SUNRISE, Fla. --Zac Dalpe thought his moment would never come.
The Florida Panthers forward had started to accept that playing for the Stanley Cup was a dream that had passed him by during a pro career entering season No. 14.
Yet just before warmups for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights on June 3, Dalpe was given the word he was a go, stepping in for the injured Eetu Luostarinen.
"It's probably something I didn't have on my bingo card to start the year," Dalpe said after he played 5:40 in a 5-2 loss in Game 1. "I've been a journeyman, kind of carved out a long career of injuries, of ups and downs, but to find out right before warmup that I was going in, obviously, for lack of a better term, is just a dream come true. It's something you've worked your whole life for."
Dalpe was scratched for Game 2 but returned to play in Game 3, a 3-2 overtime victory for the Panthers at FLA Live Arena on Thursday. Vegas leads the best-of-7 series 2-1 with Game 4 here on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, TBS, truTV, SN, CBC, TVAS).
The 33-year-old is one of the feel-good stories that seemingly crop up each Final. He has been dispatched across North America, following his hockey star from town to town, enduring long bus rides, bitter disappointments and a litany of injuries only to unexpectedly land on the biggest stage the game offers.
Dalpe has been a cup-of-coffee guy with the Carolina Hurricanes, who drafted him in the second round (No. 45) of the 2008 NHL Draft, the Buffalo Sabres, Minnesota Wild, Columbus Blue Jackets and Panthers.
His NHL high-water mark came in 2013-14, when he played 55 games, getting seven points (four goals, three assists), for the Vancouver Canucks. He hasn't played more than 21 NHL games in any other season.
Dalpe has transitioned from hotshot prospect to veteran American Hockey League leader, valued for his ability to set a course to the NHL for younger players that had passed him on the depth chart.
That was his role for the Panthers this season, serving as a mentor in Charlotte of the AHL and providing injury cover for the Panthers. He played in 14 regular-season games with Florida, getting four points (two goals, two assists). He had 35 points (21 goals, 14 assists) in 47 games with Charlotte.
Florida coach Paul Maurice inserted Dalpe into the lineup during the first-round series against the Boston Bruins, assigning him a role as fourth-line energy guy. In his third game, Game 6 of the series, he scored his first career Stanley Cup Playoffs goal, starting a third-period comeback in a 7-5 win to tie the best-of-7 series at 3-3.
He played five games in the second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs but was a healthy scratch until Game 1 of the Final, when he somewhat unexpectedly returned to the fray.
"I'm not giving him [this] opportunity; the opportunity was going to somebody and he took it, " Maurice said after Game 1 of the Cup Final. "He made it be him. He didn't just do it by having a good month. He became that kind of man over the course of the year who worked his [butt] off every day and did all the details, and when he's in the American Hockey League, he's in the American Hockey League and he's just a leader down there. He drives every day.
"That man has done everything he possibly can to be ready for an opportunity. Then opportunity came up, it had to be him, and he made the most of it in the Boston series. He scored a huge goal for us that puts us in a position to be here today."
Dalpe, who has one point in 11 postseason games, signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Panthers in March, which has him signed through the 2024-25 NHL season.
He could stick in the NHL after proving his worth in these playoffs or he could be the voice of reason and the beacon of professionalism in the AHL.
Dalpe, who played 5:23 in Game 3, isn't worried about any of that right now.
He is trying to help the Panthers win the Stanley Cup, which he has dreamed about since childhood, the dangling carrot that has made all the disappointments somewhat bearable.
"You always hoped to be here, right?" Dalpe said before the series started. "You check off the years in your career and you pile on the years and you pile on some surgeries and now you are like 13, 14 years in and you are like, "Is this going to happen for me or not?'"
It is happening and Dalpe still has a chance to win the Stanley Cup, to accomplish something his childhood heroes, Lanny MacDonald of the Calgary Flames and Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche, did during their careers. He could still have a picture of himself with the shiny silver chalice that filled his dreams for so many years.
An unexpected opportunity maybe, but not unappreciated.
"He's going to build some of the most important hockey memories of his career toward the end of his career," Maurice said.
