22 Lesser-Known Facts About the Stanley Cup

Among all major sports trophies, the Stanley Cup stands out for its rich history and unique charm. Discover fascinating tidbits and wild tales about this legendary trophy, which predates the National Hockey League itself.

1. The Stanley Cup owes its name to Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston.

Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, served as Canada’s Governor-General when he acquired the ornate cup in London for 10 guineas in 1892. Inspired by his family’s love for hockey, which began at Montreal’s 1889 Winter Carnival, Stanley donated the cup to honor Canada’s leading amateur hockey team. It was first presented to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA) in 1893.

2. Surprisingly, there exist three versions of the Stanley Cup.

The original Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, gifted by Stanley in 1892 (pictured above), was presented until 1970. It now resides in the Vault Room at Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame.

In 1963, NHL president Clarence Campbell deemed the original cup too fragile for champions. This led to the creation of the Presentation Cup, the iconic trophy awarded today. (To verify its authenticity, look for the Hockey Hall of Fame seal on its base.)

The third cup is a duplicate of the Presentation Cup, crafted in 1993 by Montreal silversmith Louise St. Jacques. It serves as a replacement at the Hall of Fame when the Presentation Cup is unavailable.

3. It’s truly unique...

Unlike other major league sports trophies, the Stanley Cup isn’t remade annually. Instead, after each championship, the names of the winning team’s players, coaches, management, and staff are inscribed onto the cup. The first team to receive this honor was the 1906-07 Montreal Wanderers, with their names engraved inside the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup’s bowl. The 1914-15 Vancouver Millionaires are the only other team featured in the inner bowl.

4. ...And it’s constantly evolving.

As more teams sought recognition, a decision was made to add a detachable ring below the original cup for engraving new champions. From 1927 to 1947, a taller, more vertical version of the cup was used. Its cylindrical design earned it the nickname Stovepipe Cup. However, by 1948, the trophy had grown too tall to handle or display, leading to the creation of the tiered design we see today.

5. The Stanley Cup features detachable rings.

Since 1958, five bands at the base of the cup have been used to engrave championship names. When a band fills up, the oldest one is removed and stored in Lord Stanley’s Vault at the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Great Esso Hall. A new, blank band replaces it for future champions. If all archived rings were reattached to the current cup, it would stand 6.25 feet tall (still shorter than Zdeno Chara).

6. The NHL employs official engravers to inscribe names on the cup.

Only four official engravers have been authorized by the NHL. The first was Carl Poul Petersen, a Danish engraver who designed the 1948 Stanley Cup and worked in Montreal with his sons until his death in 1977. The current engraver is Louise St. Jacques, who crafted the Presentation Cup replica. She succeeded Doug Boffey and his father Eric at Boffey Silversmiths in Montreal in 1989.

St. Jacques meticulously disassembles the cup from the top down, securing each band in a custom jig for engraving. Using specialized tools, she stamps each letter into the silver, ensuring alignment with a metal level. Each name takes about 30 minutes to inscribe, and completing all names for a winning team requires a patient, non-continuous 10-hour effort.

7. However, mistakes do happen.

Several player and team names on the Stanley Cup have been misspelled. For instance, the 1980-81 New York Islanders are listed as “Ilanders,” and the 1971-72 Boston Bruins appear as “Bqstqn Bruins.” Most errors remain uncorrected due to the high cost of fixing them. Fans, however, see these mistakes as part of the cup’s unique charm.

Some corrections have been made: When Adam Deadmarsh of the 1996 Colorado Avalanche found his name spelled “Deadmarch,” it was fixed after he expressed his disappointment publicly.

8. Occasionally, winning teams bend the rules.

The NHL permits a maximum of 52 names from each championship team to be engraved on the cup, assuming these individuals are connected to or played for the team during the Stanley Cup finals.

However, Peter Pocklington, former owner of the Edmonton Oilers and famously known for trading Wayne Gretzky, included his father Basil’s name with the 1983-84 Oilers, despite Basil having no official ties to the team. The league responded by having the engraver mark out Basil’s name with a series of Xs.

9. Exceptions can be made under special circumstances.

In 1998, the Detroit Red Wings requested that Vladimir Konstantinov’s name be engraved on the cup, even though he didn’t play that season. The NHL approved this request because Konstantinov, a team member, had suffered severe injuries in a car accident before the team defended their title.

There are also instances where no names were engraved, such as in 1919 when the cup wasn’t awarded due to the influenza pandemic. Similarly, the 2004-05 season saw no winner because of a lockout between the league and the players’ union. The space reserved for player names simply states “SEASON NOT PLAYED.”

10. Some individuals appear on the Stanley Cup multiple times.

Henri Richard, brother of Montreal Canadiens icon Maurice “Rocket” Richard and a hockey legend himself, holds the record with 11 appearances as a player. Meanwhile, Scotty Bowman leads as a coach, appearing nine times for his Stanley Cup victories with the Red Wings, Penguins, and Canadiens.

With 23 victories, the Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup more times than any other team—though their last triumph, much to the dismay of Habs fans, was in 1993. Montreal also boasts the record for most consecutive cup wins, securing five straight titles from 1956 to 1960.

11. One fan attempted to steal the cup—but not for the reason you might think.

Montreal fans are so fiercely protective of the cup that during the 1962 playoffs, when it was displayed at Chicago Stadium for the defending champion Black Hawks (the name was shortened to Blackhawks in 1986), Habs fan Ken Kilander tried to walk out with it. When apprehended by a police officer, Kilander declared, “I want to return it to where it belongs—Montreal.”

12. The Stanley Cup isn’t exclusive to men.

Seventeen women have their names engraved on the cup. The first was Marguerite Norris, president of the Detroit Red Wings during their 1954-55 championship season. Sonia Scurfield, co-owner of the 1988-89 Calgary Flames, is the only Canadian woman to have her name inscribed.

13. Some individuals are deeply superstitious about it.

Many players avoid the cup if they haven’t won it, and keep their distance if they’re still in the running. Some even refuse to touch the Western Conference Campbell Bowl or Eastern Conference Prince of Wales Trophy, fearing it might curse their chances of winning the ultimate prize.

14. The Stanley Cup has its own guardian.

When the cup was first donated, Lord Stanley decreed that two trustees must always oversee its care and maintenance. The current trustees are Lanny McDonald and Gary Meagher.

15. The cup is the players’ to enjoy … for a single day.

The NHL grants each championship team 100 off-season days with the cup (accompanied by its keeper) to use as they please. The tradition of giving each player a personal day with the cup was formalized by the 1994-95 New Jersey Devils. Since 2003, the Hall of Fame has documented the cup’s journeys with each winning team. While some players spend their day with the trophy in quiet reflection, others have taken their celebrations to extravagant extremes.

16. The Stanley Cup has taken a dip at least three times.

After the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 1991 win over the Minnesota North Stars, Mario Lemieux hosted the team at his home. While Lemieux was distracted, winger Phil Bourque decided to test if the cup could float—tossing it into the captain’s in-ground pool. It sank straight to the bottom.

Two years later, the cup ended up at the bottom of Montreal Canadiens goalie Patrick Roy’s pool. In 2002, Red Wings goalie Dominik Hašek tried to swim with the cup, but the keeper intervened, demanding it be dried and returned, cutting Hašek’s personal day short.

17. The Stanley Cup once spent an entire night in an Ottawa canal.

After the Ottawa Hockey Club, now the Ottawa Senators, won the cup in 1905, the “Silver Seven” players celebrated a bit too enthusiastically. Following their team banquet, some inebriated players took the trophy outside and reportedly tried to kick it into Ottawa’s Rideau Canal as a test of their aim.

Once they succeeded, they wandered off and forgot about the cup—until teammates noticed it was missing the next day. The Stanley Cup was eventually retrieved and entrusted to Harry Smith, the team’s most responsible member, for safekeeping.

18. The Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1924, only to leave it on the side of the road.

While driving to their victory banquet at owner Leo Dandurand’s house, the 1924 Canadiens got a flat tire. They removed the cup from the trunk to access the spare, changed the tire, and hurried to the party. When it was time to drink champagne from the cup, they realized it was missing—they had left it on the roadside. They rushed back and found it in a snowbank, exactly where they had left it.

This wasn’t the first instance of a Montreal hockey team misplacing the cup. The 1907 Montreal Wanderers left it at a team photographer’s house, where his mother used it as a flower pot until the team returned to claim it.

19. Children have been baptized in the Stanley Cup.

After the Colorado Avalanche’s 1995-96 championship win, defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre used his day with the cup to have his daughter baptized in its top bowl.

Eleven years later, following the Detroit Red Wings’ 2007-08 victory, Swedish left-winger Tomas Holmström took the trophy to his homeland, where his cousin baptized his 7-week-old daughter in it. In 2017, Pittsburgh Penguins forward John Archibald did the same for his infant son. In 2022, Avalanche defenseman Jack Johnson had his three children baptized in the cup: “The baptism was planned before the playoffs, and it coincided with Johnson’s day with the Cup,” The Athletic’s Peter Baugh tweeted. “So the kids were baptized in the Cup itself.”

20. The cup has reportedly been part of its share of wild escapades.

The Edmonton Oilers dominated the 1980s, winning five Stanley Cups between 1984 and 1990 under the leadership of hockey legends Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier (pictured above). After their 1986-87 victory, Messier allegedly took the cup to an Edmonton strip club, the Forum Inn, and placed it on the main stage. A dancer reportedly included the trophy in her performance.

When Messier won the cup again in 1994 with the New York Rangers, he and his teammates brought it to another strip club—Scores in Manhattan.

21. The cup might carry a curse.

When Messier and the Rangers triumphed in 1994, it broke a 54-year championship drought for the Broadway Blueshirts (their last win was in the 1939-40 season). Fans speculate that the curse may have stemmed from the team’s disrespect toward the cup.

During the 1939-40 season, the Rangers celebrated paying off the mortgage on their home rink, the third Madison Square Garden, by burning the mortgage papers in the Stanley Cup’s bowl. Left-winger Lynn Patrick and his teammates reportedly urinated in the cup to mark their victory. The Rangers didn’t win another championship until 1994 and haven’t claimed the cup since.

22. The Stanley Cup once went to war.

The cup has traveled globally, from Russia to the Czech Republic to Sweden, but in 2007, it visited a war zone. To uplift the spirits of Canadian and American troops stationed in the Middle East, the cup was flown to Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar, Afghanistan, for a special event. Hockey is a beloved pastime for Canadians, and you can read about the troops’ reactions in the Hall of Fame’s Stanley Cup Journal from its Afghanistan visit here.

This article was originally published in 2017; it has been updated for 2024.