50 Fun Facts About Stanley Cup

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

Frederick Stanley, Lord Stanley of Preston, later succeeded his brother as the 16th Earl of Derby.

In which year was the trophy commissioned as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup?

It was first awarded the following year, 1893, to the Montreal Hockey Club.

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

Ottawa were upset because no challenge games had been scheduled and the rules were not known in advance.

How much did Lord Stanley pay for the original bowl?

That is about US$48.67 at the time, or roughly $1,744 in 2025 dollars.

In which English city was the original bowl made?

Silver expert John Culme identified it as a rose bowl rather than the punch bowl it is often called.

How did silver expert John Culme classify the original trophy?

It is frequently and wrongly described as a decorative punch bowl.

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

He watched the Montreal Victorias play the Montreal Hockey Club and was reportedly delighted.

Which of Lord Stanley's sons is regarded as the founder of ice hockey in Great Britain?

Arthur and Algernon Stanley formed the Ottawa Rideau Hall Rebels and persuaded their father to donate a trophy.

How many Stanley Cup championship games did Lord Stanley himself see?

He had to return to England in July 1893 to succeed his brother as Earl of Derby and never presented the Cup.

Which trustee served an unsurpassed 56 years overseeing the Cup?

Lord Stanley appointed Ross and Sheriff John Sweetland as the first two trustees.

Which team made the first successful challenge for the Cup, in 1896?

Their 2–0 win made them the first team from outside the AHAC to win it, and they started the champagne tradition.

Which institution was the first official challenger for the Cup, in 1895?

The Montreal HC beat them 5–1, which handed the title to cross-town rivals the Victorias.

The smallest municipality to produce a Cup champion is which Ontario town?

The town had around 4,000 people when the Thistles, led by Art Ross, won it in January 1907.

Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Cup in which year?

The Montreal Wanderers had pushed through a resolution allowing pros to play alongside amateurs.

Which trophy was introduced in 1908 for Canada's amateur champions?

From then on the Stanley Cup became a symbol of professional supremacy.

Which was the first American-based team to win the Cup, in 1917?

The Portland Rosebuds had been the first US-based team to reach the final a year earlier, with an all-Canadian roster.

Why was the Cup not awarded in 1919?

The Canadiens–Metropolitans final was abandoned at 2–2–1; Montreal's Joe Hall died four days later.

Which was the last non-NHL team to win the Cup, in 1924–25?

The Western Hockey League folded in 1926 and no other league was deemed worthy to challenge afterwards.

In which year did the NHL formally gain control of the Cup from its trustees?

The agreement with trustee J. Cooper Smeaton let the league reject challenges from other leagues.

Why was no Cup champion crowned in 2005?

A 2006 settlement allows the Cup to go to non-NHL teams if the league ever sits out a season.

Which trophy was created after a 2005 plan to give the Cup to a women's team flopped?

Governor General Adrienne Clarkson had floated the idea during the lockout.

Which team has won the Cup a record 24 times?

They are also the most recent Canadian-based winner, in 1993.

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

Their most recent win came in 2008.

How tall is the current Stanley Cup?

It weighs 15.6 kilograms, or about 34 and a half pounds.

Which nickname did the ever-growing Cup earn between 1924 and 1940?

A new band was added almost every year, making it resemble a stove's exhaust pipe.

The modern one-piece Cup, introduced in 1958, has how many bands on its barrel?

Each band holds 13 winning teams, so the top band is retired to the Hall of Fame roughly every 13 years.

Where are retired bands of the Cup displayed?

When the bottom band fills, the top one is removed and the others slide up.

How many distinct physical versions of the Stanley Cup exist?

The original bowl, the authenticated Presentation Cup and the Permanent Cup displayed at the Hall of Fame.

Who made the authenticated 'Presentation Cup' in 1963?

NHL president Clarence Campbell ordered it in secret because the original bowl was becoming fragile.

How is the Presentation Cup authenticated?

You can see it when winning players lift the Cup overhead.

Who became the official Stanley Cup engraver in 1988?

She is only the fourth official engraver, and also made the 1993 Permanent Cup.

Which player's name is engraved on the Cup the most times as a player, eleven?

Béliveau's name appears 17 times overall, ten as a player and seven as management.

Whose name appears on the Cup more than any other individual, seventeen times?

Ten of those are as a player and seven as part of Montreal's management.

Who was the first woman to have her name engraved on the Cup?

She won as president of the Detroit Red Wings in 1954 and 1955.

Which team's name was engraved on the Cup as 'BQSTQN' in 1972?

Other errors include 'Leaes' for Toronto in 1963 and 'Ilanders' for New York in 1981.

Whose misspelled name, 'Deadmarch', became the first correction ever made on the Cup?

Later corrections fixed 'Lagace', 'Staaal' and 'Vertseeg'.

Whose father's name was struck from the Cup with Xs after being added in 1984?

Basil Pocklington had no connection to the Oilers or the NHL.

What is the oldest Cup tradition, dating from 1896?

Each winner later got 100 off-season days with the trophy, always accompanied by a Hall of Fame keeper.

Which captain first hoisted the Cup overhead and skated a lap with it, in 1950?

He said he did it so fans could get a better view of the trophy.

In 1987 Wayne Gretzky handed the Cup first to which teammate, a year after a costly gaffe?

Smith's own-goal in 1986 had ended Edmonton's shot at a fourth straight final appearance.

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

Bourque had played only for Boston until a March 2000 trade to Colorado.

Which team started the tradition of each player keeping the Cup for a day, in 1995?

After that season the NHL made it mandatory for an official handler to be present at all times.

Which Kentucky Derby winner stuck its head in the Cup in 1994?

Ranger Eddie Olczyk had taken the Cup to the Meadowlands Racetrack.

To the summit of which mountain was the Cup carried in 2001?

Avalanche finance director Mark Waggoner took it to the highest point in Colorado.

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

It was displayed for NATO troops in Kandahar and was undamaged by a rocket attack on May 3.

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

The IIHF formalized the club in 2007, after the term caught on following the 2002 Olympics.

In what month was the Cup awarded in 2020, the latest ever, due to the pandemic?

Tampa Bay won on September 28 after a 24-team restart; July 2021 followed, leaving only August, October and November unused.

Which Canadian trophy, like the Stanley Cup, is also not replaced each year?

Both are engraved with the names of winning players, coaches and staff.

How many names had been engraved on the Cup by its 125th anniversary in 2017?

Of those, 1,331 belonged to players.

Which team won the Stanley Cup in 2026?

It was the franchise's second title, after 2006.