it into the post-season.

Here are the 10 active NHL players with the most games played without ever making the playoffs.

1. Rasmus Ristolainen – 776 games

With Skinner’s 1,000-plus game drought over, the hard-hitting Philadelphia Flyers blueliner is now the league leader in this unfortunate stat. He has played in the NHL for 12 seasons, eight with the Buffalo Sabres and four with the Flyers.

2. Rasmus Dahlin – 509 games

The Buffalo Sabres defenseman – and No. 1 overall draft pick in 2018 – made the jump to the NHL at age 18. He’s now 25 and still waiting to see post-season play. The Sabres last made the playoffs in 2010-11, when Dahlin was 11.

3. Tage Thompson – 448 games

The third consecutive player to have ties with the Sabres, Thompson was traded to Buffalo by the St. Louis Blues in the deal that sent Ryan O’Reilly the other way. O’Reilly helped lead the Blues to the franchise’s first Cup. Thompson, meanwhile, hasn’t played in the first round yet.

4. Troy Terry – 427 games

The 27-year old University of Denver product is 73 games away from his 500th outing without his chase for Lord Stanley’s Cup ever really starting. Terry has been with the Anaheim Ducks for all eight of his seasons in the NHL, but has yet to appear in the post-season.

5. Mario Ferraro – 408 games

Ferraro is another veteran player on another struggling California team. The San Jose Sharks haven’t made the playoffs since 2018-19, and Ferraro played his first game with the Sharks the following season.

6. Henri Jokiharju – 407 games

The final player on this list to have spent time in Buffalo is Jokiharju, who’s now with the Boston Bruins. The defenseman spent six seasons with the Sabres after one year with the Chicago Blackhawks. He was dealt to the Bruins at this year’s trade deadline, and the team failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16.

7. Michael Rasmussen – 390 games

The ninth-overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft is a member of a Red Wings team that has missed out on the playoffs for the ninth-straight year. Rasmussen has been with the team for six of those seasons.

8. Isac Lundestrom – 337 games

The 25-year-old Swede is still relatively early in his career, which has been entirely spent with the Ducks. His teammates, Trevor Zegras (268 games) and Mason McTavish (229 games) are both headed for spots on this list if Anaheim can’t turn in some positive results.

9. Lucas Raymond – 320 games

Lundestrom’s countryman Raymond is another young, promising forward who has yet to get a crack at the playoffs. He’s an important cog in the Red Wings' machine, as one of many promising young players that Detroit has picked up in the last nine years of being in the draft lottery.

10. Philipp Kurashev – 317 games

The final player to crack the top 10 is the 25-year-old Blackhawks center. A fourth-round choice in 2018, the Swiss native has featured in over 300 matches with the Hawks, none coming after the regular season’s 82nd game. He edges out Calgary’s Morgan Frost (310) and Blackhawks teammate Joe Veleno (306). Perhaps not the honor he would most want to have.