Inside the NHL's wild world of quirky postgame victory trophies passed from player to player

New York Times

15-04-2025

By Scott Powers, Julian McKenzie and Mark Lazerus
Brad Richards had no idea he was starting a long-standing New York Rangers tradition when he presented a fedora to a teammate after a win 14 years ago.
He purchased the fedora during the Rangers' trip to Sweden in 2011. On the phone with The Athletic this week, Richards didn't want to get into the specifics, but the story is out there.
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That part isn't important anyway. It's about what followed.
'We got it and took it home, I kind of decided what we'd do,' Richards said. 'We called it the Broadway Hat. It's kind of taken a life of its own now.'
That life has included the Rangers continuing to hand out a Broadway Hat to this day. There's a Broadway Hat social media account that has more than 20,000 followers. It's become synonymous with the Rangers.
Richards couldn't recall exactly who named it the Broadway Hat, or why they did, but being in Manhattan, it's easy to connect the dots. What Richards did remember was how it all began with one victory.
'I just remember the first game that we won, I was like, let's keep it,' Richards said. 'We won again. I was like, let's start handing it out every game. Not necessarily the player of the game, but the guy who made a big play, whatever the story was going to be. It wasn't just about goals. It could be a blocked shot. It could be a big save, whatever it was. Just kind of went with it. … It's just good memories. We had a few good runs there.'
Today's Rangers Broadway Hat isn't the original. The first one was much smaller.
'The original one didn't fit everyone's head,' Richards said. 'It's funny to see people try to put it on. I remember Mike Rupp, a big boy, tried to put it on one time and barely got over the brow of his head. Just good memories. It's cool to see that it's still going. Now it's got some fancy ones. Now they look a lot more expensive than the one we got originally.'
The Rangers' Broadway Hat is probably the longest-running victory trophy around the league, but nearly every team has something it hands out. Some 'trophies' have great meaning, some less so, but they're part of nearly every team's postgame victory ritual.
Here's what each NHL team passes around after a win.
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From the neutral-zone trap to four-forward power plays to the Reverse VH, the NHL is nothing if not a copycat league. That goes for victory awards, too. The Venn diagram between hockey fans and wrestling fans sometimes feels like a circle, so it shouldn't be a big surprise that the players love a wrestling-style championship belt. At least some of the teams personalize the belt with little touches, from logos to winners' names.
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The Kraken have a belt, too.
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The Leafs at least try to make their belt-related photos a little more fun.
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The Oilers have two trophies, and both are common. The top offensive contributor in a win gets the championship belt, while the top defensive contributor gets a hard hat. As you'll see, NHL players can be as original with victory trophies as they are with nicknames. Preschools don't have as much construction-themed equipment as these guys do.
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The Ducks chose a hard hat because it signified the way they wanted to play. Ryan Strome provided the hat.
'It's part of us playing simple, hard-nosed hockey,' Ducks captain Radko Gudas said. 'I think it's a blue-collar statement of hard workers, so for us, it was a simple choice. It was an easy choice to give the guy that worked his back off as the hardest-working guy out there that game. The most blue-collar representative of the game, as the way it should be played. It was an easy choice for us.'
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Given how downtown Nashville has been overwhelmed by hotel construction over the past decade, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Predators stuck to the theme. They give out a small shovel to their player of the game. As Roman Josi explained early in the season, it represents the group needing to 'dig in.' The only surprise is that Connor McDavid didn't think of it first.
The Wild adopted the word 'hard' to enforce a specific mentality this season and, through the craftwork of forward Ryan Hartman, created a chain with that word on it to award after victories.
'It goes to the guy who not necessarily puts up the most points in a game,' Wild forward Marcus Foligno said.
As Hartman said: 'Otherwise, Kirill (Kaprizov) could win it every game. Sometimes you want to spread it out.'
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The Blackhawks may have pioneered the championship belt more than a decade ago, an idea that came to defenseman Brent Seabrook over beers on an off night in Glendale, Ariz. The belt was passed around for years but was retired after it became filled up with names and dates. From there, the Blackhawks began passing around a chain with a puck on it. But beginning this season, captain Nick Foligno began a new tradition of handing out a Blackhawks-themed tool belt. Get it? Rebuild? Tool belt?
'I just think it's something to change it up,' Foligno said. 'Something has to be personal. It was cool with the puck, but, you know, personal touch. I thought the tool belt, we're trying to build something here. You need one of those to build. Just something tacky but funny.'
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The Bruins keep it simple during the regular season and hand out a game puck following wins. In the playoffs, however, they break out an old-school Bruins leather jacket. With the way things are trending in Boston, we might not see that one for a while.
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Oversized hats seem to be having a moment with sports fans. The Avalanche adopted one as their postgame trophy. You can even follow the award winners on the Avalanche's Reddit by searching 'big ass Avs hat,' a series of words that is now on a New York Times-hosted website forever.
The Red Wings used to give out a football helmet to their player of the game. That has since changed to a fedora first brought in by Dylan Larkin. Kid Rock's restaurant at Little Caesars Arena may have closed back in 2019, but his legacy lives on in the Red Wings locker room. Well, maybe?
'I think people said that it belonged to Kid Rock,' defenseman Justin Holl said. 'I don't know if that's true or not. But I think that's the story is that it's Kid Rock's fedora. But maybe we just say that because Kid Rock wears a fedora sometimes.'
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Dallas keeps it very on-brand with its postgame cowboy hat. But that's just for the public, though — something the organization's social media team came up with. There's another victory award. A secret one.
'We're not that big on that (cowboy hat),' Stars forward Matt Duchene said. 'I've been on a lot of teams where that thing is a big deal, and you make a big thing out of it. Well, we do have one other thing that people don't know about, but I can't talk about it. That one's kind of our thing. But the hat goes to the guy that gets that initial thing. Some teams have that culture where that stuff is a big part of it. For us, it's not really as much. We have a ton of fun as a group, and I guess that's something that we don't do maybe as much as other teams. I've had it both ways, and it's whatever is organic to the group.'
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Vegas has a local flavor to its postgame award, too. Alas, it's not a rhinestone-and-feathers headdress, but rather a bedazzled replica of the famous 'Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas' sign on a chain.
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What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But what happens in an NHL locker room is supposed to stay there, too. So, there is some secrecy around a number of the teams' trophies. We know what the Capitals give out: an oversized gold chain. We just don't know why. They prefer to keep the backstory internal.
The specter of Lou Lamoriello must still haunt the Devils' dreams because they keep their trophy completely secret. A team spokesperson did give at least a little hint, saying the award is something related to Prague, where the Devils started the 2024-25 season. A Pilsner Urquell? A trdelník? A rye bread bowl filled with piping-hot goulash? The mind reels with possibilities.
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Most of these trophies are handled by the players, with the previous winner choosing that night's honoree. But Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour is the one responsible for the Hurricanes' award. He hands out hats after wins. He makes his way through the entire team, and no one gets it twice. Once everyone has received a hat, he starts giving them to the assistant coaches, medical staff, trainers, equipment staff, etc. Eventually, Homer Simpson might finally get his turn.
Laner, un homme de peu de mots 😊
Laner said what he needed to say#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/S1o5MSmPkP
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 19, 2025
The Canadiens get some points for originality. They once had a Conan the Barbarian sword. Last season, they had two trophies: a helmet with antlers and an actual trophy marked the 'Golden Nut Sack.' This year, whoever is deemed player of the game just wears a pair of fun glasses.
Drake Batherson on @ComingInHotSens explaining why the Senators don't celebrate their own player of the game in the locker room. They were supposed to but…@jasonyork33 @localpodcaster pic.twitter.com/QTub9bDeCI
— Julian McKenzie (@jkamckenzie) March 12, 2025
The Senators were supposed to have a postgame award, but it got lost after a night out in Dallas. The award? A large branch that fell on Tyler Kleven's head.
'We're sitting under this tree outside on the patio, I'm sitting next to (Tyler) Kleven,' Senators forward Drake Batherson told the 'Coming in Hot' podcast in March. 'This branch snaps off the tree, comes down, cracks him in the head. He was hurt, he had a bag of ice the rest of the time just sitting there. We were like, 'That's it, boys, it's the branch.' We're carrying that branch around. It was an old branch. We bring it to dinner after and we give it to the valet guy. The valet guy lost it.'
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Bjugy passed the game 🏀 to Crouser last night 🔥 pic.twitter.com/reG00MvFZg
— Utah Hockey Club (@utahhockeyclub) April 9, 2025
Utah Hockey Club's players wanted to give something out after wins, but they hadn't put much thought into it. So, when the time came, they just grabbed something that was around. It's how an ordinary basketball became their player of the game trophy. Hey, what do you want from a franchise that had only a few months' notice that it even existed?
This is only the beginning. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/rAbyPsLaat
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 26, 2024
Some awards have been given some deeper thought and meaning. In November, the Blues began dedicating their postgame award to former Blues player and commentator Kelly Chase, who is battling leukemia. The team hands out Chase's shoulder pads.
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In remembrance of Johnny Gaudreau, the Blue Jackets are giving out a donkey hat after wins. Gaudreau was known to call his friends and teammates 'donkeys' as a term of endearment. They found the hat on Etsy.
'He called me a donkey probably a million times,' Sean Monahan said when he was interviewed on TV early in the season.
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The Kings have two awards they hand out. They began the season with just a racing helmet, but they also added a firefighter's helmet after the fires that broke out in Southern California later in the year. They were given the helmet by Boston natives who have worked in the LAFD for many years. They give out the racing helmet on the road and firefighter's helmet at home.
'You look at the firemen's helmet, that's something that signifies something I think everybody can grab onto,' Kings defenseman Kyle Burroughs said. 'I think that's something important for us, that we are obviously super privileged to have that relationship. We have a lot of respect for the fire (department), and I think it kind of digs in deep with the person that gets it in that game. It's an unsung hero, maybe. It's someone that pushes every day. Might not be the sexiest results all the time, but they're doing the right stuff. They're locking us down, whether that's offensively or defensively.
'You see Kuemps (Darcy Kuemper) wearing that hat a lot because he does lock us down. It's something that I think is really cool to do, and it's a really cool item. And for us to be able to honor not even just the firefighters – obviously it is a fire helmet – but first responders. Obviously, because it was a tough time going through L.A. with all the families (affected) and stuff like that, if we can shine a light on that anytime, it's kind of twofold. It's pretty freakin' cool to get that helmet and it's cool for us to be able to also show that we're with them.'
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The Sabres have a victory vest that was made in Germany when the team visited as part of the NHL's Global Series last fall. Whose idea was it to have it made and get his team invested?
'It came from Lindy (Ruff),' Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. 'It's about being invested in what we're doing here. If you are doing the right work. It's for whoever has the best game, obviously, but does their job, playing the right way.'
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The Sharks chose to hand out a football helmet this year. Aside from the San Francisco 49ers being nearby, there isn't much more significance to it. Asked how it came about and what it meant, veteran Marc-Edouard Vlasic shrugged and said, 'No idea.'
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The Jets used to have their own helmet they handed out. With Rick Bowness as coach, they started a tradition of awarding players bomber jackets. They have one that they call a mechanic's jacket that goes to the game's unsung hero. The other is given to the player of the game.
Couldn't get a picture of the Islanders' rubber chicken in the dressing room last night, but this is what it looks like. Mat Barzal won it last night after scoring the game-winning goal. pic.twitter.com/Rp0dqvnKzH
— Ethan Sears (@ethan_sears) January 12, 2025
The Islanders are secretive about most things, including what they give out, but they reportedly pass around a rubber chicken this year. Don't tell Lamoriello.
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The Penguins' leaders often switch it up after every year. They landed on a racing helmet for this season. Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Penguins, also owns RFK Racing, so the Penguins have adopted one of its NASCAR helmets this season. That helmet is signed through the end of the 2028-29 season and has a full no-movement clause.
The Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vancouver Canucks do not have a trophy this season.
—The Athletic's Eric Stephens, Aaron Portzline, Michael Russo, Daniel Nugent-Bowman, Jeremy Rutherford, Murat Ates, Matthew Fairburn and Cory Lavalette contributed to this report
(Top photo of Nathan MacKinnon: Michael Martin / NHLI via Getty Images)