How did former Sharks player Jonah Gadjovich manage to have his name on the Stanley Cup despite not making a playoff appearance?

By Evan Bell

Modified Jul 13, 2024 19:46 GMT

Florida Panthers winger Jonah Gadjovich's name was engraved into the Stanley Cup as he joined the team in October. After signing a one-year deal with the Panthers in October, Jonah Gadjovich played 39 games for the Panthers during the regular season.

In order to have their name engraved on the Stanley Cup, players must play 41 regular-season games with a team, or play in one game of the Stanley Cup Final. In the case of Gadjovich, he played in 39 games in total and none in the Stanley Cup Playoff.

Because of that, he technically wasn't eligible to have his name engraved on the Cup. However, the Florida Panthers petitioned the NHL on his behalf. After mulling things over, the NHL accepted the petition, resulting in Gadjovich having his name engraved in NHL history, literally.

In addition, Josh Mahura also had his name engraved on the Cup after only playing 30 games for the Panthers this season due to an injury.

While he was a healthy scratch for all but 13 of the remaining games, he was able to have his name engraved due to being under contract with the Panthers for the whole season.

Looking at all 53 names engraved on the Stanley Cup, including Jonah Gadjovich

On Saturday, photos emerged of the Cup after it was engraved by Louise St. Jacques, a silversmith from Old Montreal.

St. Jacques has been the Cup's silversmith since 1989, engraving the names of players, coaches, and staff members into the silver bands around the cup.

The 2024 Stanley Cup features the names of 53 individuals who led the Panthers to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. Of those 53 names, 24 are players, with the rest being coaches, staff members, front-office executives and ownership.

Of the 24 players who had their names engraved into the Cup, two of them, Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe, are previous Cup winners. As such, they have their name engraved in the Cup for their respective wins in years past.

Below, you can see the full list of players who had their names engraved on the Cup:

• Sasha Barkov
• Sam Bennett
• Sergei Bobrovsky
• Nick Cousins
• Aaron Ekblad
• Oliver Ekman-Larsson
• Gustav Forsling
• Jonah Gadjovich
• Dmitry Kulikov
• Ryan Lomberg
• Steven Lorentz
• Anton Lundell
• Eetu Luostarinen
• Josh Mahura
• Niko Mikkola
• Brandon Montour
• Kyle Okposo
• Samson Reinhart
• Evan Rodrigues
• Kevin Stenlund
• Anthony Stolarz
• Vladimir Tarasenko
• Matthew Tkachuk
• Carter Verhaeghe

Starting this upcoming week, each player will have a chance to spend 24 hours with the Cup, starting with Anthony Stolarz. This will be just the second time that the Cup will be engraved with the names of winners before their day with it.