After he played just a single NHL game in the previous two seasons, Peter Budaj's inspiring comeback season as the Los Angeles Kings' No. 1 goalie at age 34 kept his team in the playoff hunt. He was then dealt to Tampa Bay at the trade deadline and given the opportunity to help the Lightning climb into the playoffs as a backup to Andrei Vasilevskiy.
As unexpected as Budaj's comeback might have been, there are other comeback seasons that might have had even greater impacts on teams' fortunes, especially if the Kings and Lightning both come up short in the playoff hunt.
For the following, a comeback season is defined as any player who established his performance at a certain level, then dropped down below half that point for at least a full season before rebounding all the way back in 2016-17. This does not include players making only partial comebacks or breaking out to new heights. Nor does it include players who slumped only briefly, were knocked out of the lineup primarily because of injuries or were making returns from other leagues, such as Montreal's Alexander Radulov.
In the end, we identified the 10 best comeback seasons and ranked them based on their total impact on their teams' success this season:
1. Sergei Bobrovsky, G, Columbus Blue Jackets
Bobrovsky won the Vezina Trophy in 2012-13, his first season with the Blue Jackets. His performance gradually went downhill from there, and his .932 save percentage dropped to a low point of .908 in 2015-16, which kept the team out of the playoffs for the 13th time in 15 seasons.
With a .931 save percentage this season, Bobrovsky has helped guide the Blue Jackets to various franchise records and into the mix for the President's Trophy for the league's top record. Another Vezina could be in Bobrovsky's immediate future, unless it is awarded to the following player.
2. Devan Dubnyk, G, Minnesota Wild
According to the goals saved above average (GSAA) statistic, Dubnyk prevented an extra 23.7 goals in his breakout 2014-15 season, for which he was named a finalist for the Vezina.
The following season, in 2015-16, Dubnyk settled back down to roughly league average before rebounding all the way to a GSAA of 25.8 so far this season.
The end result is that the Wild went from fifth in the Central Division last season into a battle with the mighty Chicago Blackhawks for the team's first divisional crown since 2007-08.
3. Craig Anderson, G, Ottawa Senators
From 2007-08 to 2012-13, Anderson was worth at least 12 goals saved in four seasons out of five, according to the GSAA statistic. In the following three seasons, Anderson's average GSAA fell to 2.2 before rebounding to 14.3 in 2016-17, at age 35.
As a result of Anderson's comeback season, the Senators are likely heading back to the playoffs, in which they have won only a single series since they reached the Stanley Cup finals in 2006-07.
4. Eric Staal, C, Minnesota Wild
In 2012-13, Staal capped off seven straight 70-point seasons by finishing sixth overall in the league, with 53 points in 48 games -- three points behind Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. At the time, he was more than halfway through a lucrative, seven-year contract that held an annual cap hit of $8.25 million, and he was hearing absolutely no complaints from his employer.
Since that peak, Staal's scoring has gradually declined all the way down to a low of 39 points in 2015-16.
After he signed a discounted three-year contract with an annual cap hit of $3.5 million with the Wild, Staal immediately bounced back to 54 points in 71 games, which ranks second on the team to Mikael Granlund.
Given the arrival of coach Bruce Boudreau, Granlund's breakout season and Dubnyk's comeback season in goal, Minnesota probably would have been competitive with or without Staal -- but the Wild wouldn't be in the mix for the divisional crown without him.
5. Peter Budaj, G, Tampa Bay Lightning
When Jonathan Quick was injured in the first game of the season and his backup, Jeff Zatkoff, quickly faltered, the stage was set for Peter Budaj to re-establish himself as an NHL starter for the first time since 2010-11.
Thanks to Budaj's above-average play, the Kings still had a shot to make the playoffs when Quick returned Feb. 25. At the time, Budaj ranked second in the NHL with 51 games started -- 34 of which were quality starts -- and his .917 save percentage ranked 12th among the 33 goalies to play at least 30 games.
The next day, Budaj was traded to the Lightning for Quick's fellow 2015-16 Vezina runner-up, Ben Bishop.
6. Sam Gagner, C, Columbus Blue Jackets
Gagner enjoyed fast NHL success, setting a career high of 49 points as an 18-year-old rookie in 2007-08, earning a spot in the record books with an eight-point night in 2011-12 and finishing second on the Oilers with 38 points in 48 games in 2012-13.
After that early peak, Gagner's star began to fade, culminating with just 16 points in 53 games for the Philadelphia Flyers last season and a career that was seemingly over.
That's when Columbus signed Gagner to a one-year deal worth just $650,000, which is an awfully small price to pay for the 44 points in 70 games he has delivered for the Blue Jackets this season.
Columbus is having a great season, which is mostly credited to Bobrovsky, rookie Zach Werenski and coach John Tortorella. However, Gagner's extra scoring could be the last little boost the team needs to win the President's Trophy race and secure a valuable home seed in the playoffs.
7. Mike Fisher, C, Nashville Predators
In 2015-16, Nashville's captain finished with 13 goals and 23 points in 70 games, which were his lowest totals since his 20-year-old sophomore season with the Senators in 2000-01, barring the injury-shortened 2003-04 and lockout-shortened 2012-13 seasons.
Now 36, it looked like the final season of his contract, with a $4.4 million cap hit, would be a tough one for the team to carry. Instead, Fisher has recorded his seventh 40-point season while continuing to play a valuable two-way role.
At the moment, the Predators are tied for the third seed in the Central and the final wild-card position with the St. Louis Blues, six points ahead of the Kings. Depending on how things go down the stretch, Fisher's relatively modest comeback season could be the difference-maker.
8. Michael Grabner, LW, New York Rangers
In 2010-11, Grabner burst onto the scene with 34 goals in 76 games for the New York Islanders and finished third in voting for the Calder Trophy. During the following five seasons, Grabner transitioned into more of a defensive role, scoring 65 goals in 301 games, including just nine goals in 80 games for Toronto in 2015-16.
After signing a two-year, free-agent contract with an annual cap hit of just $1.65 million with the Rangers, Grabner leads the team with 27 goals and is tied for third overall in the NHL with 26 goals at even strength, just two goals back of Sidney Crosby for the league lead.
Grabner's extra speed and scoring depth have helped the Rangers compete in the mighty Metropolitan Division, but the Rangers have a strong and deep team that spreads the scoring over three complete lines, which minimizes the impact of any one player.
9. Thomas Vanek, RW, Florida Panthers
Along with Staal, Vanek is one of only a dozen active players who have scored 40 goals in a season multiple times. As recently as 2013-14, Vanek scored 68 points in 78 games while helping guide the Montreal Canadiens on a surprise visit to the Eastern Conference finals.
That summer, Vanek signed a lucrative, three-year, free-agent contract with the Wild with an annual cap hit of $6.5 million. However, his scoring tumbled to just 41 points in 74 games in 2015-16, after which that contract was bought out.
Eager to prove himself, Vanek signed a new deal with the Detroit Red Wings for 40 percent of his old cap hit and trailed only Henrik Zetterberg in the team scoring race with 38 points in 48 games when he was traded to the Panthers, with whom he has scored seven goals in 10 games.
Unfortunately for the Red Wings, Vanek's comeback season wasn't nearly enough to keep their playoff streak alive, nor has it been enough to propel Florida back into the playoff race.
10. Radim Vrbata, RW, Arizona Coyotes
At 34 years old, it wasn't too surprising to see Vrbata's scoring totals in Vancouver tumble from 31 goals and 63 points in 2014-15 to 13 goals and 27 points in 2015-16.
The surprise was this season in Arizona, where Vrbata has bounced back to a team-leading 52 points in 73 games after signing at the discount price of $1.0 million, albeit with a batch of playoff-based incentives that prevented contenders from trading for him at the deadline.
The Coyotes have a 20-point cushion ahead of the Colorado Avalanche for last in the league, so they wouldn't have finished lower than 29th even without Vrbata. However, if he helps them crawl past Vancouver and/or New Jersey, which are just two and three points ahead of the Coyotes, respectively, then this is one comeback season that might have hurt a team in the draft lottery.