The Stanley Cup is a trophy awarded annually to the playoff champion club of the National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey league. It was donated by the Governor General of Canada Lord Stanley of Preston in 1892, and is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America. [1] Inscribed the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy was first awarded to Canada's amateur ice hockey clubs who won the trophy as the result of challenge games and league play. Professional clubs came to dominate the competition in the early years of the twentieth century, and in 1913 the two major professional ice hockey organizations, the National Hockey Association (NHA), forerunner of the NHL, and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), reached a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other in an annual series for the Stanley Cup. After a series of league mergers and folds, it became the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926, though it was nominally still subject to external challenge. After 1947, the Cup became the de jure NHL championship prize.
From 1915 to the end of the 2023–24 season, the trophy has been won 108 times. 27 teams have won the cup, 22 of which are still active in the NHL. Prior to that, the challenge cup was held by nine teams. The Montreal Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup 24 times and made the Finals an additional 11 times. There were two years when the Stanley Cup was not awarded: 1919, because of the Spanish flu pandemic, and 2005, because of the 2004–05 NHL lockout.
The most recent winners of the Stanley Cup are the Florida Panthers, who won the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals.
The origins of the Challenge era come from the method of play of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada prior to 1893. From 1887 to 1893, the league did not play a round-robin format, but rather challenges between teams of the association that year, with the winner of the series being the 'interim' champion, with the final challenge winner becoming the league champion for the year. The Stanley Cup kept the tradition going, but added league championships as another way that a team could win the trophy. If a team in the same league as the current champion won the league championship, it would then inherit the Cup, without a challenge. The only time this rule was not followed was in 1904, when the Ottawa Senators club withdrew from its league, the CAHL. The trustees ruled that the Cup stayed with Ottawa, instead of the CAHL league champion.
During the challenge cup period, none of the leagues that played for the trophy had a formal playoff system to decide their respective champions; whichever team finished in first place after the regular season won the league title. [2] A playoff would only be played if teams tied for first-place in their leagues at the end of the regular season. Challenge games were played until 1912 at any time during hockey season by challenges approved and/or ordered by the Stanley Cup trustees. In 1912, Cup trustees declared that it was only to be defended at the end of the champion team's regular season. [3]
In 1908, the Allan Cup was introduced as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, as the Stanley Cup became a symbol of professional hockey supremacy. [4]
This table lists the outcome of all Stanley Cup wins, including successful victories and defenses in challenges, and league championships for the challenge era.
^ A. Although the Montreal Victorias won the AHAC title in 1895, the Stanley Cup trustees had already accepted a challenge from the 1894 Cup champion Montreal HC and Queen's University. As a compromise, the trustees decided that if the Montreal HC won the challenge match, the Victorias would become the Stanley Cup champions. The Montreals eventually won the game, 5–1, and their crosstown rivals were awarded the Cup.
^ B. Intended to be a best-of-three series, Ottawa Capitals withdrew their challenge after the first game.
^ C. The January 31 (a Saturday) game was tied 2–2 at midnight and the Mayor of Westmount refused to allow play to continue on Sunday. The game was played on February 2 (a Monday) and the January 31 game was considered to be void. [16]
^ D. For most of 1904, the Ottawa Hockey Club was not affiliated with any league.
^ E. The Montreal Wanderers were disqualified as the result of a dispute. After game one ended tied at the end of regulation, 5–5, the Wanderers refused to play overtime with the current referee, and then subsequently refused to play the next game of the series in Ottawa.
^ F. During the series, it was revealed that the Victoria club had not filed a formal challenge. A letter arrived from the Stanley Cup trustees on March 17, stating that the trustees would not let the Stanley Cup travel west, as they did not consider Victoria a proper challenger because they had not formally notified the trustees. [17] However, on March 18, Trustee William Foran stated that it was a misunderstanding. PCHA president Frank Patrick had not filed a challenge because he had expected Emmett Quinn, president of the NHA to make all of the arrangements in his role as hockey commissioner, whereas the trustees thought they were being deliberately ignored. In any case, all arrangements had been ironed out and the Victoria challenge was accepted. [18] [19]
Several days after the Victoria Aristocrats – Toronto Hockey Club series, Stanley Cup trustee William Foran wrote to NHA president Emmett Quinn that the trustees are "perfectly satisfied to allow the representatives of the three pro leagues (NHA, PCHA, and Maritime) to make all arrangements each season as to the series of matches to be played for the Cup." The Maritime league did not challenge for the Cup in 1914, and folded after the 1915 season. [20] The Stanley Cup championship finals alternated between the East and the West each year, with games played alternately under NHA or PCHA rules. [21] The Cup trustees agreed to this new arrangement, because after the Allan Cup became the highest prize for amateur hockey teams in Canada, the trustees had become dependent on the top two professional leagues to bolster the prominence of the trophy. [22]
After the New Westminster Royals moved to Portland in the summer of 1914 becoming the Portland Rosebuds, an American-based team, the trustees issued a statement that the Cup was no longer for the best team in Canada, but now for the best team in the world. [21] In March 1916, the Rosebuds became the first American team to play in the Stanley Cup championship final. [23] In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Cup. [24] After that season, the NHA suspended operations and the National Hockey League (NHL) took its place. [21]
In 1919, the Spanish influenza epidemic forced the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans to cancel their series tied at 2–2–1, marking the first time the Stanley Cup was not awarded. [25]
The format for the Stanley Cup championship changed in 1922, with the creation of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). Now three leagues competed for the Cup and this necessitated a semi-final series between two league champions, with the third having a bye directly to the final. [26] In 1924, the PCHA folded and only the Vancouver and Victoria teams entered the WCHL. With the loss of the PCHA, the championship reverted to a single series. [27] After their win in 1925, the Victoria Cougars became the last team outside the NHL to win the Stanley Cup. [28] For the 1925–26 season the WCHL was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL). With the Victoria Cougars' loss in 1926, it would be the last time a non-NHL team competed for the Stanley Cup.
When the WHL folded in 1926, its remaining assets were acquired by the NHL, making it the only remaining league with teams competing for the Cup. Other leagues and clubs have issued challenges, but from that year forward no non-NHL team has played for it, leading it to become the de facto championship trophy of the NHL. [27] In 1947, the NHL reached an agreement with trustees P. D. Ross and Cooper Smeaton to grant control of the Cup to the NHL, allowing the league itself to reject challenges from other leagues that may have wished to play for the Cup. [30] [31] A 2006 Ontario Superior Court case found that the trustees had gone against Lord Stanley's conditions in the 1947 agreement. [32] The NHL has agreed to allow other teams to play for the Cup should the league not be operating, as was the case in the 2004–05 NHL lockout. [31]
Since 1927, the league's playoff format, deciding which teams advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, has changed multiple times. In some systems that were previously used, playoff teams were seeded regardless of division or conference. From 1942 to 1967 the Cup was competed for by the league's six teams, also known as the Original Six. For three seasons after the 1967 NHL Expansion, the Finals was competed between the East Division champion and the West Division champion. In 1971, the league returned to using playoff systems that allowed cross-over between the divisions and conferences. From 1982 to 2020, the Finals was played between the league's conference playoff champions; during that period the Campbell/Western champions went a combined 111–101 in the Finals against the Wales/Eastern champions (winning 20 of 38 series). In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting travel restrictions along the Canada–United States border forced the league to temporarily realign the teams into four regional divisions with no conferences, and hold a divisional-based playoff format: the four divisional playoff champions advanced to the Stanley Cup Semifinals, and the winners of those series moved on to the Finals. The league then returned to the Eastern vs. Western Conference format in 2022. [33]
Legend: SC = successful Stanley Cup challenge or defense of championship (win); UC = unsuccessful Stanley Cup challenge or defense of championship (loss); Years in bold denote a Stanley Cup win.
Team | SC | UC | Total | Win % | Appearances |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ottawa HC | 17 | 2 | 19 | .895 | 1894, 1903 (2), 1904 (4), 1905 (3), 1906 (2), 1906, 1909, 1910 (2), 1911 (3) |
Montreal Wanderers | 10 | 2 | 12 | .833 | 1904, 1906 (2), 1907, 1907, 1908 (5), 1910 (2) |
Winnipeg Victorias | 6 | 5 | 11 | .545 | 1896 (2), 1896, 1899, 1900, 1901 (2), 1902 (2), 1902, 1903 |
Montreal Victorias | 6 | 2 | 8 | .750 | 1895, 1896, 1896, 1897 (2), 1898, 1899, 1903 |
Montreal Shamrocks | 5 | 1 | 6 | .833 | 1899 (2), 1900 (3), 1901 |
Montreal HC | 5 | 0 | 5 | 1.000 | 1893, 1894, 1895, 1902, 1903 |
Quebec Bulldogs | 4 | 0 | 4 | 1.000 | 1912 (2), 1913 (2) |
Rat Portage/Kenora Thistles | 2 | 3 | 5 | .400 | 1903, 1905, 1907 (2), 1907 |
Toronto Blueshirts | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1.000 | 1914 (2) |
Queen's University | 0 | 3 | 3 | .000 | 1895, 1899, 1906 |
Brandon Wheat City | 0 | 2 | 2 | .000 | 1904, 1907 |
Edmonton HC | 0 | 2 | 2 | .000 | 1908, 1910 |
Galt HC | 0 | 2 | 2 | .000 | 1910, 1911 |
Winnipeg Maple Leafs | 0 | 2 | 2 | .000 | 1901, 1908 |
The following 16 teams unsuccessfully challenged for a Stanley Cup only once: Berlin Dutchmen (1910), Dawson City Nuggets (1905), Halifax Crescents (1900), Moncton Victorias (1912), Montreal Canadiens (1914), New Glasgow Cubs (1906), Ottawa Capitals (1897), Ottawa Victorias (1908), Port Arthur Bearcats (1911), Smiths Falls (1906), Sydney Millionaires (1913), Toronto Marlboros (1904), Toronto Professionals (1908), Toronto Wellingtons (1902), Victoria Aristocrats (1914), Winnipeg Rowing Club (1904).
In the sortable table below, teams are ordered first by number of appearances, then by number of wins, and finally by alphabetical order. In the "Season(s)" column, bold years indicate winning Stanley Cup Finals appearances. Unless marked otherwise, teams played in the NHL exclusively at the time they competed for the Stanley Cup.
Five active teams have yet to make a Stanley Cup Finals appearance. Four of these teams have remained in the same location since their inception:
The other team has relocated and has not made the Finals in either location:
Five relocated teams have won the Stanley Cup in their current location, but never in their former location:
Listed after the team name is the name of the affiliated league(s) when the team competed for the Stanley Cup. A bold year denotes a Stanley Cup win.
Apps | Team | Wins | Losses | Win % | Season(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | Ottawa Senators (NHA/NHL) | 4 | 1 | .800 | 1915, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1927 |
4 | Vancouver Millionaires (PCHA/WCHL) | 1 | 3 | .250 | 1915, 1918, 1921, 1922 |
3 | Montreal Maroons (NHL) | 2 | 1 | .667 | 1926, 1928, 1935 |
3 [a] | Seattle Metropolitans (PCHA) | 1 | 1 [a] | .500 | 1917, 1919 [a] , 1920 |
2 | Victoria Cougars (WCHL/WHL) | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1925, 1926 |
1 | Portland Rosebuds (PCHA) | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1916 |
1 | Edmonton Eskimos (WCHL) | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1923 |
1 | Calgary Tigers (WCHL) | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1924 |
The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) considers it to be one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The trophy was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada, who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The entire Stanley family supported the sport, the sons and daughters all playing and promoting the game. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club, and winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play. Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. In 1915, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the two main professional ice hockey organizations, reached an agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup. It was established as the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926 and then the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.
The National Hockey Association (NHA), initially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey League (NHL), and much of the business processes of the NHL today are based on the NHA. Founded in 1909 by Ambrose O'Brien, the NHA introduced 'six-man hockey' by removing the 'rover' position in 1911. During its lifetime, the league coped with competition for players with the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the enlistment of players for World War I and disagreements between owners. The disagreements between owners came to a head in 1917, when the NHA suspended operations in order to get rid of an unwanted owner, Eddie Livingstone.
Curtis Lester Patrick was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach associated with the Victoria Aristocrats/Cougars of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, and the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Along with his brother Frank Patrick and father Joseph Patrick, he founded the PCHA and helped develop several rules for the game of hockey. Patrick won the Stanley Cup six times as a player, coach and manager.
The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was a professional ice hockey league in western Canada and the western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The PCHA was considered to be a major league of ice hockey and was important in the development of the sport of professional ice hockey through its innovations.
The 1917–18 NHL season was the first season of the National Hockey League (NHL) professional ice hockey league. The league was formed after the suspension of the National Hockey Association (NHA). Unwilling to continue dealing with Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone, the other NHA team owners formed the NHL, initially as a temporary measure after realizing the NHA constitution did not allow them to force Livingstone out. The Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, and Ottawa Senators moved to the NHL. A then-temporary team, the Toronto Hockey Club, was formed to replace Livingstone's team, but the club played without an official nickname for the season. Meanwhile, the Quebec Bulldogs suspended operations prior to the season.
The O'Brien Trophy, or O'Brien Cup, as labelled on the trophy itself, is a retired trophy that was awarded in the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey leagues of North America from 1910 to 1950. It was originally donated to the NHA by Canadian Senator M. J. O'Brien in honour of his son, Ambrose O'Brien. The Cup was fabricated using silver from an O'Brien mine.
The 1919–20 NHL season was the third season of the National Hockey League (NHL). A Quebec team was activated by the NHL, increasing the number of teams to four. Following changes in its ownership, the Toronto NHL franchise adopted the Toronto St. Patricks name. The four teams played 24 games in a split-schedule format. The Ottawa Senators won the league championship by winning both halves of the split-season. The Senators went on to win the Stanley Cup for the first time since the Cup challenge era ended and their eighth time overall, by defeating the PCHA's Seattle Metropolitans three games to two in a best-of-five series in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.
The 1923–24 NHL season was the seventh season of the National Hockey League. Four teams each played 24 games. The league champions were the Montreal Canadiens, who defeated the first-place Ottawa Senators in the league playoff. The Canadiens then defeated the Calgary Tigers of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) and Vancouver Maroons of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) to win their second Stanley Cup championship.
The Stanley Cup Finals in ice hockey is the National Hockey League's (NHL) annual championship series. The winner is awarded the Stanley Cup, North America's oldest professional sports trophy, and one of the "most important championships available to the sport [of ice hockey]" according to the International Ice Hockey Federation.
The 1915 Stanley Cup Finals was played from March 22–26, 1915. The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) champion Vancouver Millionaires swept the National Hockey Association (NHA) champion Ottawa Senators three games to none in a best-of-five game series. The finals were played in Vancouver, with games one, three and five played under PCHA rules. The Millionaires became the first team from the PCHA to win the Cup. This was the second Stanley Cup championship series between the champions of the NHA and the PCHA and the first held in a PCHA rink.
The 1919 Stanley Cup Finals was the ice hockey playoff series to determine the 1919 Stanley Cup champions. The series was cancelled due to an outbreak of Spanish flu after five games had been played, and no champion was declared. It was the only time in the history of the Stanley Cup that it was not awarded due to a no-decision after playoffs were held.
The 1925 Stanley Cup Finals saw the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) champion Victoria Cougars defeat the National Hockey League (NHL) champion Montreal Canadiens three games to one in a best-of-five game series. The Canadiens were substitute NHL representatives, as the final series to decide the NHL champion was not played.
The 1913–14 NHA season was the fifth season of the National Hockey Association (NHA). At the end of the regular season, a tie for first place necessitated a playoff to determine the championship. The Toronto Hockey Club defeated the Montreal Canadiens 6–2 in a two-game, total-goals playoff. The Torontos then played the Victoria Aristocrats of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) in the first Stanley Cup 'World's Series' between the leagues.
The 1913–14 PCHA season was the third season of the professional men's ice hockey Pacific Coast Hockey Association league. Season play ran from December 5, 1913, until February 24, 1914. Like the previous two seasons, teams were to play a 16-game schedule, but one game was cancelled. The Victoria Aristocrats club would be the PCHA champions. After the season, Victoria travelled to Toronto to play the Toronto Hockey Club, National Hockey Association (NHA) champions, in a challenge series for the 1914 Stanley Cup. Toronto won the series.
The 1916–17 PCHA season was the sixth season of the professional men's ice hockey Pacific Coast Hockey Association league. Season play ran from December 1, 1916, until March 2, 1917. The season was expanded to 24 games per team, except that the final game was cancelled. The Seattle Metropolitans club would be PCHA champions. After the season the club would play the Stanley Cup finals series against the Montreal Canadiens, NHA champions. Seattle would win the best-of-five series 3–1 to win the Cup.
William Michael Foran was an ice hockey executive, Stanley Cup trustee and government official. For over 50 years, he was secretary of the Board of Civil Service Examiners and its follow-up organization, the Civil Service Commission of the Government of Canada.
The 1913–14 Toronto Hockey Club season was the second season of the Toronto franchise in the National Hockey Association (NHA). The Blue Shirts would win the NHA championship in a playoff to take over the Stanley Cup. The club then played and defeated the Victoria Aristocrats in the first hockey "World Series" against the champion of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA).
The Lord Stanley's Gift Monument is a monument in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It commemorates the donation of the Stanley Cup ice hockey championship trophy by Canada's Governor-General the Lord Stanley of Preston in 1893. It is located on the eastern end of the Sparks Street Mall. It was constructed at the culmination of a public campaign to commemorate the donation of the trophy.