Stanley Cup facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Stanley Cup |
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| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Competition | Stanley Cup playoffs |
| Given for | Playoff champion of the National Hockey League (NHL) |
| History | |
| First award | 1893 |
| First winner | Montreal Hockey Club (4) (AHAC) |
| Most wins | Montreal Canadiens (24) |
| Most recent | Carolina Hurricanes (2) |
The Stanley Cup (also known as La Coupe Stanley in French) is a famous trophy given each year to the champion team of the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs. It's the oldest trophy in North American professional sports! Many people, including the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), see it as one of the most important awards in hockey.
The trophy was first created in 1892 and was called the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup. It's named after Lord Stanley of Preston, who was the governor general of Canada. He donated it as a prize for Canada's best amateur ice hockey team. His whole family loved and supported hockey. The first team to win the Cup was the Montreal Hockey Club in 1893. For many years, winners were decided by special challenge games or league play. Professional teams started competing for the Cup in 1906.
Later, in 1915, two big professional hockey groups, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), agreed that their champions would play each other for the Stanley Cup every year. By 1926, it became the main championship trophy for the NHL, and officially so in 1947.
There are actually three versions of the Stanley Cup! There's the original bowl from 1892, the "Presentation Cup" which is given to the winners today, and a "Permanent Cup" that stays at the Hockey Hall of Fame when the Presentation Cup is traveling. The NHL manages the trophy, but it doesn't actually own it. Instead, it uses the Cup with permission from two Canadian trustees who look after it.
The original bowl was made of silver. The current Stanley Cup, which is a copy of the original, is made of a silver and nickel mix. It stands about 89.5 centimeters (35.25 inches) tall and weighs around 15.6 kilograms (34.5 pounds). Unlike many other sports trophies, a new Stanley Cup isn't made every year. Instead, the winning team gets to keep it for a while, usually during the summer and for a few days during the season.
Since 1924, the names of winning players, coaches, and team staff are engraved on bands around the Cup. This is very special! However, there isn't enough space for everyone, so some names might be left out. For a while, new bands were added almost every year, making the trophy very tall, like a "Stovepipe Cup." In 1958, the Cup was redesigned with five bands, each holding the names of 13 winning teams. When a band gets full, the oldest one is removed and put in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and a new blank band is added at the bottom. This means a team's name can stay on the Cup for about 65 years! People often call it The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, or even The Holy Grail of hockey. Many fun traditions surround the Stanley Cup, like the winning team drinking from it.
Since the 1914–15 season, 21 current NHL teams and five older teams have won the Cup a total of 106 times. The Cup was not awarded in 1919 due to the Spanish flu epidemic. It was also not awarded in 2005 because a disagreement between the NHL and its players led to the season being cancelled. The Montreal Canadiens have won the Cup a record 24 times. The Detroit Red Wings have won it 11 times, which is the most for any U.S.-based NHL team. The current champions are the Carolina Hurricanes, who won their second Cup in 2026. By 2017, over 3,000 different names, including more than 1,300 players, had been engraved on the trophy.
Contents
The Stanley Cup's Story
How the Cup Began
In 1888, Frederick Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Preston became the governor general of Canada. He and his family quickly fell in love with ice hockey. Lord Stanley first saw the game at Montreal's Winter Carnival in 1889. He was very impressed by the players' skill. Back then, organized hockey was quite new in Canada, mostly played in Montreal and Ottawa.
Lord Stanley's whole family got involved in hockey. His sons, Arthur and Algernon, even started their own team, the Ottawa Rideau Hall Rebels. Arthur also helped create the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA). The brothers convinced their father to donate a trophy for the hockey championship.
In 1892, Lord Stanley announced his plan to create a challenge cup for Canada's top hockey team. He wanted a trophy that would be passed from one champion to the next. He bought a silver bowl, which cost about ten guineas (around $48.67 back then). He had "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup" engraved on it. People started calling it the "Stanley Cup" as early as May 1893.
Lord Stanley set up five main rules for the Cup:
- Winners must return the Cup when a new champion is decided.
- Each winning team can engrave its name and the year on a silver ring, at their own cost.
- The Cup is a challenge trophy and never belongs to one team forever.
- The trustees have the final say in any disputes about the winner.
- If a trustee leaves, the other trustee chooses a replacement.
Lord Stanley chose Sheriff John Sweetland and Philip D. Ross as the Cup's first trustees. In 1893, they gave the trophy to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association for their team, the Montreal Hockey Club. This team was the champion of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC). Other teams, like Ottawa, were a bit upset because the rules for winning the Cup weren't clear at first.
So, the trustees made clearer rules for how the Cup would be defended:
- The Cup would go to the team that won the previous champion's league.
- Teams challenging for the Cup had to be senior league champions.
- Challenge games could be one game, two games (total goals), or a best-of-three series.
- All games would be played on the champion's home ice.
- Money from ticket sales would be split evenly between the teams.
- If teams couldn't agree on a referee, the trustees would pick one, and both teams would share the cost.
- A league could only challenge for the Cup once per season.
Lord Stanley never actually saw a Stanley Cup championship game or presented the trophy himself. He had to return to England in July 1893 because his older brother passed away, and he became the 16th Earl of Derby.
The Challenge Cup Era
During the early years, leagues didn't have formal playoffs. The team that finished first in the regular season won the league title. In 1894, four teams in the AHAC tied for the championship. A special three-team tournament was held to decide the winner. The Montreal Hockey Club won, beating the Montreal Victorias and the Ottawa Hockey Club.
In 1895, Queen's University was the first official challenger. The Montreal Victorias had won the league title that year. However, the challenge match was between the previous year's champion, Montreal HC, and Queen's. The trustees decided that if Montreal HC won, the Victorias would be the Cup champions. Montreal HC won, and the Victorias were crowned champions. The first team from outside the AHAC to win the Cup was the Winnipeg Victorias in 1896.
As the Stanley Cup became more famous, teams wanted to attract the best players. In 1906, the Montreal Wanderers helped change the rules to allow professional players to play alongside amateurs. The Cup trustees agreed, and the first professional challenge happened a month later.
The smallest town to have a Stanley Cup champion was Kenora, Ontario, with about 4,000 people. The Kenora Thistles won the Cup in January 1907. They beat the Montreal Wanderers, but the Wanderers won it back in a rematch later that year.
In 1908, the Allan Cup was created for amateur teams, and the Stanley Cup became a symbol of professional hockey. The National Hockey Association (NHA) formed in 1910 and quickly became the top league, holding the Cup for the next four years. In 1912, the trustees decided the Cup would only be defended at the end of the champion team's regular season.
Organized League Play
In 1914, the Victoria Aristocrats from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) wanted to challenge the NHA champion, the Toronto Blueshirts. There was a mix-up because the trustees initially thought Victoria hadn't formally challenged. But it was sorted out, and the challenge was accepted.
The next year, the NHA and PCHA made an agreement. Their champions would play each other for the Cup every year, similar to baseball's World Series. The series would switch between East and West each year, using different league rules for games. The PCHA's Vancouver Millionaires won the first of these series in 1915.
Before hockey became popular outside Canada, Stanley Cup winners were already calling themselves "world champions." When the Portland Rosebuds, a U.S. team, joined the PCHA in 1914, the trustees announced the Cup was for the best team in the world. In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first U.S.-based team to win the Cup. After that season, the NHA became the National Hockey League (NHL).
The Spanish influenza epidemic caused the 1919 Stanley Cup Final between the Montreal Canadiens and Seattle Metropolitans to be cancelled. The series was tied, but several Montreal players got sick, and one player, Joe Hall, sadly passed away. This was the first time the Cup was not awarded.
The Stanley Cup Final format changed again in 1922 when the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) was created. Three league champions competed for the Cup. This lasted until 1925, when the Victoria Cougars became the last team outside the NHL to win the Cup.
The NHL Takes Over
In 1926, the WHL league closed down. The NHL bought many of its players to fill new U.S. teams like the Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Cougars (now the Detroit Red Wings), and New York Rangers. With the NHL growing in big U.S. cities, it became the top hockey league.
Since 1926, no non-NHL team has played for the Cup, making it the official championship trophy of the NHL. In 1947, the NHL made an agreement with the Cup trustees to control the trophy. This allowed the league to decide who could challenge for the Cup.
The agreement stated that the NHL would manage the Cup and ensure its safety. It also said that the winners would be known as the "World's Professional Hockey Champions." This agreement was updated in 1961.
In the 1970s, another league, the World Hockey Association (WHA), wanted to challenge for the Cup. However, the Cup trustees, who were loyal to the NHL, rejected their challenge. Eventually, the NHL and WHA merged in 1979.
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The Cup was awarded every year until 2005. That year, a disagreement between the NHL's owners and players led to the cancellation of the 2004–05 season. As a result, no champion was crowned, which hadn't happened since the flu pandemic in 1919. Many fans wondered if the NHL had full control over the Cup. Some even suggested giving the Cup to the top women's hockey team that year.
In 2006, an agreement was reached that allowed the trophy to be awarded to non-NHL teams if the league didn't operate for a season. However, by then, the NHL had resumed playing. In 2007, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) created the "Triple Gold Club." This club recognizes players and coaches who have won an Olympic gold medal, a World Championship gold medal, and the Stanley Cup.
125th Anniversary Celebrations
In March 2017, to celebrate the Stanley Cup's 125th anniversary, both the original Cup and the current Stanley Cup went on a four-day tour in Ottawa. The Royal Canadian Mint even made two special coins to mark the anniversary.
In October 2017, the Lord Stanley's Gift Monument was built in Ottawa. This monument remembers Lord Stanley's generous gift of the Cup.
Engraving Names on the Stanley Cup
Like the Grey Cup in Canadian football, the Stanley Cup has the names of winning players, coaches, and staff engraved on it. At first, teams paid to add rings to the Cup to mark their wins. The first ring filled up by 1902. After that, teams started engraving names on the bowl itself. The 1907 Montreal Wanderers were the first to engrave 20 team members' names.
For a few years, some teams didn't engrave their names. But in 1924, the Canadiens added a new band, and since then, engraving names has been a yearly tradition. Because new bands were added often, the trophy became very tall, earning the nickname "Stovepipe Cup."
In 1948, the Cup was redesigned to be more manageable. It became a two-piece trophy with a removable bowl. This new design also made sure to honor teams that hadn't engraved their names before. It even included the 1918–19 season, which was cancelled due to the flu epidemic.
Since 1958, the Cup has had a five-band barrel, with each band holding 13 winning teams. When a band fills up (about every 13 years), the oldest band is removed and placed in the Hockey Hall of Fame. A new blank band is then added to the bottom. This means a team's name stays on the Cup for about 52 to 65 years.
After the 2004–05 season was cancelled, the words "2004–05 season not played" were engraved on the Cup. In September 2018, the band listing winners from 1953–54 to 1964–65 was removed. A new band for the 2017–18 to 2029–30 champions was added.
There have only been four official Stanley Cup engravers. Louise St. Jacques, a silversmith from Montreal, has been the engraver since 1988. By 2017, the Stanley Cup had 3,177 names engraved on it, with 1,331 belonging to players.
Who Gets Their Name Engraved?
To have their name automatically engraved, a player must have played in at least half of the championship team's regular season games. Or, they must have played in at least one game of the Stanley Cup Final. Since 1994, teams can ask the NHL Commissioner to add a player's name if they couldn't play due to special reasons. For example, the Chicago Blackhawks got permission to engrave the names of Daniel Carcillo and Joakim Nordström in 2015.
Henri Richard of the Montreal Canadiens has his name engraved on the Cup more than any other player, with eleven wins. Jean Béliveau and Yvan Cournoyer are next with ten wins each. Jean Béliveau's name appears the most times overall, seventeen times (ten as a player and seven as management).
Twenty women have also had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup. The first was Marguerite Norris, who was the president of the Detroit Red Wings when they won in 1954 and 1955.
Engraving Mistakes
There are a few spelling mistakes on the Cup, and many have never been fixed! Here are some examples:
- Pat McReavy's name is spelled "McCeavy" for the 1941 Boston Bruins.
- Dickie Moore won the Cup six times, but his name was spelled differently five times.
- Jacques Plante won the Cup five times in a row, and his name was spelled differently each time.
- Glenn Hall's name was misspelled as "Glin" in 1951–52.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs were spelled "Leaes" in 1963.
- The Boston Bruins were spelled "BQSTQN" in 1972.
- The New York Islanders were spelled "Ilanders" in 1981.
- In 1996, Adam Deadmarsh of the Colorado Avalanche had his name misspelled as "Deadmarch." This was later corrected, which was the first time a name was fixed on the Cup. Other corrections have been made since then.
Names Removed from the Cup
A few names have been scratched out with "X"s:
- Peter Pocklington, owner of the Edmonton Oilers, put his father's name, Basil, on the Cup in 1984. Since Basil had no connection to the team or the NHL, his name was removed.
- Brad Aldrich, a video coach for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, had his name removed from the Cup in 2021 at the team's request, following an investigation that revealed serious misconduct.
Stanley Cup Traditions and Fun Facts
The Stanley Cup has many special traditions. One of the oldest, started by the 1896 Winnipeg Victorias, is for the winning team to drink from the top bowl with champagne after their victory. The NHL commissioner traditionally presents the Cup on the ice to the winning team's captain. Each player then carries the trophy around the rink.
This wasn't always the case; before the 1930s, the Cup wasn't given out right after the win. Ted Lindsay of the 1950 Detroit Red Wings was the first captain to hoist the Cup over his head and skate around. He did this so fans could see it better. Now, it's a tradition for every winning team member to take a lap with the trophy held high.
Sometimes, the tradition of the captain hoisting the Cup first has been changed. In 1987, Wayne Gretzky gave the Cup to Steve Smith after the Oilers won. In 2001, Joe Sakic immediately handed the Cup to Ray Bourque, who had played 22 years without winning it.
The Stanley Cup champions get to spend 100 days with the Cup during the off-season. It's always accompanied by someone from the Hockey Hall of Fame. Since 1995, each team member gets to have the Cup for a day. In 2001, Mark Waggoner, a team director, even took the Cup to the top of Mount Elbert, the highest point in Colorado!
Players have used the Cup to baptize their children. Some players have even let their dogs eat out of it!
Different Versions of the Cup
There are three main versions of the Stanley Cup:
- The original 1892 bowl, called the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, was given to champions until 1970. It's now kept in the Vault Room at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
- The "Presentation Cup" was made in 1963 because the original bowl was getting old. This is the one given to the champions today and used for public events.
- The "Permanent Cup" is a replica made in 1993. It stays at the Hockey Hall of Fame when the Presentation Cup is traveling.
Boosting Morale with the Cup
The Stanley Cup has been brought to military bases for American, Canadian, and NATO troops. In 2004, it was shown at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, which was a "huge morale booster" for the troops. In 2006, it visited Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, for wounded Marines.
In 2007, the Stanley Cup made its first trip to a combat zone in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It was displayed for Canadian and other NATO troops. The Cup was not harmed even when the base was attacked by rockets. It returned to Afghanistan several times, accompanied by former players.
In 2010, Chicago Blackhawks player Brent Sopel brought the Cup to the Chicago Gay Pride Parade to honor his friend Brian Burke and Burke's late son, Brendan.
In 2018, the Cup was used to comfort people affected by sad events. It was brought to a hospital for survivors of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash and to the temporary office of the Capital Gazette newspaper after a shooting.
The Cup's Trustees
Lord Stanley's original rules called for two trustees to oversee the Cup. They had full control until 1947, when they gave control to the NHL. So far, only Ian "Scotty" Morrison has retired as a trustee in 2023; all others have served until they passed away. If a trustee position becomes empty, the remaining trustee chooses a replacement.
See also
In Spanish: Copa Stanley para niños
- Avco World Trophy, awarded to the champion of the defunct World Hockey Association
- List of awards named after governors general of Canada
- List of awards presented by the governor general of Canada
- List of NHL franchise post-season appearance streaks
- List of NHL franchise post-season droughts
- List of Stanley Cup challenge games
- List of Stanley Cup champions
- Lord Derby Cup, the emblem of France's premier rugby league knockout competition, named after Frederick Stanley's son Edward
