Stanley Cup Ring
The Stanley Cup ring is a trophy in the North American ice hockey league, NHL , given to players, coaches and other members of the team that won the Stanley Cup . Stanley Cup rings are not issued by the league, but by the teams themselves, who also bear the costs.
history
When the Montréal AAA were the first Stanley Cup winners in 1893 , each player was given a ring with the club's crest and two crossed clubs engraved on the top. The following year wristwatches were awarded and in 1915 the Vancouver Millionaires received medals. But then the ring established itself as a trophy for the members of the Stanley Cup teams.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were very successful in the 1960s, winning the Stanley Cup four times in six years. However, since the production of the rings was very costly for the team, only the team that won the first of the four titles received rings. In 1965 the Montréal Canadiens refused to award trophies for the players, whereupon the players had rings made out of their own pocket.
A Stanley Cup ring is now generally given to all players and coaches of the Stanley Cup winner, but also to officials and other employees of the franchise . In 1994, the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years. In addition to the current players, the surviving players from the 1940 championship team also received rings in recognition of their performance. The member of the Hockey Hall of Fame Harry Howell was in his 21-year career never win the Stanley Cup, but 17 years after his retirement from the NHL he was still a Stanley Cup ring when he 1990 for the Edmonton Oilers as Scout worked.
If a player has won the Stanley Cup with his team, his name is engraved on the trophy and he can keep it for a day and do whatever he wants with it. But after that the player would have no more memory of this great success and that is why Stanley Cup rings are very important for the players as a souvenir. The price for a ring is currently between 20,000 and 25,000 US dollars. The ring is decorated with elaborate engravings and the team's emblem and is surrounded by many precious stones.
Oddities
- Ice hockey player Jim Pappin won the Stanley Cup with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1967, but after he was transferred to the Chicago Black Hawks the following year, he wanted nothing more to do with the Maple Leafs and gave his ring to his father-in-law Peter Kyrzakos. In the 1970s, however, Kyrzakos lost the ring while vacationing in Vero Beach , Florida . He then asked Eddie Shack , a former teammate of Pappin, if he could have a duplicate of his ring made. It was not until 1982 that Kyrzakos told Pappin about the loss and gave him the duplicate. In August 2007, three years after Kyrzako's death, a diver with a metal detector finally found the ring with Pappin's name engraved on it in the Gulf of Mexico and returned it. The former professional ice hockey player then stated that he would sell the duplicate and that the diver would receive the proceeds as a finder's fee.