98 Fun Facts About Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is named after which office-holder who donated it?

A governor general of Canada, Lord Stanley bought the silver bowl in 1892 as a prize for the country's top amateur club. It is now the oldest trophy that professional athletes compete for in North America.

What was the Stanley Cup originally called?

Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup is engraved on one side of the rim and 'From Stanley of Preston' on the other. By the mid-1890s the trophy was known by its donor's name instead.

Which club was the first to be awarded the Stanley Cup, in 1893?

Montreal Hockey Club never played a game for it: as 1893 champions of their league, they were awarded the brand-new trophy without a challenge.

An aide to Lord Stanley bought the bowl that became the Stanley Cup from a silversmith in which city?

London silversmith G. R. Collis sold the bowl from his Regent Street shop. Hockey's great Canadian prize then crossed the Atlantic, reaching Ottawa in 1893.

Silver historian John Culme says the original Stanley Cup is really what?

A rose bowl, he said: a common Victorian centrepiece made to sit in the middle of a dining table filled with flowers. He had catalogued hundreds like it at Sotheby's.

Lord Stanley first saw hockey at the 1889 Winter Carnival in which city?

Montreal put the game on as a carnival attraction, and the Gazette reported Lord Stanley's 'great delight'. Soon his sons and daughter were playing the game themselves.

Which trophy goes to the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup playoffs?

The Conn Smythe Trophy is judged on the whole postseason, not just the final, so it has sometimes gone to a player on the losing side, as it did with Connor McDavid in 2024.

Why did Lord Stanley never watch a Stanley Cup game?

He had returned to England in July 1893, when his brother's death made him Earl of Derby. The first games played for his trophy came the following March.

In 1905, a Stanley Cup challenger travelled for weeks by sled, ship and train from which gold-rush town?

Dawson City's Nuggets left the Klondike by sled, bicycle and on foot before reaching trains and a steamer. In Ottawa they lost 9-2 and then 23-2, the most lopsided game in Cup history.

In 1896, a team from which Prairie city became the first challenger to win the Stanley Cup?

Winnipeg's Victorias went east and shut out the holders 2-0 on Valentine's Day 1896, the first time the Cup left its home city. The beaten champions travelled west and won it back that December.

Which Ontario university was the first official challenger for the Stanley Cup, in 1895?

Queen's University lost 5-1 to the previous year's winners, and the result crowned a team that never took the ice: officials had ruled a home win would hand the Cup to that season's league champions.

Which Ontario town is the smallest community ever to win the Stanley Cup?

Kenora's Thistles beat the champion Wanderers in January 1907, then lost the rematch that March, so the little town on Lake of the Woods held the Cup for just two months.

In 1924, Canadiens players left the Stanley Cup by the roadside after stopping to do what?

Change a flat tire: they set the Cup down by the road, then drove off to the owner's victory party without it. They went back and found it sitting in a snowbank.

Which trophy was created for Canada's amateurs when professionals took over the Stanley Cup?

The Allan Cup was donated in 1909 by businessman Sir Montagu Allan, soon after the Stanley Cup became a professional prize, so that the best amateurs would keep playing.

Which club became the first US-based team to win the Stanley Cup, in 1917?

Seattle Metropolitans lost the opener, then won three straight in March 1917, months before the NHL was founded. In 2021 the NHL's Kraken raised a banner in their honour.

Why was the Stanley Cup not awarded in 1919?

A Spanish flu outbreak put so many players in hospital that the deciding game was never played, with the series level. Canadiens defenceman Joe Hall died days later.

Which Vancouver Island club was the last non-NHL Stanley Cup winner, in 1925?

Victoria Cougars beat the NHL's champions in 1925. A year later their league dissolved and their players were sold to a new NHL club in Detroit, first called the Cougars and now the Red Wings.

The NHL uses the Stanley Cup by agreement with whom?

Two Canadian trustees still hold the Cup under Lord Stanley's original terms. A 1947 agreement let the NHL run the competition, and the league has admitted it does not technically own the trophy.

Why was no Stanley Cup champion crowned in 2005?

An NHL lockout cancelled the whole 2004-05 season in a pay dispute between owners and players. That year's space on the Cup carries no names, only the words 'Season not played'.

Which women's hockey trophy grew out of a 2005 proposal to award the Stanley Cup to a women's team?

The Clarkson Cup was donated by Adrienne Clarkson, who had made the proposal. Instead of borrowing the men's prize, women's hockey got a championship trophy of its own, first played for by clubs in 2009.

Which team has won the Stanley Cup a record 24 times?

Montreal Canadiens won five in a row from 1956 to 1960 on the way to 24. The last came in 1993, and as of 2026 no Canadian-based team has lifted the Cup since.

Which US-based franchise has won the Stanley Cup the most times, with 11?

Detroit Red Wings fans celebrate playoff time by throwing an octopus onto the ice: in 1952 its eight arms stood for the eight wins then needed to take the Cup.

How much does the Stanley Cup weigh?

About 35 pounds, in a trophy just under three feet tall. It began as a bowl about seven inches high and grew as bands of winners' names were added beneath it.

As yearly bands made it tall and thin, the Stanley Cup earned which nickname?

Stovepipe Cup: by the 1940s the stack of bands looked like a stove's chimney pipe and had become too unwieldy to handle, so the trophy was redesigned.

In 1991, a Penguins teammate threw the Stanley Cup into whose swimming pool to see if it would float?

Mario Lemieux was hosting the new champions at his house when a teammate tossed the Cup into the pool to settle the question. It sank straight to the bottom.

Where do the Stanley Cup's retired bands of names go on display?

Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto, takes the oldest band each time the newest fills with 13 champions. Without that swap the Cup would keep growing taller.

Legend says the 1905 champions tried to drop-kick the Stanley Cup across which frozen canal?

Rideau Canal, the story goes: the Cup landed on the ice after a victory banquet and was fetched the next day. The tale has never been confirmed, but it has been retold ever since.

What marks the Stanley Cup that champions lift as authentic?

A Hall of Fame seal on the bottom sets it apart from the copy kept for display. You can spot it when a player hoists the Cup overhead.

How are the winners' names put onto the Stanley Cup each year?

Stamped with a hammer: the engraver sinks each letter into the silver with a steel punch, about half an hour per name, after the Cup has been taken apart band by band.

Nicknamed the 'Pocket Rocket', which Canadien won a record 11 Stanley Cups as a player?

Henri Richard's nickname measured him against his older brother Maurice, 'the Rocket'. He ended up with 11 Cups to his famous brother's eight.

Whose name is on the Stanley Cup a record 17 times, as player and executive?

Jean Béliveau was so prized that the Canadiens bought his entire senior league and turned it professional to make him sign. He repaid them with ten Cups on the ice and seven in the front office.

Which heiress became the first woman engraved on the Stanley Cup, as a team president in 1954?

Marguerite Norris took charge of the Red Wings in 1952 because her father's will named her, the youngest of his four children, to run the club. They won the Cup twice in her three seasons.

The 1972 champion Boston Bruins appear on the Stanley Cup under which misspelling?

BQSTQN BRUINS is how the band reads, with a Q in place of each O. Such slips are mostly left alone, like 'Maple Leaes' for Toronto in 1963 and 'Ilanders' for New York in 1981.

Which 1996 champion's misspelled surname became the first name ever corrected on the Stanley Cup?

Adam Deadmarsh came out as 'Deadmarch' after the Avalanche's win, and the slip was later put right, a first for the Cup. Older ones, such as 1981's 'Ilanders', have been left as they are.

Whose father's name was added to the Stanley Cup in 1984, then struck out with a row of Xs?

Peter Pocklington's father Basil had nothing to do with the Oilers, so the NHL ordered the owner's addition removed. Sixteen Xs now cover the name on the 1984 champions' band.

Which of these Stanley Cup traditions is the oldest?

Drinking champagne from the bowl is traced to the 1890s, decades before the first victory lap in 1950. The bowl has since served pierogi and held babies at their baptisms.

Which Red Wing began the tradition of skating the Stanley Cup around the rink, in 1950?

Ted Lindsay picked the Cup up off its table and carried it along the boards so the crowd could read the names. The fans, he said, were the ones paying his salary.

In 1987 Wayne Gretzky handed the Stanley Cup first to which teammate, a year after his costly own goal?

Steve Smith had banked a pass off his own goalie's skate and into the net on his 23rd birthday, knocking the champions out in 1986. A year on, Gretzky took the Cup and passed it straight to him.

Joe Sakic handed the Stanley Cup straight to which veteran in 2001, in the last game of his 22-year career?

Ray Bourque had spent two decades in Boston without a title before asking for a trade in 2000. Sakic skipped the captain's first lap so that Bourque could raise the Cup before anyone else.

Which 1995 champions made a day with the Stanley Cup for every player an official tradition?

New Jersey Devils players each took the Cup home for a day after their 1995 win, and champions have done so ever since, always with an official keeper travelling alongside.

After winning in 1994, which team took the Stanley Cup to meet Kentucky Derby winner Go for Gin?

New York Rangers forward Ed Olczyk introduced the Cup to the colt at Belmont Park during a charity day. Legend says the horse ate from the bowl; Olczyk says he only stuck his head in.

In 2001 the Stanley Cup was carried to the top of Mount Elbert, the highest peak in which state?

Colorado's Avalanche had just won the Cup, and their finance chief, a keen climber, led a party up the 14,433-foot peak, phoning from the summit to say they could see for 100 miles.

In 2007 the Stanley Cup made its first trip into a combat zone, visiting troops in which country?

Afghanistan: the Cup flew into Kandahar on a military transport, and former NHL players took on Canadian soldiers at ball hockey. A rocket attack on the base that week fell short and left it unscathed.

The 'Triple Gold Club' combines the Stanley Cup with gold medals from which two events?

Olympics and World Championship gold plus the Cup: the label caught on in 2002, when Rob Blake, Joe Sakic and Brendan Shanahan became the first Canadians to complete the set by winning in Salt Lake City.

Which team won the 2020 Stanley Cup in an empty Edmonton arena that September?

Tampa Bay Lightning beat Dallas on September 28, three months later in the year than the NHL had ever awarded the Cup. The pandemic had stopped the season in March, so the playoffs were played without fans in two Canadian hub cities.

Like hockey's Stanley Cup, which league's championship trophy is a single one passed from winner to winner?

The CFL's Grey Cup, like the Stanley Cup, is a single trophy handed from champion to champion, as it has been since 1909. The NFL, NBA and MLB make a new trophy every year.

By 2017, about how many names had been engraved on the Stanley Cup?

About 3,000: the NHL counted 3,177 for the trophy's 125th anniversary, 1,331 of them players. A winning team usually adds 52 names, coaches and staff included.

Which team won the Stanley Cup in 2026?

Carolina Hurricanes beat the Vegas Golden Knights in six games for their first title in 20 years. The Florida Panthers, champions the previous two seasons, had failed even to reach the playoffs.

At the bottom of which Pittsburgh star's swimming pool did the Stanley Cup end up in 1991?

Mario Lemieux hosted the party where teammates tested whether the trophy floats. It sank, as another champion's pool proved again two years later.

What were the 1924 champions fixing when they left the Stanley Cup forgotten at the roadside?

A flat tire stopped the champions on the way to a party at their owner's home, and they drove off without the trophy.

Which sea creature did two brothers first throw onto NHL playoff ice in 1952 as a Stanley Cup charm?

An octopus has eight arms, one for each win a team then needed to lift the Cup. Fans have copied the two market storeowners at playoff games ever since.

What did 1996 champion Sylvain Lefebvre do with the Stanley Cup on his day with it?

Lefebvre had his daughter baptised in it, turning the trophy into a font. A later champion's family repeated the idea for a seven-week-old girl.

What did New York Rangers bosses burn in the Stanley Cup, an act later blamed for a long curse?

The arena mortgage on Madison Square Garden had just been paid off, so executives set it alight in the trophy. Fans said the hockey gods took offence, and the next title waited until 1994.

Which animal did Buffalo's Jim Lorentz kill with his stick in a foggy 1975 Stanley Cup Final game?

A bat circled above the players for most of the game before the Sabres centre swung at it. Minutes later fog rose off the ice, and rink staff skated around waving bed sheets to clear it.

Which food did Phil Kessel pile into the Stanley Cup in 2017 to poke fun at a newspaper story?

Hot dogs were the joke because a report had claimed he bought one from a street vendor every afternoon. He posed with a heaped trophy after his second title.

When the Wanderers left the Stanley Cup at a photographer's studio, what did his mother use it as?

A flower pot is what officials found weeks later, with geraniums planted in the silver bowl.

Which Canadian city rioted after losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in both 1994 and 2011?

Vancouver saw its streets erupt in 1994 after a loss in New York and in 2011 minutes after a defeat at home. The city's only Cup came in 1915, from a team called the Millionaires.

Onto which frozen Ottawa waterway did a Silver Seven player reportedly kick the Stanley Cup in 1905?

Rideau Canal ice held the trophy overnight, the legend goes, after a kick at the end of the championship banquet. It was fetched the next day because the water was still frozen.

Which defenceman was photographed in mid-air after his overtime goal won the 1970 Stanley Cup?

Bobby Orr was horizontal because St. Louis defender Noel Picard had tripped him a split second after the shot. The picture became one of the most recognisable images in the sport.

Which captain guaranteed a win before a 1994 playoff game, scored a hat trick, then lifted the Stanley Cup?

Mark Messier made the promise with his team one loss from elimination, then scored three straight goals in the third period. He is the only player to captain two different franchises to the trophy.

Which Washington captain celebrated the 2018 Stanley Cup by swimming in a public fountain with teammates?

Alex Ovechkin waded into the fountains on the Georgetown waterfront two days after the win, with the trophy along for the swim. Local media named the months that followed the Summer of Ovi.

Which Pittsburgh centre became the youngest captain in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup, in 2009?

Sidney Crosby was 21, and he watched most of the deciding third period from the bench after hurting his knee. The trophy's all-time youngest winning captain dates back to 1895.

Which Chicago winger's 2010 Stanley Cup-winning overtime goal vanished under the padding of the net?

Patrick Kane and one teammate began celebrating while almost everyone else waited, because the puck had stuck under the padding at the back of the net. In the confusion the puck itself went missing.

Whose skate was in the crease when his triple-overtime goal won the 1999 Stanley Cup for Dallas?

Brett Hull kicked a rebound to his stick and scored with his left skate in the blue paint, which the rules then forbade. Officials said he had possession, and the crease rule was scrapped before the next season.

Which team won five Stanley Cups between 1984 and 1990, the last of them without Wayne Gretzky?

Edmonton Oilers teams lifted the trophy four times with him, then again in 1990 after he had been traded away. Goaltender Bill Ranford was the playoff MVP of that last win.

Which expansion team reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2018, its very first season in the NHL?

Vegas Golden Knights players won 13 playoff games that spring, the most by any team in its first postseason. They lost the final but were champions five years later.

What do superstitious NHL players traditionally stop doing once the Stanley Cup playoffs begin?

Shaving their faces is off limits until the team is knocked out or lifts the trophy. The playoff beard is traced to a four-time champion dynasty of the early 1980s.

What do opposing players line up to do at centre ice when a Stanley Cup playoff series ends?

Both teams shake hands even after the nastiest series, a ritual commentators have called one of the great traditions in sports. A few players have famously skated off without joining in.

Which coach won a record nine Stanley Cups behind the bench, with three different teams?

Scotty Bowman marked the ninth, in 2002, by pulling on an old pair of skates for a lap with the trophy. He then announced his retirement from coaching.

Which goaltender is the only three-time winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as Stanley Cup playoff MVP?

Patrick Roy first won it as a 20-year-old rookie, the youngest winner ever, and took his third 15 years later with a second team.

Which team in 2012 became the first eighth seed ever to win the Stanley Cup?

Los Angeles Kings players knocked out the first, second and third seeds in that order and took a 3–0 lead in all four series. They did not lose a road game until the final.

Which team won the 1996 Stanley Cup in the first season after its move from Quebec City?

Colorado Avalanche players swept Florida in the final, months after arriving in Denver. No other NHL team has won the trophy in its first season after a move.

Which team won 19 playoff series in a row from 1980 to 1984, lifting four straight Stanley Cups?

New York Islanders teams did not lose a series for more than four years, a run that ended in the 1984 final. No side in the major professional sports has matched the streak.

Which captain was named 2024 playoff MVP even though his team lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final?

Connor McDavid set a playoff record for assists that spring and outscored every other player by ten points. Only one skater before him had taken the award in defeat.

Which plastic toys did Florida fans hurl onto the ice after goals during the 1996 Stanley Cup playoffs?

Rats became the team's emblem after Scott Mellanby killed a real one in the dressing room, then scored twice with the same stick. The league rewrote its rules that summer to penalise the showers.

What had booked the New York Rangers' arena in 1950, forcing their Stanley Cup Final home games elsewhere?

A circus had the building booked, so the Rangers never hosted a game in that final. They still took the series to double overtime of Game 7.

To which country did defenceman Slava Fetisov take the Stanley Cup in 1997, the trophy's first visit there?

Russia saw the trophy for the first time on that trip to Moscow. It has also stood in Red Square and been shown off at a Moscow football match.

Which award for the NHL's best regular-season record is said to curse teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs?

Presidents' Trophy winners are knocked out far more often than they are crowned, which fed the superstition. One tied the league record for wins in 2019 and was swept in the first round.

Which nickname did the Philadelphia Flyers carry to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975?

Broad Street Bullies was coined by two newspapermen after a brawl-filled win in 1973. A year later the Flyers became the first of the 1967 expansion teams to lift the trophy.

What did Canucks coach Roger Neilson wave on the end of a stick to mock the officials in the 1982 NHL playoffs?

A white towel on the end of a stick was his mock surrender, and it got him thrown out of the game. Fans met the team with towels at the airport, and Towel Power has filled playoff arenas since.

What did Tampa Bay players ride in the 2020 Stanley Cup parade instead of floats through the streets?

Boats carried the champions along the Hillsborough River, a workaround for pandemic crowd rules. Tampa's later title winners kept the river parade as a local tradition.

Which Yukon town sent a team 4,000 miles by dog sled, ship and train to play for the Stanley Cup in 1905?

Dawson City's Nuggets spent weeks on the journey, part of it by bicycle and on foot, and then lost the deciding game 23–2.

Which Tampa Bay goaltender posted a shutout in every series-clinching win of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs?

Andrei Vasilevskiy blanked all four opponents in the games that eliminated them, the last a 1–0 win that sealed back-to-back titles. A year earlier he had clinched the trophy with a shutout too.

Which goaltender won the 1971 Conn Smythe Trophy and Stanley Cup before he was officially an NHL rookie?

Ken Dryden had played too few regular-season games to count as a rookie, so he was named playoff MVP a full year before he was voted rookie of the year.

Which winger lost the Stanley Cup Final with different teams in 2008 and 2009, then won with Chicago in 2010?

Marián Hossa switched sides after the first defeat to join the team that had beaten him, then lost to his old team a year later. Fans and reporters called it the Hossa Hex.

Which Maple Leaf scored the 1951 Stanley Cup-winning goal, then vanished on a fishing trip that summer?

Bill Barilko's floatplane went missing that August, and the wreck was not found for eleven years. The Tragically Hip turned the story into the 1993 single Fifty Mission Cap.

Which Swedish defenceman became the first European-trained captain to lift the Stanley Cup, in 2008?

Nicklas Lidström had replaced a long-serving captain to become the first European to wear the C for his franchise. He lifted the trophy four times in all.

Which curator, called the Keeper of the Cup, began walking the Stanley Cup onto the ice for champions in 1994?

Phil Pritchard joined the sport's museum in 1988 and was sent travelling with the trophy in his first week on the job.

Which 44-year-old Rangers coach played goal himself when his netminder was hurt in the 1928 Stanley Cup Final?

Lester Patrick remains the oldest man to play in a final. Teams carried no spare goaltender then, and the rival coach refused to approve the stand-ins he asked for.

Which rookie ended the longest game in NHL playoff history in 1936 by scoring in the sixth overtime?

Mud Bruneteau scored the only goal after 116 minutes and 30 seconds of extra play, ending the night 1–0. The game broke a record that had been set just three years earlier.

Which Maple Leafs defenceman scored a 1964 Stanley Cup Final overtime winner on a fractured ankle?

Bobby Baun's goal squared the series at three games each, and his team won the decider 4–0 for a third straight title. He never scored more than eight goals in a season.

Which winger, nicknamed Mr. Game 7, won three Stanley Cups and the 2014 Conn Smythe Trophy?

Justin Williams played nine deciding games and finished on the winning side in eight of them. His 15 points in those games set a league record.

Which moustachioed Calgary co-captain scored in the 1989 Stanley Cup clincher, then retired that summer?

Lanny McDonald had been left out of the three previous games, then stepped out of the penalty box and scored on a three-on-one rush. He had chased the trophy for 16 seasons.

Whose illegal stick cost Wayne Gretzky's team a late lead in Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Final?

Marty McSorley's blade was measured at the rival coach's request with his side 2–1 up, and the penalty let the opposition equalise and win in overtime. His team lost every remaining game.

Which goaltender won five straight Stanley Cups, only for his name to be engraved differently each time?

Jacques Plante appears under five different spellings, one for each title. He is better remembered as the first NHL goaltender to wear a mask regularly in games.

Which goaltender in 1966 became the first Conn Smythe Trophy winner from the losing Stanley Cup finalist?

Roger Crozier was voted the best player of the playoffs even though his team lost the final, a year after he had been the league's top rookie.

Which brothers met as opponents in the 2003 Stanley Cup Final, then won it together with Anaheim in 2007?

Rob and Scott Niedermayer were the first brothers to face each other in a final since 1946. Four years later they became the first pair to win the trophy together in 24 years.

Which piece of silverware do many captains refuse to touch after winning the NHL's Eastern Conference playoffs?

Prince of Wales Trophy winners often just pose beside it, fearing that hoisting anything else jinxes the bigger prize. Pittsburgh ignored the superstition before each of its five titles through 2017.