What kind of trophy is the stanley cup

More and more teams wanted to be immortalized, so the decision was made to put a separate single ring below the original Cup that each new winning roster would be etched on.

Between and , a new, more streamlined and vertical incarnation of the Cup was used. Since , five bands of championship names are engraved around the base of the Cup.

A blank replacement band is then put in its place to be filled with the names of the next champions. No championship team names from the to the season are currently on the Cup. In its year history, there have only been four official engravers sanctioned by the NHL.

The first was the Stanley Cup designer Carl Poul Peterson, a Danish engraver who moved to Montreal in and worked with his sons Arno, Ole, and John Paule in his engraving shop until his death in The current engraver is Louise St.

To inscribe each name individually, St. Jacques disassembles the Cup from the top down, and then clamps the band being engraved in a homemade circular jig. She uses special small hammers and a series of letter stamps to strike each letter into the silver while using a metal level to keep the names as straight as possible. Jacques estimates that each name takes approximately a half-hour to inscribe and that it takes a non-continuous—not to mention patient—ten hours to complete every name for the winning team.

Many champion player and team names are misspelled on the Cup. But fans believe the errors add to the idiosyncratic nature of the Cup. Wikimedia Commons. Since , the trophy has been presented to the playoff champion in the Eastern Conference.

Prince of Wales Trophy Winners. Presented by the member clubs for perpetual competition by the NHL in recognition of the services of Clarence S.

Campbell, League President from to , and awarded to the playoff champion in the Western Conference. Clarence S. Campbell Bowl Winners. The Conn Smythe Trophy is an annual award given to the most valuable player for his team in the playoffs. Conn Smythe Trophy Winners. The Hart Memorial Trophy is an annual award given to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team. Hart Memorial Trophy Winners. An annual award given to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the NHL, selected in a PWHA poll.

Calder Memorial Trophy Winners. The Vezina Trophy is an annual award given to the goalkeeper adjudged to be the best at this position as voted by the general managers of all NHL clubs.

Vezina Trophy Winners. An annual award given to the defenseman who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position. James Norris Memorial Trophy Winners. The Art Ross Trophy is an annual award given to the player who leads the National Hockey League in scoring points at the end of the regular season.

Every player to have won the cup in the history of the NHL , plus many from years prior to the NHL's existence, has their name engraved on the piece of hardware they won. Victorious players can look back through the list of names who have held the cup before them and feel a part of a rich history. They see the names of players they idolized growing up as they themselves hoist the same trophy above their heads.

Fans can search the rings for their team and remember the year they brought the championship home. The NHL didn't even play its first season until By then, the Stanley Cup had been associated with championship hockey for a quarter of a century. One of the great traditions of the NHL is that everyone who has his name on the cup gets to take the cup home with him for a day. What happens from there is where the stories come from. It has found many uses while in the care of the NHL's players, coaches and managers.

The cup has been used as everything from a flower pot to a baptismal. It has been a cooler, a champagne bowl, a urinal and a lawn ornament. The cup has also traveled the world, including a trip into a live combat zone in Afghanistan in It apparently came under rocket-propelled grenade fire, but escaped with no injuries.

Like many of us, the Stanley Cup hasn't always been treated well. This is just a sampling of some of the adventures the NHL's crown jewel has been on:. In , it was drop-kicked into the Rideau Canal in Ottawa.