There are many traditions and anecdotes associated with the Stanley Cup. The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy of the National Hockey League (NHL), the major professional ice hockey league in Canada and the United States. It is commonly referred to as simply "The Cup", "The Holy Grail" or facetiously (chiefly by sportswriters) as "Lord Stanley's Mug".
Unlike the trophies awarded by the other three major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, a new Stanley Cup is not made annually; the champions keep the Cup until a new champion is crowned. It is also one of only two trophies in professional North American sports, which has the name of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved upon it, the other being the CFL's Grey Cup.
It is at the centre of several legends and superstitions. Many of these anecdotes involve the Stanley Cup being mistreated in some way. It is the most-travelled championship trophy in the world.
Traditions Drinking One of the oldest traditions, started by the 1896 Winnipeg Victorias, dictates that the winning team drink champagne from the top bowl after their victory. During a Late Show with David Letterman Top Ten list entitled "Perks of Winning the Stanley Cup", which happened after the New York Rangers won the Cup in 1994, number one was "My friend, you can't drink beer out of a Nobel Prize!"
On-ice presentation Another tradition is the on-ice presentation of the Cup by the NHL commissioner to the captain of the winning team after the series-winning victory. This differs from the championship trophy ceremonies in the other three major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, where the commissioners of Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, and National Football League instead present the Commissioner's Trophy, Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, and Vince Lombardi Trophy, respectively, to the owners of the winning team. The on-ice presentation of the Cup is typically preceded by the presentation of the Conn Smythe Trophy, in contrast to the other three leagues who usually present the World Series MVP, NBA Finals MVP, and Super Bowl MVP awards, respectively, after their championship trophy.
Possibly the first time that the Cup was awarded on the ice was to the 1932 Toronto Maple Leafs, and the practice became an annual tradition in the 1950s.
Captain hoisting the Cup After receiving the Cup, the captain of the winning team traditionally takes a lap around the ice with the trophy hoisted above his head. The Cup is then handed off to each member of the victorious club so they can also skate with the trophy. Normally, the alternate captain who has waited the longest to win the Cup gets the first lap after the captain. Ted Lindsay of the 1950 Cup champion Detroit Red Wings became the first player (Sid Abel was captain of Red Wings in 1950) to skate around with it, slightly raised for the crowd. The hoisting of the Cup above their heads is sometimes credited to Frank Mahovlich of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who was photographed doing so after the 1963 Stanley Cup Final). There are a few exceptions:
1988 In what would be Wayne Gretzky's final Cup win and final game as a member of the Edmonton Oilers, he gathered his teammates, coaches, trainers, and others from the Oilers organization to join at centre ice for an impromptu team photo with the trophy. This tradition has been continued by every subsequent Stanley Cup champion.
1993 The 1993 championship was won by the Montreal Canadiens. As Gary Bettman presented the Cup to Canadiens' captain Guy Carbonneau, Carbonneau waved to Denis Savard to come join him. Savard, who had played 10 seasons for the Chicago Blackhawks before being traded to Montreal in 1990–91 (the Blackhawks had since been to the Stanley Cup Final in 1992), had not played in the Cup Final in his career. Carbonneau let Savard hoist the Cup in his place.
1998 The 1998 championship was won by the defending champions Detroit Red Wings. The previous year, several days after their first Stanley Cup in 42 years, Vladimir Konstantinov had been paralyzed in an automobile accident that also paralyzed team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov. As Bettman gave the Cup to Red Wings' captain Steve Yzerman, he hoisted it before putting it on Konstantinov's lap and helping him parade with the trophy.
2001 The 2001 championship was won by the Colorado Avalanche. Until requesting a trade on March 6, 2000, Ray Bourque had played his entire career with the Boston Bruins. The seventh game of the 2001 Finals was the last of Bourque's 22-year NHL career. Though Bourque reached the Stanley Cup Final twice with the Bruins in 1988 and 1990, the Bruins fell both times to the Edmonton Oilers, and Bourque had never been on a Cup-winning team until joining the Avalanche. When captain Joe Sakic received the trophy, he did not hoist it, but instead immediately handed it to Bourque for him to hoist. Sakic then followed Bourque in hoisting the trophy.
Touching the Cup and Conference Trophies Another tradition (or rather superstition) that is prevalent among today's NHL players is that no player should touch the Cup itself until his team has rightfully won the Cup. Adding to this superstition is some players' choice to neither touch nor hoist the conference trophies (Clarence S. Campbell Bowl and Prince of Wales Trophy) when these series have been won; the players feel that the Stanley Cup is the true championship trophy, and only it should be hoisted. However, many examples exist where the Stanley Cup champion picked up their respect conference trophy.
New York Islanders captain Denis Potvin hoisted the Wales Trophy during the 1982 and 1983 playoffs en route to the club successfully defending the Cup each time, sweeping the Vancouver Canucks in 1982 and the Edmonton Oilers in 1983. Prior to this, no conference championship trophy was presented during the playoffs; instead, the Wales Trophy and the Campbell Bowl were awarded to the teams with the best regular season records in the respective conferences (the Islanders won the Campbell Bowl in 1980–81).
However, in 1994, Stephane Matteau, then of the New York Rangers, admitted that he tapped the Wales Trophy with his stick's blade before the overtime period in game seven of the Eastern Conference Final. Matteau subsequently scored the game-winning goal in double overtime against the New Jersey Devils. Following the game, Mark Messier, the captain of the Rangers, picked up and raised the Wales Trophy after it was awarded to the team. After winning the Western Conference, Vancouver Canucks captain Trevor Linden lifted the Campbell trophy. The Rangers prevailed over the Canucks in a seven-game series to win the Cup.
Between 2011 and 2015, none of the Stanley Cup finalists touched either the Campbell or the Wales trophies. The 2012 Los Angeles Kings, after defeating the Phoenix Coyotes in five games, went so far as leaving the Campbell Bowl in Phoenix. Tim Leiweke, President and CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group (owner of the Kings), later drove the trophy in his car trunk from Phoenix to Los Angeles and showed it to 10,000+ fans that waited at LAX Airport to show their support. The Kings later went on to win the Stanley Cup that year.
Six of the last ten Stanley Cup champions from the Eastern Conference have picked up the Prince of Wales Trophy. The four exceptions were the 2011 Boston Bruins, the 2024 and 2025 Florida Panthers, and the 2026 Carolina Hurricanes. Out of the last ten Cup champions from the Western Conference, only the 2022 Colorado Avalanche chose to pick up the Campbell Bowl.
"Win today and we walk together forever" This quote, written by Hockey Hall of Fame Philadelphia Flyers coach Fred Shero on the chalkboard in the team's locker room at the Spectrum before game 6 of the 1974 finals, which the Flyers won, has become synonymous with Stanley Cup-winning teams, particularly the 1974 Flyers as mentioned earlier.
Adventures One of the most recognized trophies in professional sports in the US and Canada, the Cup has logged more than during the past five seasons alone, due to the tradition of giving the players on the winning team a day of celebration with the trophy during the summer off-season following the playoffs.
Players' day with Cup Players have unofficially had a private day with the Cup, a tradition that started with the New Jersey Devils in 1995 wherein each member of the Cup-winning team is allowed personal possession of the Cup for a day. It is always accompanied by at least one representative from the Hockey Hall of Fame. The tradition became subject of an ESPN marketing campaign which showed players using the Cup: Ken Daneyko ate cereal out of it, Derian Hatcher used it as a cooler at a party, and Brett Hull locked himself out of his vehicle with the Cup inside while out shopping with Mike Modano. Tomas Holmström's cousin, Robert, used the trophy to baptize his seven-week-old daughter during Tomas' day with the Cup. Clark Gillies of the New York Islanders allowed his dog to eat out of the Cup. Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings had his two older boys drink chocolate milk out of the Cup. In 2015, Chico Resch, 1979-80 Stanley Cup champion with the New York Islanders, was arranged for the opportunity to spend his day with the Trophy, an honor that was unavailable in his playing days. This happened upon his retirement as a color commentator for New Jersey Devils. A 2023 promo ad for ESPN's SportsCenter showed Stanley Cup champions Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault of the Vegas Golden Knights running the trophy through a dishwasher, cleaning it up after a summer of day-with-a-player activities in preparation for the 2023–24 NHL season.
Europe The Cup first left North America in 1996 when it went to Sweden with Peter Forsberg; he took it to Stockholm as well as to his hometown Örnsköldsvik. In Russia, it has been to Red Square and a soccer game at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, and to a monument near Yekaterinburg marking the geographic boundary between Europe and Asia. It went west to Kyiv, Ukraine, for the first time with Tampa Bay Game-7 hero Ruslan Fedotenko; Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Anton Babchuk returned with it, again to Kyiv. After 114 years, the Cup made a trip in April 2006 back to London, where it was originally purchased. A plaque was placed at the site of the store where Lord Stanley purchased the Cup. In 2007, the Cup went to Helsinki, Finland, with Anaheim Ducks' forward Teemu Selänne. Tomas Holmström took the trophy to his hometown Piteå in Sweden in the summer of 2008. He used the trophy as a baptismal font for his niece, and also as a serving dish for pitepalt. Boston Bruins' captain Zdeno Chára took the Cup to Slovakia after winning it in 2011. In 2012, Anze Kopitar took the Cup to his home country of Slovenia and hoisted it atop Bled Castle after the Los Angeles Kings won that year.
North America