Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoff champion. Commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, it is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, governor general of Canada, who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. It is the oldest existing trophy awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club, with winners determined by challenge games and league play through 1914. Professional teams became eligible in 1906, and in 1915 the NHA and PCHA agreed to pit their champions against each other annually for the trophy.