40 Fun Facts About Presidents' Trophy

The Presidents' Trophy goes to the NHL team that finishes the regular season with the most what?

Points settle it, and the award is informally known as the regular-season championship.

What does winning the Presidents' Trophy guarantee a team throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs?

Home-ice advantage in every round is the prize, yet several winners have still been knocked out in the first round.

Which team won the first Presidents' Trophy in 1985–86 while chasing a third straight Stanley Cup?

The Edmonton Oilers won 56 games to take the inaugural award but were knocked out in the division finals that spring.

Which team was the first to win six Presidents' Trophies, the last of them in the 2007–08 season?

The Detroit Red Wings reached six in 2007–08 and went on to win the Stanley Cup that spring, as they had as trophy holders in 2002.

Which team won both the Presidents' Trophy and the Stanley Cup in the shortened 48-game 2012–13 season?

The Chicago Blackhawks went a record 24 games from opening night before their first loss in regular time.

Why were the 2019–20 Presidents' Trophy winners handed the award after playing only 70 games?

The COVID-19 pandemic suspended the season, and the playoffs that followed opened with a round-robin among each conference's top four teams.

Which Pittsburgh star won the 1992–93 scoring title in a Presidents' Trophy season despite weeks of cancer treatment?

Mario Lemieux missed 24 games with Hodgkin's disease, then came back to lead the Penguins on a record 17-game winning streak.

Which wild-card team swept the 62-win Tampa Bay Lightning, the 2018–19 Presidents' Trophy winners, in the first round?

The Columbus Blue Jackets had never won a playoff series before, and no Presidents' Trophy winner had ever been swept in round one.

Which captain's record 215-point season in 1985–86 helped his team win the very first Presidents' Trophy?

Wayne Gretzky also set the single-season assists record that year with 163, breaking marks he already held.

Which team twice missed the playoffs the season after winning the Presidents' Trophy, in 1992–93 and again in 2024–25?

The New York Rangers answered the first miss by winning the trophy again in 1993–94 and ending a 54-year Stanley Cup drought.

Which captain guaranteed a Game 6 win in 1994, then scored a hat trick for that season's Presidents' Trophy winners?

Mark Messier made the promise with his team one loss from elimination, then scored three third-period goals to force a seventh game.

Which team won the 2006–07 Presidents' Trophy on a tiebreaker after two clubs finished level at the top?

The Buffalo Sabres took it with 53 wins, three more than the club they tied, under a rule that then counted every kind of victory.

Which team set an NHL record with 65 wins in 2022–23, took the Presidents' Trophy, then lost in the first round?

The Boston Bruins led that series three games to one before losing in seven, a collapse that revived talk of a trophy curse.

Which team won the 2021–22 Presidents' Trophy, then eliminated the next season's winners in the first round?

The Florida Panthers had been swept in the second round as trophy holders, then returned a year later to stun the record-setting favourites.

Which team won back-to-back Presidents' Trophies in 2016 and 2017 but lost to Pittsburgh in the second round both times?

The Washington Capitals finally lifted the Stanley Cup in 2018, a season in which another team finished first overall.

Which team took its first Presidents' Trophy in 2010–11, then lost the Stanley Cup Final in seven games?

The Vancouver Canucks led the league in goals scored and fewest allowed that year, then won the trophy again the next season.

Which team won its first Presidents' Trophy in 2002–03, the same season it filed for bankruptcy?

The Ottawa Senators played on with emergency financing from the NHL and still reached the conference finals that spring.

Which team won the 1988–89 Presidents' Trophy and then captured the first Stanley Cup in franchise history?

The Calgary Flames had also finished first overall a year earlier, only to lose in the second round to their provincial rivals.

Which team, newly relocated from Quebec, beat the 62-win Presidents' Trophy winners in the 1996 conference finals?

The Colorado Avalanche went on to win the Stanley Cup that spring, and the series sparked one of hockey's most vicious rivalries.

Which team had the NHL's best record in 1924–25 but was barred from the playoffs after its players went on strike?

The Hamilton Tigers wanted extra pay for a longer schedule; the franchise folded and its players stocked the new New York Americans.

Which coach led the 1995–96 Presidents' Trophy winners to 62 wins, breaking his own NHL record of 60?

Scotty Bowman won his second Jack Adams Award as coach of the year for that season, 19 years after his first.

Which Dallas Stars winger scored the triple-overtime goal that added the 1999 Stanley Cup to the Presidents' Trophy?

Brett Hull's skate was in the crease as he scored, and the beaten finalists protested that the goal broke the rules of the day.

Which veteran defenceman won his first Stanley Cup in his final season, with the 2000–01 Presidents' Trophy winners?

Ray Bourque had played 1,612 regular-season games before lifting the Cup, the longest wait of any champion to that point.

Which goalie won the Hart and Vezina trophies as the Winnipeg Jets claimed their first Presidents' Trophy in 2024–25?

Connor Hellebuyck was the first goaltender voted league MVP since Carey Price a decade earlier.

Which Tampa Bay forward was voted league MVP in 2018–19, the season of the team's first Presidents' Trophy?

Nikita Kucherov also broke Alexander Mogilny's record for the highest-scoring season by a Russian-born player.

Who was NHL president when the Presidents' Trophy was first awarded in 1986, midway through a 15-year term?

John Ziegler took over from Clarence Campbell in 1977 and oversaw the 1979 merger that brought four WHA teams into the NHL.

Which defenceman's own goal on his 23rd birthday knocked the first Presidents' Trophy winners out of the 1986 playoffs?

Steve Smith's clearing attempt bounced in off goalie Grant Fuhr's skate in Game 7, and his team could not find an equalizer.

Which Swedish winger won the scoring title for the 2010–11 Presidents' Trophy winners?

Daniel Sedin clinched the Art Ross Trophy with two assists in the season finale, keeping it in the family for a second year.

Which goalie tied the NHL single-season record with 48 wins for the 2015–16 Presidents' Trophy winners?

Braden Holtby matched Martin Brodeur's mark in 66 starts and won the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender.

Which Swede captained the 2007–08 Presidents' Trophy winners to the Stanley Cup, a first for a European-trained captain?

Nicklas Lidstrom had already become the first European to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, in 2002.

Which NHL body created the Presidents' Trophy in 1985–86 to honour the league's best regular-season team?

The Board of Governors introduced it after nearly two decades in which the league's overall first-place team received no trophy.

The Presidents' Trophy took over a job done until 1967 by a trophy named for which figure?

The Prince of Wales Trophy went to the NHL's first-place team for three decades and was later repurposed as the Eastern Conference playoff prize.

Which statistic decided the Presidents' Trophy when two teams finished level in the shortened 2020–21 season?

Regulation wins leave out overtime and shootout victories, and the trophy winners had 35 of them to their rivals' 30.

What wiped out the 2004–05 NHL season, the first with no Presidents' Trophy winner since the award began?

An owners' lockout over a proposed salary cap cancelled all 1,230 games, and the Stanley Cup went unawarded for the first time since 1919.

Which eighth seed knocked out the 2011–12 Presidents' Trophy winners in round one and went on to win the Stanley Cup?

The Los Angeles Kings beat the top three seeds in order and became the first eighth seed in North American pro sports to win a title.

Which Finnish goalie won the Vezina Trophy as Nashville claimed its first Presidents' Trophy in 2017–18?

Pekka Rinne had carried the Predators to their first Stanley Cup Final only a year earlier.

Which Czech winger scored 61 goals for the record-setting 2022–23 Presidents' Trophy winners?

David Pastrnak's 61 goals were second in the league that season, behind only Connor McDavid's 64.

Which defenceman was named playoff MVP as the 1988–89 Presidents' Trophy winners lifted their first Stanley Cup?

Al MacInnis won the Conn Smythe Trophy and became the first defenceman ever to lead the playoffs in scoring.

Which team swept the 2025–26 Presidents' Trophy winners in the Western Conference final as a heavy underdog?

The Vegas Golden Knights had won the Pacific Division yet finished far behind the top seed over the regular season.

Which St. Louis Blues defenceman was named league MVP in 1999–2000, the season of the team's first Presidents' Trophy?

Chris Pronger was the first defenceman to win the Hart Trophy since Bobby Orr in 1971–72.