It seems wrong to have hockey’s most coveted Cup not include the names of some of the greatest players to have hoisted it, but that’s soon going to be the case.
As Ken Campbell of The Hockey News pointed out on Thursday, the Stanley Cup will soon no longer bear the names of hockey greats like Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard, and Bobby Hull as the ring on which their names are engraved will need be removed to make room for a new one within the next year.
To keep the Cup at a reasonable—and hoistable—size, the top ring of the base gets removed in order to make room for a new one that is tacked on to the bottom (the base includes a total of five rings). The bottom ring is almost full, with the names of either the Pittsburgh Penguins or Nashville Predators about to take up the final spot. The ring that’s next in line to be removed at some point within the next year holds the names of every champion from 1953-54 to 1964-65.
Like past removed rings, this one will be on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Among the Hall of Famers who will no longer have their names on Lord Stanley’s Cup are Ted Lindsay, Jack Adams, Stan Mikita, Jacques Plante, and Frank Selke, among others.
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