NICK Boynton – who played for Nottingham Panthers during the 2004/05 NHL lockout season – is a Stanley Cup winner.

The big defenceman joined Chicago Blackhawks mid-season from Anaheim.

And he was only called up to play in Game Four of the play-off finals against Philadelphia Flyers after not previously featuring in post-season play.

But Boynton clearly did enough to stay in the Blackhawks side and was in fact on the ice when Patrick Kane slid in his overtime winner to defeat the Flyers 4-3 and clinch the series 4-2.

Before the Stanley Cup triumph, he said one of the previous highlights in his career was hitting a goal for Panthers in their 2005 Play-off Finals defeat to Coventry.

Panthers have had two Stanley Cup winners playing for them in earlier years – Jamie Leach and Jim Paek.

But Boynton is the first to go on from Panthers to win the greatest club prize in the world game.