There will be several new names on the Stanley Cup this season, and they’ll belong to either the Pittsburgh Penguins or the Nashville Predators.
Unfortunately, with that addition, there will also be subtraction. With this year’s Cup winner, there will be no more room on the legendary trophy for next year’s winner. To accommodate this, the NHL removes one of the rings on the Cup every 13 years. The ring that will be removed is home to Stanley Cup winners from 1953 to 1965, which include several Detroit Red Wings championship teams.
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The ring containing the names from the 1950, 1952, 1954, and 1955 Stanley Cup winning Detroit Red Wings squads will be removed and placed into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, and a brand new blank ring will be added for the next 13 Cup winners beginning next season.
An interesting tidbit, however, will be the removal of the legendary Gordie Howe’s name from the Stanley Cup. Additionally, Ted Lindsay’s name will no longer be there either. While their names will still live on in hockey history in the Hall of Fame, it won’t quite be the same looking at and raising the Stanley Cup without seeing Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay on it.
The Red Wings will still have their championship winning team member names from 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2008 on the Stanley Cup for several more years before they too will be removed to make way for the latest winners.
But of course, this is just standard protocol for the NHL.
