Can subqueries produce different execution plans than CTE's?
As is, I'd argue that the question isn't answerable. It's impossible to prove a negative and you won't find a guarantee in the product documentation. If you'd like an example of a technical difference between the two approaches, watch a few minutes of Paul White's Query Optimizer Deep Dive session. It is not clear how someone could translate that into a performance best practice.

I suggest approaching the issue as a matter of coding style instead of trying to find a performance best practice. Switching out a CTE for a derived table or a derived table for a CTE is not a meaningful way to rewrite a query.