well i guess no kunitz three-peat.
but speaking of anaheim/tampa players, another name for this thread: vinny prospal, who is the anti-cory stillman. he signed with anaheim right after their '03 cup run, so he missed out on that run, then tampa's '04 cup run, and, two seasons later, after being traded back to tampa also missed out on anaheim's '07 cup.
this sequence of events has always fascinated me. just incredible luck for stillman and terrible luck for prospal. the timeline--
2003 season: basically the entire tampa core has breakthrough years at the same time. MSL, richards, lecavalier, and prospal all clear 70 points, led by prospal's 79 (good for 15th in the league in points, tied for 4th in assists with richards). out of nowhere, dan boyle puts up 50 points. prospal, richards, and boyle all need new contracts (richards and boyle both eventually get huge raises though not until august). meanwhile, anaheim goes on a cinderella run en route to game seven of the stanley cup finals. in the aftermath, paul kariya bolts for colorado, freeing up $10 million in salary on a team that was expected to remain a contender with the newly emergent giguere/babcock combo, who would go on to respectiely win back-to-back cups in 2007 and 2008.
june 21, 2003: the blues trade cory stillman to tampa for a 2nd round pick (david backes). after an especially disappointing playoffs where they gave up a 3-1 series lead to lose to the canucks in the first round, the blues salary dump stillman to tampa at the draft. in addition to picking up another playmaking winger for their own second round pick in the loaded 2003 draft (#62), they also pick up two much earlier second round picks (#s 34 and 41, both nobodies, it turns out) from florida for their first (#25, anthony stewart).
july 17, 2003: prospal signs a five year UFA contract with anaheim. tampa tried to bring him back, because he and lecavalier had crazy chemistry, and lecavalier basically begged feaster to keep him. but already before the draft it looked like they weren't going to come to an agreement with richards and boyle also needing new deals. once they got stillman, who even though he was a salary dump on the blues' end was still a lot cheaper than what prospal wanted, the writing was on the wall. prospal qualified for early unrestricted free agency as a seven year vet making less than the league minimum (i think?) and was in a special position to cash in, as what was at the time a young UFA (28 years old) coming off a career year. anaheim also signs fedorov in their summer spending spree.
2004 season: tampa wins the cup. MSL makes another jump and wins the hart/ross, and teams up with richards who also makes a jump (9th in the league in points) and wins the conn smythe. stillman replaces prospal's production and them some (80 points, 7th in the league in points, 3rd in assists and only one behind co-leaders MSL and scott gomez), but lecavalier regresses.
august 16, 2004: anaheim trades prospal back to tampa for a 2nd round pick (#31 in the 2005 snake draft, netting eventual depth defenseman brendan mikkelson), as part of the process of salary dumping bryan murray's post-cinderella run spending spree guys (later also traded fedorov away for what seemed like nothing at the time, as well as veterans petr sykora for almost literally nothing and steve rucchin for futures). lecavalier is ecstatic.
august 2, 2005: stillman signs a three year UFA contract with carolina. a year earlier, tampa had already walked away from stillman during arbitration, because now he was coming off a career year and had become too expensive for them. instead, they elected to bring back prospal, whose contract with the ducks was front loaded with a signing bonus so the remaining four years were actually lower than tampa's initial offer in the summer of 2003, and within the neighbourhood of what stillman was making.
2006 season: stillman wins the cup with carolina. meanwhile, all is forgiven as prospal puts up 80 points in stillman's place and helps lecavalier rebound to the 70 point plateau.
2007 season: anaheim wins the cup. it would have been just the third year of prospal's five year UFA deal. dumping prospal before the lockout ended up clearing the cap space to sign scott niedermayer in the summer of 2005, while clearing out fedorov, sykora, and rucchin during the '06 season created the flexibility that eventually enabled the pronger trade that offseason.