A Pretty Girls Guide to the NHL Trophies

A Pretty Girls Guide to:

The NHL Trophies

Hockey is not just about goals, fights, playoff beards, and men refusing to touch conference trophies. The NHL has an entire trophy universe where some awards are about winning, some are about being the best player in the world, some are about being the best rookie, some are about defense, leadership, sportsmanship, community impact, and some are basically just “you carried your team on your back and everyone saw it.”

Once you understand the trophies, you understand hockey culture so much better, because every NHL trophy tells you something different. The Stanley Cup is the dream, the Vezina is goalie royalty, the Calder is for the rookies, and so much more.

So here’s your Pretty Girls Guide to the NHL trophies! You'll find out what they mean, why they matter, and what has made them iconic.

The Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is awarded every year to the NHL playoff champion. It is the trophy, not just in hockey, but in sports. The NHL officially describes it as the championship trophy awarded annually to the NHL playoff winner. I describe it as the hardest trophy to win in all of sports.

This is the fairytale ending, it is the thing every player dreams about before they even make the league. It is the sole trophy every single hockey player dreams of accomplishing, holding in their hands, spending a day with, taking a drink out of, or even baptising their children in.

The Stanley Cup is not about being the best team in October, December, or even March. It is about surviving the playoffs with four brutal rounds, endless overtime, injuries nobody fully admits to, and major chaos. Winning the Cup means you were not just talented, you were tough, deep, disciplined, lucky, and built for pressure.

And then there are the traditions. Every player on the winning team gets their own day with the Cup, which is why you see it traveling everywhere — hometowns, family parties, lakes, schools, hospitals, restaurants, and sometimes extremely random places. Players bring it back to the people and places that shaped them, which makes the trophy feel less like an object and more like a shared memory.

The Stanley Cup also comes with heavy superstition. One of the biggest unwritten rules in hockey is that players do not touch the Cup unless they have actually won it. That is why conference trophies like the Prince of Wales Trophy and Clarence S. Campbell Bowl can get awkward! Some teams flat out refuse to touch them because they do not want to “jinx” the real goal. Hockey players are famously superstitious, and the Cup is at the center of all of that drama.

That is why the Stanley Cup feels bigger than a normal championship. It has history, tradition, superstition, heartbreak, and romance. It is champagne in the locker room, tears on the ice, names engraved forever, and grown men completely losing it because the dream they had as kids finally became real.

The Montreal Canadiens are the ultimate Stanley Cup dynasty, with a record 24 total Stanley Cups, including 23 since the formation of the NHL. The Hockey Hall of Fame also notes that Montreal won five straight championships from 1956 through 1960, which remains the record for consecutive Cup wins. 

Presidents’ Trophy

The Presidents’ Trophy goes to the team with the best overall regular-season record. The NHL says it has been awarded since 1985-86 to the club finishing the regular season with the best overall record. The Presidents’ Trophy rewards consistency, it basically says that across 82 games, this team was the best – they won the most, collected the most points, and dominated the long regular-season grind.

It is a huge accomplishment, but it comes with complicated energy because hockey fans love talking about the so-called “Presidents’ Trophy curse.” Basically, regular-season dominance does not guarantee playoff success. The playoffs are their own beast so winning the Presidents’ Trophy doesn’t really mean much in the playoffs.

The Detroit Red Wings have won the Presidents’ Trophy six times, the most by any team. But remember when I said it doesn’t guarantee success? The Vancouver Canucks won this trophy in 2011-2012, and were expected to be Stanley Cup Champions, but the eighth seed team, the team who barely made playoffs, dominated them. The Los Angeles Kings won the cup that year, perhaps proving the Presidents’ Trophy curse.

Prince of Wales Trophy

The Prince of Wales Trophy was donated to the NHL in 1924 and, since 1993-94, has been awarded to the playoff champion in the Eastern Conference. This is the “you made it to the final boss” trophy for the East.

Winning the Prince of Wales Trophy means a team survived the Eastern Conference playoffs and earned a spot in the Stanley Cup Final. It is not the end goal, but it is a massive accomplishment. This trophy also has one of hockey’s funniest traditions because some teams touch it, some teams refuse to touch it, all due to hockey players being extremely superstitious and not wanting to look like they are celebrating before winning the Stanley Cup.

Clarence S. Campbell Bowl

The Clarence S. Campbell Bowl is awarded to the playoff champion in the Western Conference. It honors Clarence S. Campbell, who served as NHL president from 1946 to 1977. This is the West’s version of the Prince of Wales Trophy. If you win the Campbell Bowl, you are the last team standing in the Western Conference and you are going to the Stanley Cup Final.

Like the Prince of Wales Trophy, it is a major accomplishment but also kind of an awkward middle step. You want to be proud, but not too proud. You want the Stanley Cup, not the “almost there” trophy, so, again, some teams touch it, and some teams refuse to touch it.

Conn Smythe Trophy

The Conn Smythe Trophy is awarded to the most valuable player for his team in the playoffs, selected by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association at the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final. 

The Conn Smythe is not about who had the best regular season, it is about who became unavoidable when everything mattered most. The player who scores the huge goals, steals games, shuts everything down, or carries the emotional weight of the playoffs. You don’t have to win the Stanley Cup to win the Conn Smythe, nor do you have to be a forward/defenseman, goalies can win it, too!

This trophy can turn a great player into a legend. Playoff performance has a different kind of weight in hockey. The regular season tells us who you are, but playoffs tell us what you are made of.

Patrick Roy is the only three-time Conn Smythe winner. Other two-time winners include Bobby Orr, Bernie Parent, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Sidney Crosby. Connor McDavid actually won the Conn Smythe while losing the Stanley Cup.

Hart Memorial Trophy

The Hart Memorial Trophy goes to the player judged most valuable to his team during the regular season. It is also voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. 

This is the league MVP trophy. It’s not asking who the best player is, but it’s asking which player’s team needed him the most? Who mattered the most to his team’s success? A player can score a million points and still not win the Hart if voters feel another player was more essential to his team’s success.

This is the award for the player whose presence changes everything. When he is on the ice, the team feels more dangerous. When he is not, you notice. This player is the one driving the offense, carrying the momentum, making everyone around him better, and giving his team a chance in games they probably had no business winning.

Winning the Hart means your season was not just impressive, but it became part of the league’s identity that year. You were not just one of the best players in hockey, you were the player people talked about, game-planned around, feared, debated, and remembered.

Hart winners are usually the names that define eras like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, or Connor McDavid. So when a player wins the Hart, it signals that he did not just have a great season, he had the kind of season that gets placed into hockey history.

Wayne Gretzky won the Hart a record nine times, including eight straight from 1980-87. Gretzky and Mark Messier are the only players to win the Hart with more than one team. 

Calder Memorial Trophy

The Calder Memorial Trophy goes to the NHL’s top rookie, selected by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. Basically, this is hockey’s Rookie of the Year award, it is the trophy for the player who enters the league and immediately makes people stop and pay attention.

The Calder is for the new player who does not feel like a new player for very long. He steps into the NHL, which is faster, harder, more physical, and way more demanding than almost any league he has played in before, and somehow still finds a way to make an impact. Maybe he starts scoring right away, maybe he looks unusually calm under pressure, or maybe he becomes a major part of his team’s identity before anyone expected him to.

A Calder win can be the beginning of a superstar storyline, it gives fans a first glimpse into the future of the NHL. A lot of players who win or even get nominated for the Calder end up becoming franchise players, team leaders, All-Stars, or the faces of a new era. It also matters because rookies have to prove themselves fast. They are adjusting to bigger arenas, stronger opponents, longer travel, media attention, and the pressure of trying to earn trust from coaches and teammates. So when a rookie stands out enough to win the Calder, it usually means he did not just survive, he dominated his first year.

The Toronto Maple Leafs lead all teams with 10 Calder winners. In 2026, Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer became the youngest Calder winner ever!

Vezina Trophy

The Vezina Trophy goes to the goaltender judged to be the best at his position, voted on by NHL general managers. This is the goalie crown.

Goalies are already their own genre of person, and the Vezina is for the one who was the best of the best, the calmest under pressure, the most impossible to beat, and in all reality, the reason opposing teams started questioning their life choices.

A great goalie can change everything. Hockey is chaotic, but an elite goalie can make chaos feel survivable. The biggest reason the aforementioned 2011-2012 Los Angeles Kings were able to beat the Presidents’ Trophy winners was because a young Jonathan Quick stepped up to the task (although, he was a finalist of this trophy and didn’t win.) Goalies determine your team. Goalies are also the reason why Conn Smythe winner Connor McDavid hasn’t touched the Stanley Cup (at least, that's the case if you ask Oilers fans.) This trophy is for the brick wall.

Jacques Plante holds the record with seven Vezina wins. Bill Durnan and Dominik Hasek each won six, with Hasek holding the most wins under the current “best individual goalie” voting system. 

James Norris Memorial Trophy

The Norris Trophy goes to the defenseman who demonstrates the greatest all-around ability at the position throughout the season. This is the best defenseman award.

This award is not just about blocking shots. A Norris-level defenseman controls the game by defending, creating offense, moving the puck, playing huge minutes, and somehow making it all look so easy. Defensemen are the architecture of a hockey team. The best ones are not just stopping plays, they are building them from the blue-line.

Defense is one of the hardest positions to fully appreciate when you are new to hockey because the best defensemen are not always doing the loudest thing. Sometimes their greatness is in what doesn’t happen, like the pass that never gets through, the scoring chance that disappears, the clean breakout that turns pressure into offense, or the calm decision at the blue line that keeps the play alive.

That is what makes the Norris trophy so important. It recognizes the players who can do everything from the back end. A true Norris contender is not just a defensive specialist, he is usually a two-way force: someone who can shut down elite players in his own zone and then create offense going the other way. The best defensemen are also trusted with huge responsibility. They are often on the ice late in close games, on the penalty kill, on the power play, and in the hardest matchups. Coaches lean on them because they stabilize everything, so when a team has a great defenseman, the entire team feels more confident.

Bobby Orr won the Norris a record eight consecutive times from 1968 to 1975. Doug Harvey and Nicklas Lidstrom each won it seven times. The most recent winner was Cale Makar!

Art Ross Trophy

The Art Ross Trophy goes to the player who leads the NHL in points at the end of the regular season. Points mean goals plus assists. 

The Art Ross is not voted on, it is purely numbers. Whoever finishes the regular season with the most points wins. This trophy tells you who produced the most offense all season. Goals are glamorous, but assists count too, and the Art Ross rewards total offensive impact.

The Art Ross Trophy rewards the full offensive picture, meaning a player does not have to be only a pure goal scorer to win it. He can be an elite playmaker, a scoring machine, or the rare player who does both at an absurd level. The award captures who was driving offense night after night, whether he was finishing the play himself or creating the perfect chance for someone else.

A true Art Ross winner is usually the kind of player defenses obsess over. Opposing teams build entire game plans around stopping him, and he still finds a way to produce. He sees passing lanes before they open, turns small mistakes into scoring chances, and makes his teammates more dangerous just by being on the ice.

The Art Ross also matters because consistency is everything. It is not enough to have a few huge games or a hot month. To lead the NHL in points, a player has to produce over an 82-game season, through travel, injuries, slumps, tough matchups, and every team trying to shut him down. Winning it means he was not just talented, he was relentlessly productive.

Wayne Gretzky won the Art Ross a record 10 times, including seven straight from 1980-81 through 1986-87. Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, and Connor McDavid are next with six each. 

Frank J. Selke Trophy

The Frank J. Selke Trophy goes to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game. In simpler terms, this is the award for the best defensive forward in the NHL.

The Selke is for forwards who do the unglamorous, necessary work like shutting down opponents, winning faceoffs, playing smart in their own zone, killing penalties, reading plays before they become dangerous, and making life easier for everyone else on the ice. A Selke-level forward is not just thinking about scoring, he is thinking about everything. They are thinking about where the puck is going, which opponent is open, when to pressure, when to stay back, when to break up a pass, when to turn defense into offense. He is the player coaches trust in the most stressful moments because he is not going to panic, overcommit, or leave the team exposed.

The Selke matters because hockey is not only about who scores the most, it is also about who can be trusted when the other team’s best players are on the ice. These are the forwards who get sent out for defensive-zone faceoffs, late-game leads, penalty kills, and tough matchups against elite scorers. They are often doing the hard, invisible labor that casual fans may not notice right away, but coaches, teammates, and serious hockey people absolutely do.

A great Selke player can completely change a game without having a flashy highlight. He might erase the other team’s top line, win a crucial faceoff, break up a dangerous rush, or make the smart little play that keeps his team in control. That is why this award has such mature energy. The Selke is for the forward who understands that being great is not just about being the star of the moment, sometimes it is about being the reason the other team never gets their moment at all.

Patrice Bergeron is the king of this award, winning the Selke a record six times. Other major Selke names include Bob Gainey, Guy Carbonneau, Pavel Datsyuk, Jere Lehtinen, Aleksander Barkov, and Anze Kopitar.

Kopitar especially deserves a mention because he is one of the best examples of Selke energy in the modern NHL. He has won the Selke multiple times and has built a career on being calm, smart, reliable, and elite in every zone. For the Los Angeles Kings, Kopitar has been the definition of a two-way center: someone who can produce offensively, take on the hardest defensive assignments, win important faceoffs, and make the entire team feel more stable. He is not always the loudest player on the ice, but he is almost always one of the most trusted. And if you ask most hockey fans, they will tell you that Kopitar is the single-most underrated two-way player this game has ever seen.

Lady Byng Memorial Trophy

The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy goes to the player who combines sportsmanship, gentlemanly conduct, and a high standard of playing ability. Basically, this is the award for the player who is really, really good, but not constantly in the penalty box acting insane.

This is the “talented gentleman” trophy. The Lady Byng is for the player who can produce, compete, and make an impact without playing reckless, messy, or overly chaotic hockey. It is the ultimate trophy of respect and gentlemanness (is that even a real word?)

In a sport known for physicality, intensity, and the occasional full-on meltdown, the Lady Byng rewards discipline without making skill feel boring. These are not players who are “nice” because they are irrelevant, they are still elite, they still score, defend, make plays, and compete at a high level. The difference is that they do it with control.

That is what makes the award interesting. Hockey is emotional, probably the most emotionally heightened major sport, where players get hit, chirped, shoved, frustrated, and tested every single game. A Lady Byng-type player is someone who can handle all of that without constantly taking bad penalties or losing his composure. He plays hard, but he plays smart, and he knows how to stay effective without giving the other team free power plays.

The Lady Byng is also a reminder that there are different ways to be respected in hockey, that sometimes the most impressive thing is being consistently excellent while staying composed.

Frank Boucher won the Lady Byng a record seven times, Wayne Gretzky won it five times, proving that even the greatest offensive player ever could dominate without constantly crossing the line. Red Kelly and Pavel Datsyuk each won it four times, and Datsyuk especially feels very Lady Byng-coded because his game was so skilled, smart, and smooth.

Anze Kopitar also belongs in this conversation, this man won his third Lady Byng in 2025, adding to a career built on calm, controlled, highly respected hockey. Kopitar is such a good example of what this award represents because he plays a complete game without needing to be reckless. 

Jack Adams Award

The Jack Adams Award goes to the coach judged to have contributed the most to his team’s success. It is selected by members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association. This is coach of the year, basically.

This award usually goes to the coach whose team overachieved, transformed, shocked people, or became way better than expected. Sometimes that means taking a team people counted out and turning them into a playoff threat, sometimes it means helping a young roster grow up fast, and sometimes it means stepping into a chaotic situation and somehow making the entire team look organized, confident, and bought in.

Coaching in hockey is about so much more than standing behind the bench looking stressed. A great coach builds the system a team plays in like how they defend, how they break the puck out, how aggressive they are, how they manage pressure, and how they respond when things go wrong. But it is also about trust. Hockey teams are full of different personalities, veterans, rookies, stars, role players, goalies, and players all fighting for ice time. A good coach has to manage the room, set expectations, make adjustments, and get everyone to believe in the same plan. When that works, a team can look completely different from one season to the next.

That is why the Jack Adams often feels like a transformation award. It recognizes the coach who changed the energy around a team, the one who took the roster they had and got more out of it than people expected.

Pat Burns is the only coach to win the Jack Adams with three different teams, which says a lot about his ability to walk into different situations and make an immediate impact. The Boston Bruins have had the most Jack Adams winners by franchise, with five.

Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy

The Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy goes to the NHL’s top goal scorer during the regular season. In simple terms, this is the goal scorer trophy. Unlike the Art Ross, this one is not about total points or assists, it is simply about who put the puck in the net the most.

Goals are the ultimate hockey currency. You can have beautiful passes, smart zone entries, and perfect setup plays, but eventually someone has to actually score. The Rocket Richard celebrates the player who delivered the most finishing power over the regular season. This award is especially fun because goal scorers have a very specific kind of aura. They are dangerous even when they are quiet, they can disappear for half a period and then suddenly change the entire game with one shot. A true Rocket Richard contender does not need a perfect chance, he can just turn a small opening, a loose puck, a power-play look, or a split-second mistake into a goal.

It also rewards consistency. Scoring the most goals in the NHL is not just about having a hot week or a few big games, it means producing all season while every opponent knows you are the threat. Teams build defensive plans around stopping these players, goalies study their shots, and somehow they still keep scoring.

The trophy is named after Maurice “Rocket” Richard, one of the most legendary goal scorers in hockey history. He was the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in 50 games, the first to score 50 goals in a season, and the first to reach 500 career goals. So the award is not just named after a great player, it is named after one of the original symbols of pure goal-scoring dominance.

Alex Ovechkin is the modern face of this trophy. He has won the Rocket Richard nine times, the most ever, and his career has basically been a masterclass in how terrifying a true goal scorer can be. Everyone knows where he wants to shoot from, everyone knows the puck is probably coming to him, and he still finds a way to score. I mean, after twenty years you would think they knew how to shut Ovi down…

King Clancy Memorial Trophy

The King Clancy Memorial Trophy goes to the player who best exemplifies leadership on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community. Basically, this is the NHL’s heart-of-the-league trophy.

This award is not just about being a good player, it is about being the kind of person who understands that having a platform means something. King Clancy winners are players who show leadership in the locker room, in their city, and in the lives of people who may never put on an NHL jersey. They use hockey to support causes, build community, raise awareness, and make the sport feel bigger than wins and losses.

The King Clancy is for the player who gives “team captain,” even when he is not wearing the C. It is leadership, not just speeches in the locker room, but with actual action. The King Clancy recognizes the human side of hockey, reminding fans that leadership is not just about wearing a letter on your jersey, scoring in big moments, or being the loudest voice on the bench. Real leadership can also look like showing up for your community, starting a foundation, supporting families, advocating for mental health, helping kids access the sport, or using your name to bring attention to people who need support.

That is what makes this trophy feel different from the performance-based awards. The Hart tells us who was most valuable, the Art Ross tells us who scored the most points, the Vezina tells us who dominated in net, but the King Clancy tells us who made an impact beyond the scoreboard. A player who wins this award is usually someone deeply connected to the place he plays. He is not just passing through the city as an athlete, he is investing in it as a person. That might mean working with hospitals, youth programs, cancer research, inclusion initiatives, food insecurity programs, military families, mental health organizations, or other causes close to his life and community.

Henrik Sedin is the only player to win the King Clancy more than once, which says a lot about the kind of respect he built both on and off the ice. Recent winners include Aleksander Barkov in 2025, Anders Lee in 2024, and Mikael Backlund in 2023.

This award celebrates players who lead with consistency, generosity, and a real sense of responsibility. This award is not about one good charity event or one nice headline, it’s about sustained impact that made the community better.

Ted Lindsay Award

The Ted Lindsay Award is presented to the NHL’s “most outstanding player,” as voted by fellow NHLPA members. It was formerly known as the Lester B. Pearson Award, but was renamed in honor of Ted Lindsay, a Hall of Fame player and one of the most important figures in the history of player rights in hockey. In simple terms, this is the players’ choice award that awards the superstar among the superstars.

The Ted Lindsay is the “game recognizes game” trophy. The Hart is voted on by writers, but the Ted Lindsay is voted on by the players, which makes it feel very different. The guys voting for this award are not watching from the press box or analyzing from the outside, they are the ones trying to defend him, chase him, hit him, stop his shot, block his passing lanes, and survive his shifts. So when a player wins the Ted Lindsay, it means his peers know exactly how hard he was to deal with. They know what it felt like when he was on the ice, how much space he created, how fast the game moved around him, how impossible he was to contain, and how much stress he put on everyone trying to stop him.

It is one thing for writers to say you were the best, it is another thing for the league’s players to collectively admit that you were the problem every team had to solve. The award also has legacy weight because it is usually won by the players who define eras. These are not just good seasons, these are seasons where a player felt like the standard of excellence in the league, the one everyone else was measuring themselves against.

Wayne Gretzky has won the award five times, the most by any player, which is exactly what you would expect from someone who basically rewrote what offensive dominance looked like. Mario Lemieux and Connor McDavid are among the next leading winners with four each. This should tell you everything about the award and what it represents: generational talents, franchise-defining stars, and players who make other elite athletes look human.

William M. Jennings Trophy

The Jennings Trophy goes to the goalie or goalies who played at least 25 games for the team that allowed the fewest goals during the regular season. In simple terms, this is the award for the goalie, or goalie duo, behind the NHL’s stingiest defensive team.

While this is technically a goalie award, it also reflects the full team in front of them. A Jennings winner usually had elite goaltending, strong defensemen, responsible forwards, good penalty killing, and a system that made life miserable for opposing offenses.

The Jennings is not as flashy as the Vezina because it is based on team goals allowed, not a vote for the single best goalie, but it still tells you something really important about the team. These teams are usually the ones that were incredibly hard to break down. It also gives love to goalie tandems, which matters because not every great defensive season belongs to one goalie carrying the entire workload, sometimes, two goalies split the net and both deserve credit for keeping the team steady all year. That makes the Jennings feel a little more collaborative than the Vezina.

Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur have each won the Jennings five times, the most by any goaltenders. 

Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award

The Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award goes to the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice, during the regular season. Mark Messier receives input from fans, clubs, and NHL personnel, but he selects the finalists and winner. 

This award rewards the player who leads by example, holds the team together, represents the organization well, and contributes to growing the game. It is not only about being the best player on the roster, it’s really about presence. This award is given to the kind of player teammates trust, younger players look up to, and fans associate with the identity of the team.

Leadership in hockey can look a lot of different ways. Some players are vocal and emotional, some give big speeches, some lead through intensity, physicality, or sheer competitiveness, but not every leader is the loudest person in the locker room. Some leaders lead through consistency, accountability, confidence, and the way everyone else seems calmer when they are around.

This award recognizes the player who helps shape the culture of a team. That player is typically  the one who shows up every night, handles pressure, takes responsibility, sets the tone in practice, and understands that leadership is not just about what happens during games. The Mark Messier Award also has an old-school hockey feel because Messier himself is remembered as one of the sport’s defining leaders, so the trophy naturally carries that leadership energy.

Alex Ovechkin won the 2024-25 Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award with the Washington Capitals. It fits because Ovechkin has become one of the most recognizable captain figures in modern hockey. He has been loyal to one franchise, central to his team’s identity, and still setting the tone after years as the face of the Capitals.

Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award

The Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award recognizes the NHL’s top general manager. Voting is conducted among NHL general managers, league executives, and media members. 

The GM is the person building the roster through trades, contracts, draft picks, cap decisions, coaching hires, and the overall vision of the team. When a team suddenly looks perfectly constructed, this award is usually part of that conversation. Maybe the GM made the perfect trade deadline move, maybe they found underrated players who fit the system, or maybe they drafted well, hired the right coach, managed the salary cap creatively, or built a team with the exact mix of stars, depth players, defense, goaltending, and leadership.

A great GM does not just collect talented players, they build a team that actually makes sense together. A great GM knows that chemistry, roles, contracts, and timing matter. The best general managers understand when to be aggressive, when to be patient, when to move on from a player, and when to trust the group they already have. So this award recognizes the person who made the smartest big-picture decisions before everyone else could fully see the plan.

The award was first presented in 2010 and renamed during the 2019-20 season to honor longtime NHL executive Jim Gregory. Jim Nill became the first three-time winner after winning in 2023, 2024, and 2025 with the Dallas Stars. 

Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy goes to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. It is under the trusteeship of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. 

The Masterton is often one of the most emotional NHL awards because it honors resilience. Players nominated for it may have overcome injury, illness, personal hardship, career setbacks, or other major challenges. The Masterton is different from awards like the Hart, Art Ross, or Rocket Richard because it is not really about stats. A player does not win this because he scored the most goals or had the flashiest season, he wins because his story represents something bigger than the score.

This trophy recognizes the human side of hockey. It reminds fans that players are not just athletes performing under arena lights, but that they are people dealing with pain, grief, pressure, health issues, and private battles while still trying to show up for their teammates and the game they love. That is why the Masterton often feels so personal. It is about resilience: rehab, setbacks, doubt, patience, and choosing to come back anyway.

Recent winners show how powerful the award can be. Sean Monahan won in 2025 with the Columbus Blue Jackets after a season shaped by perseverance and dedication, while Connor Ingram won in 2024 after openly facing mental health challenges and entering the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. Kris Letang won in 2023 after returning from the second stroke of his career and also enduring personal loss during the season. 

In a league that can sometimes feel obsessed with numbers, this award pauses the conversation and honors the players whose strength is measured in something much harder to track.

NHL Foundation Award

The NHL Foundation Award was given to the player who applied hockey’s core values of commitment, perseverance, and teamwork, to enrich people’s lives in his community. This was another community impact trophy that recognized players who used hockey as a platform for good, especially through charitable and community work.

The NHL Foundation Player Award was discontinued in 2017-18, and the charitable donation connected to it is now provided through the King Clancy Memorial Trophy structure. 

Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award

The Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award is presented annually to an individual who, through hockey, has positively impacted their community, culture, or society. This is the hockey changemaker award. Unlike most NHL trophies, this one is not limited to NHL players. It celebrates people who use hockey to create access, belonging, representation, and real community impact.

The people who receive this award are usually not the biggest names in the NHL, and that is kind of the point. The Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award is for the coaches, organizers, volunteers, founders, advocates, and everyday hockey people who are doing the work off the ice. These are the people creating youth programs, making hockey more affordable, building safe spaces for underrepresented players, supporting girls’ hockey, expanding access for disabled athletes, mentoring kids, or using the sport to bring a community together. It reminds readers that hockey culture is not only built by the players under the arena lights, but it is also built by the people making sure more people feel welcome enough to step onto the ice in the first place.

The history behind the award makes it even more meaningful. Willie O’Ree broke the NHL’s color barrier on January 18, 1958, when he became the first Black player to compete in the league, and he did it while also having lost sight in one eye (something he kept private during his playing career.) After his playing days, his impact continued through decades of advocacy, especially around diversity, inclusion, and access in hockey. So this award is not just named after him as a symbolic gesture, it reflects the actual work he has spent his life doing, and it honors people who carry forward his legacy by making hockey less exclusive, less intimidating, and more open to the communities the sport has historically overlooked.

Recent winners show the range of what this award celebrates! In 2025, the NHL honored Jasmine Martinez as the U.S. winner and Troy Dodginghorse as the Canadian winner, highlighting leaders who use hockey to create access, representation, and real community change.

Final Breakdown: What Each Trophy Really Means

The NHL trophy system looks overwhelming at first, but it actually makes sense once you sort the awards.

Playoff Awards

The Stanley Cup is the dream.

The Presidents’ Trophy is regular-season dominance.

The Prince of Wales Trophy and Clarence S. Campbell Bowl mean you survived your conference.

The Conn Smythe is playoff legend status.

Regular Season Awards

The Hart is regular-season MVP.

The Ted Lindsay is the players saying, “No, seriously, he was the best.”

The Art Ross is points leader.

The Rocket Richard is top goal scorer.

The Vezina is best goalie.

The Norris is best defenseman.

The Calder is rookie of the year.

The Selke is elite defensive forward.

The Lady Byng is skill plus sportsmanship.

The Jack Adams is coach of the year.

The Jennings is best defensive/goaltending team result.

The Messier Leadership Award is captain-coded leadership.

The Jim Gregory GM Award is front-office excellence.

The Masterton is perseverance.

The King Clancy is leadership plus humanitarian work.

The Willie O’Ree Award is community impact through hockey.

And the NHL Foundation Award is the retired community award whose spirit now lives through the King Clancy.

Basically, NHL awards season is not just about who scored the most or who won the most games, it’s like those superlatives you did in high school. There are trophies for stars, trophies for leaders, trophies for rookies, trophies for goalies, trophies for quiet defensive geniuses. They even have trophies for comeback stories, and trophies for the people making hockey bigger, better, and more inclusive. Now that you know what these all mean, you should be ready for NHL award season!