Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff tournament, which is held at the end of each regular season. The Stanley Cup was first awarded in the 1892–1893 season and is the oldest trophy awarded to professional athletes in North America.

The original Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup was little more than a bowl.

The Stanley Cup was donated in 1892 by Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley, Lord Stanley of Preston and the son of the fourteenth Early of Derby during his time as the governor general of Canada. In the winter of 1888, Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley watched his first hockey game in his official capacity as governor general and apparently enjoyed the game enough that he decided that the sport needed a trophy. Stanley's enjoyment of hockey would extend to his family, as his daughter, Isobel, and his sons Edward, Arthur, and Algernon, all picked up the sport.

During this period, organized hockey was largely limited to Montreal and Ottawa, but it was growing in popularity. In 1892, Stanley announced he would donate a challenge cup, which he held should be challenged year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion of Canada. This led to the name of the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, with the cup being little more than a silver bowl purchased at the time for 10 guineas, or the equivalent of USD $50 at the time.

The 1924 Stanley Cup.

During this period, the Stanley Cup was awarded by trustees, the first of whom were Dr. John Sweetland and Philip Dansken Ross, appointed by Stanley, before he returned to England. The trustees of the Cup have been charged with its maintenance and awarding the Cup, often serving as trustees until their death. Dr. Sweetland, who was sheriff of Carleton County (now Ottawa), served as a trustee until his death in 1907, and Ross remained a trustee until his death in 1949.

The "stovepipe" Stanley Cup, which would be redesigned due to being unwieldy.

Stanley's original vision for the Cup was that winning teams would add a silver ring to the bowl, on which they could engrave their names. The first ring was added in 1893 by the first recipient of the Stanley Cup, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA). This Cup was used until 1903, when it became too full. From 1903 to 1909, winning teams began engraving their name on the bowl itself. The first team to engrave the names of individual players was the Montreal Wanderers, who won in 1907, but the practice of including the names of players would not be standard practice until 1924.

The 1947 redesigned Cup with older, "slimmer" rings.

The addition of rings continued in 1909 when the Ottawa Senators, who won the cup that year, added another ring. The addition of rings saw the formation of the "stovepipe" Cup, so called because the addition of rings and height resembled a stovepipe. By the mid-1940s, it became unwieldy and impractical. This led to a redesign of the Cup in 1947 and again in 1957. The 1957 redesign included the use of larger bands on which the names of at least fifty-two players, coaches, and owners of a winning team could fit vertically, while thirteen winning teams and rosters could fit on a single band. The design of the Stanley Cup since the 1957 redesign has been consistent. The height of the Cup is 35.25 inches, it weighs approximately 37 pounds, and it is made of a silver-nickel alloy. The bowl has a circumference of 35 inches and a base circumference of 37 inches. Every thirteen years, as the lowest of the wide bands fills with champions, a new band is added, and the top wide band is removed. Meaning every thirteen years, winning teams and the band they are on are retired and kept in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Stanley Cup's design was standardized in 1957 and has remained consistent since.

There are three Stanley Cups, adding to the trophy's history and some of the confusion around it. This includes the original Dominion Cup from Lord Stanley, which was a part of the Stanley Cup awarded to the players until 1970. At this time, the original bowl was becoming worn and brittle, and the trustees decided to make an exact replica and place the original Dominion Cup in the trophy room at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Stanley Cup that is presented to the players was created in 1963 by Montreal silversmith Carl Peterson. This is the Cup that is presented to players on the ice, is taken through the parade, and goes on the road with the players. Each team holds the cup until the next winner the next year, and after winning, each player on the winning team has twenty-four hours with the cup. One way to identify the presentation cup can be by finding names that have been deleted using an "XXXXX" —since the replica cup can fix these mistakes.

The Replica Cup, also known as the Hockey Hall of Fame Cup, was made in 1993 so there would be a Stanley Cup on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame when the presentation cup is not available for display. The replica cup tends to have none of the corrections or tarnishes of the presentation cup, which can go through a lot of abuse.

The NHL has official engravers who are tasked with adding names to the Stanley Cup. There have been four official engravers, with the first being the 1948 Stanley Cup designer Carl Poul Peterson, a Danish engraver who had moved to Montreal in 1929 and who engraved the Cup until his death in 1977. The second and third official engravers, Doug Boffey and his father Eric Boffey, engraved the Cup from their shop in Montreal until 1989. And in 1989, the creator of the replica cup, Louise St. Jacques, took over the duties of engraving the Stanley Cup from her Montreal studio.

The engravers have made mistakes throughout history, with teams and players' names being misspelled at times. Many of these mistakes are left on the cup, as correcting them is costly, and fans tend to find the mistakes add to the odd nature of the Cup. This also tends to be a way to know whether the Stanley Cup is the presentation or replica cup. Corrections have been made on the cup, but they tend to be a name X'd out and replaced.

As noted above, with the donation of the Stanley Cup, trustees were appointed to care for it. The responsibility of the trustees was to maintain the rules, govern the competition, and ensure the Stanley Cup was awarded and returned in proper condition. Trustees are chosen by former trustees, and they have formal and absolute power over all matters regarding the Stanley Cup. The trustees have included the following:

• Philip D. Ross (1893–July 5, 1940)
• Sheriff John Sweetland (1893–May 5, 1907)
• William A. Foran (May 6, 1907–November 30, 1945; nominated by Philip Ross)
• J. Cooper Smeaton (February 24, 1946–October 3, 1978; nominated by Philip Ross)
• N.A.M. "Red" Dutton (March 3, 1950–March 15, 1987; nominated by Cooper Smeaton)
• Clarence S. Campbell (January 19, 1979–June 24, 1984; nominated by "Red" Dutton)
• Justice Willard Estey (August 16, 1984–January 25, 2002; nominated by "Red" Dutton)
• Brian O'Neill (May 5, 1988–July 21, 2023; nominated by Willard Estey)
• Ian "Scotty" Morrison (March 18, 2002; nominated by Brian O'Neill)

The Stanley Cup was originally intended to be awarded to the top hockey club in Canada. The first winner of the trophy was the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA), which was the champion of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada. During this era, the Stanley Cup could be challenged at any time during the hockey season. This was changed in 1912 when the trustees decided challenges could only come at the end of the previous champion's regular season. During the challenger era, clubs from Montreal dominated the championships. However, in 1915, the National Hockey Association and Pacific Coast Hockey Association decided the Cup should only be contested by clubs in their leagues, effectively ending the challenge era.

Beginning in 1906, due to the increasing popularity of hockey in Canada and the United States, players began turning professional. The sport's top league of the time—the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA)—decided to introduce professional players in 1906. By 1908, the two amateur teams in the league, the Montreal Hockey Club and Montreal Victorias, left the league to form the Interprovincial Amateur Hockey Union. This left the ECAHA to drop "amateur" from their name and become a professional league, the ECHA, which would be known later by the Canadian Hockey Association (CHA) in 1910.

From 1908 on, the Stanley Cup became a trophy for professional hockey teams. This led Sir H. Montagu Allan to donate a trophy in 1909 to be awarded to the top amateur team. In 1910, the CHA folded and the National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed. In 1911, another professional league, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), began playing. NHA teams dominated the Stanley Cup during these years.

The Influenza Pandemic of 1919 interrupted the Stanley Cup finals, when the Montreal Canadiens and Seattle Metropolitans, stuck in a series tie, had to pause as Montreal Canadiens players fell ill. The series was paused, during which Seattle Metropolitans players also fell ill. One Canadiens' player, Joe Hall, died, the series was canceled, and the Stanley Cup would not be awarded.

It was during this period, beginning in 1914, the Stanley Cup would begin to be awarded to teams from the United States. This came as the first American team, the Portland Rosebuds, joined the PCHA, and in 1916–1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Stanley Cup.

In 1917, the National Hockey League (NHL) was created, replacing the National Hockey Association. Meanwhile, five years later, the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) was created, and the Stanley Cup Final saw the three leagues pit champions against each other from 1922 to 1925. In 1925, the PCHA and WCHL merged to form the Western Hockey League, from which the Victoria Cougars won the 1924–1925 championship and became the last non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup.

Beginning in 1926, the Stanley Cup came under the exclusive control of the NHL, after the Western Hockey League folded to be replaced by the Prairie Hockey League (PHL). Except, before the formation of the PHL, the NHL had bought up the contracts of the best WHL players and added three American teams to the league. This led to the consideration of the PHL as a minor league, particularly compared to the NHL, and the PHL would fold in two years.

Due to the lack of professional hockey leagues throughout North America, the Stanley Cup became the de facto trophy of the NHL. During this period, there were challenges issued by teams and leagues outside of the NHL for the Stanley Cup championship, but the challenges were not accepted by the Cup trustees. In 1947, the NHL formally gained control of the Stanley Cup. Since that time, the trophy has been awarded to the winner of the Stanley Cup playoffs, a berth that is decided by the outcome of the NHL regular season, and in only one season has the trophy not been rewarded. This came in the 2004–2005 season, when a labor dispute shut the NHL regular season down and rendered the Stanley Cup Final impossible for that year.