Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the playoff champion of the National Hockey League. Lord Stanley of Preston, then governor general of Canada, donated the trophy in 1892, having purchased a silver bowl from a London silversmith for ten guineas. Originally called the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, it was first awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club and began as a challenge trophy contested among the top amateur teams in Canada, with professional teams becoming eligible in 1906. Between 1915 and 1926 it was contested between the champions of rival professional leagues; after 1926 the National Hockey League became the sole major league and the Cup became its de facto championship trophy, a status formalized in 1947 when the league gained control of it through an agreement with the trophy's trustees. Unlike other major North American sports trophies, a new cup is not made each year: since 1924 the winning team's players, coaches and staff have had their names engraved on the trophy's bands, and since 1995 each member of the winning team has been given a day to keep the Cup personally during the offseason. It has gone unawarded only twice, in 1919 because of an influenza epidemic and in 2005 because of a league-wide lockout. The Montreal Canadiens hold the record for the most championships won.