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219-831: Connor Andrew McDavid (born January 13, 1997) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Born and raised in Richmond Hill, Ontario, the Oilers selected him first overall in the 2015 NHL entry draft . McDavid is often regarded as one of the best players in the world, and his offensive dominance has drawn comparisons to players such as Sidney Crosby . McDavid spent his childhood playing ice hockey against older children. Coached by his father, McDavid won four Ontario Minor Hockey Association championships with

438-586: A 16-year-old McDavid was the youngest player in the 2013 IIHF World U18 Championships in Sochi . Playing for the Canada men's national under-18 ice hockey team , he skated on a line with Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett , recording two goals and two assists in Canada's 4–1 opening-round win over Slovakia . He led the tournament in scoring with eight goals and 14 assists, including a hat-trick during Canada's 6–0 quarterfinal win over

657-594: A 1902 investigation by the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) revealed that players on Pittsburgh-based teams received payment in 1901 and 1902, leading the OHA to ban any club from Pittsburgh from participating in their association, claiming there was "ample and undeniable proof" that clubs in Pittsburgh were "purely professional, paying straight salaries to their players." The 1903-04 Portage Lakes Hockey Club

876-507: A 4–1 loss to the Dallas Stars . It was the eighth-longest point streak to begin a season in NHL history and the third-longest for the Oilers, behind Wayne Gretzky's 51- and 30-game streaks in 1983–84 and 1982–83 , respectively. While the Oilers started the season with a franchise-best 9–1 record, McDavid and Draisaitl became the first pair of Edmonton teammates to individually reach 20 points within

1095-530: A 9–2 win over the San Jose Sharks to become the first NHL player in over three decades and the fourth player in NHL history (alongside Wayne Gretzky , Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr ) to achieve the feat. After ending the season with 32 goals and 100 assists for 132 points in 76 games, McDavid and the Oilers would eliminate the Los Angeles Kings in the first round for the third straight season in five games,

1314-674: A Stanley Cup champion team is Kenora , Ontario; the town had a population of about 4,000 when the Kenora Thistles captured the Cup in January 1907. Led by future Hall of Famers Art Ross and "Bad" Joe Hall , the Thistles defeated the Montreal Wanderers in a two-game, total goals challenge series. The Thistles successfully defended the Cup once, against a team from Brandon, Manitoba . In March 1907,

1533-453: A Stanley Cup championship game, nor did he ever present the Cup. Although his term as Governor General ended in September 1893, he was forced to return to England on July 15. In April of that year, his older brother Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby died, and Stanley succeeded him as the 16th Earl of Derby . During the challenge cup period, none of the leagues that played for the trophy had

1752-734: A blind date by Kyle's cousin and McDavid's then-teammate. The pair live with their dog, a miniature Bernedoodle named Lenard, and own a house together in Edmonton. After photos of the house were featured in EDify magazine in 2020 and video tour was recorded in 2021 for Architectural Digest , the minimalist design and the poor view of the Edmonton River Valley outside became an Internet meme . McDavid and Kyle became engaged on June 22, 2023, and got married on July 27, 2024, in Muskoka, Ontario. The wedding

1971-453: A chance to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics due to financial concerns from the NHL, was upset with the league's decision, saying, "It's always been a dream of mine to play at the Olympics since I was a little kid. So to have that kind of squashed as we were getting close was disappointing." Nicknamed "McJesus", McDavid is considered by fellow players, fans, and sportswriters to be one of

2190-506: A formal playoff system to decide their respective champions; whichever team finished in first place after the regular season won the league title. However, in 1894, four teams out of the five-team AHAC tied for the championship with records of 5–3–0. The AHAC had no tie-breaking system. After extensive negotiations and Quebec's withdrawal from the championship competition, it was decided that a three-team tournament would take place in Montreal, with

2409-484: A fractured left clavicle after a collision into the boards with Brandon Manning and Michael Del Zotto of the Philadelphia Flyers . At the time of the injury, he had five goals and 12 points through those 13 games. He missed a total of 37 games with the injury, by which point the Oilers had fallen well out of playoff contention, but returned on February 3 with a goal and two assists in Edmonton's 5–1 victory over

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2628-595: A goalie". Between 2016 and 2021, McDavid ranked first in TSN Hockey 's preseason fan poll of the top 50 players in the NHL. The NHLPA also voted McDavid the best forward in the league in both 2019 and 2020. In 2021, McDavid joined Gretzky as the only players to unanimously win the Hart Memorial Trophy, as voted by members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association. Through his first five seasons in

2847-492: A good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion [of Canada]. There does not appear to be any such outward sign of a championship at present, and considering the general interest which matches now elicit, and the importance of having the game played fairly and under rules generally recognized, I am willing to give a cup which shall be held from year to year by

3066-550: A league-leading 16 goals and 56 points halfway through the season, McDavid earned his first NHL All-Star Game selection in 2017, playing on the same line as Anaheim Ducks rival forward Ryan Kesler for the Pacific Division team. He also won Fastest Skater at the NHL All-Star Skills Competition with a time of 13.02 seconds. In the final regular season game of the year, McDavid recorded two assists to finish

3285-460: A new band was added almost every year that the trophy was awarded, earning the nickname "Stovepipe Cup" due to the unnatural height of all the bands. In 1947, the cup size was reduced, but not all the large rings were the same size. In 1958, the modern one-piece Cup was designed with a five-band barrel which could contain 13 winning teams per band. Every 13 years when the bottom band of the Stanley Cup

3504-439: A new champion was crowned, but winning teams currently get the Stanley Cup during the summer and a limited number of days during the season. Every year since 1924, a select portion of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff names are engraved on its bands, which is unusual among trophies. However, there is not enough room to include all the players and non-players, so some names must be omitted. Between 1924 and 1940,

3723-466: A player and seven times as management for a total of seventeen times. Twenty women have had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup. The first woman to have her name engraved on the Stanley Cup is Marguerite Norris , who won the Cup as the president of the Detroit Red Wings in 1954 and 1955. The only Canadian woman to have her name engraved on the Stanley Cup is Sonia Scurfield who won the Cup as

3942-533: A record 24 times and are the most recent Canadian-based team to win it, doing so in 1993 ; the Detroit Red Wings have won it 11 times, the most of any United States–based NHL team, most recently in 2008 . The current holders of the cup are the Florida Panthers after their victory in 2024 . More than 3,000 different names, including the names of over 1,300 players, had been engraved on it by 2017. After

4161-665: A resolution at the annual meeting of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) to allow professional players to play alongside amateurs. The Cup trustees agreed to open the challenges to professional teams, because the ECAHA was the top hockey league in Canada at the time. The first professional competition came one month later during the Wanderers' two-game, total goals challenge series, which they won 17 goals to 5. The smallest municipality to produce

4380-520: A result of the 1953–1965 band only containing 12 teams prior to its removal), depending on the order they are engraved on the relevant band. There have only been four official Stanley Cup engravers. The fourth and current one, Montreal silversmith Louise St. Jacques, has held the position since 1988. Currently, the Cup stands at 89.5 centimetres ( 35 + 1 ⁄ 4  inches) tall and weighs 15 + 1 ⁄ 2  kilograms ( 34 + 1 ⁄ 2  lb). By its 125th anniversary in 2017,

4599-469: A rose bowl, made in Sheffield , England, and sold by London silversmith G. R. Collis and Company (now Boodle and Dunthorne Jewellers), for ten guineas , equal to ten and a half pounds sterling, US$ 48.67, which is equal to $ 1,650 in 2023 dollars. He had the words "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup" engraved on one side of the outside rim, and "From Stanley of Preston" on the other side. The name "Stanley Cup"

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4818-449: A second band onto the Cup. Despite the new room, the 1910 Wanderers and the 1911 Senators did not put their names on the Cup. The 1915 Vancouver Millionaires became the second team to engrave players' names, this time inside the bowl along its sides. The 1918 Millionaires eventually filled the band added by the 1909 Senators. The 1915 Ottawa Senators, the 1916 Portland Rosebuds and the 1918 Vancouver Millionaires all engraved their names on

5037-464: A second band), teams left their mark on the bowl itself. The 1907 Montreal Wanderers became the first club to record their name on the bowl's interior surface, and the first champion to record the names of 20 members of their team. In 1908, for reasons unknown, the Wanderers, despite having turned aside four challengers, did not record their names on the Cup. The next year, the Ottawa Senators added

5256-658: A speed of 13.378 seconds. On February 22, McDavid received a two-game suspension from the NHL Department of Player Safety for what was deemed an illegal check to the head of New York Islanders defenceman Nick Leddy . He finished the season with a career-tying 41 goals, as well as a career-high 75 assists and 116 points, and he came in third behind Sidney Crosby and Nikita Kucherov in Hart Trophy voting. McDavid also received his third NHL First All-Star Team selection, finishing ahead of Crosby in voting for centre. On April 6, 2019,

5475-516: A three-point outing in the Oilers' 4–2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. By the time that the NHL indefinitely suspended the season on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic , McDavid had 34 goals, 63 assists and 97 points in 64 games. When the NHL returned to play that July for the 2020 playoffs , McDavid was one of 31 skaters that the Oilers took into their quarantine bubble. He added an additional five goals and nine points in four postseason games before

5694-626: Is a professional ice hockey club based in Bratislava, Slovakia. In 2012, they left the Slovak Extraliga and joined the international Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The club has won eight Slovak championships (most recently in 2012) and one Czechoslovak championship (1979). In Finland, SM-liiga is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland and is regarded as one of the top leagues in Europe. It

5913-618: Is filled with names of champions, the top band is removed and retired to be displayed in the vault of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. The four bands below it are slid up one place and a new blank band added to the bottom. The first winning team engraved on the newest band is thus, in theory (see Engraving section below) , displayed on the trophy for the next 65 years. It has been referred to as The Cup , Lord Stanley's Cup , The Holy Grail , or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug . The Stanley Cup

6132-638: Is followed by Jean Beliveau and Yvan Cournoyer of the Canadiens with ten championships, Claude Provost of the Canadiens with nine, and three players tied with eight: Red Kelly (four with the Red Wings, four with the Leafs, the most for any player who was not a member of the Canadiens) and Canadiens players Jacques Lemaire , Maurice Richard . Beliveau's name appears on the Cup more than any other individual, ten times as

6351-583: Is named after Lord Stanley of Preston , the Governor General of Canada , who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The entire Stanley family supported the sport, the sons and daughters all playing and promoting the game. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club , and winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play. Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for

6570-459: Is no single global championship for professional ice hockey. The most elite North American teams compete for the Stanley Cup as their championship. Created in 1892, the Stanley Cup was originally an amateur trophy. Starting in 1907, professionals were allowed to compete for it. Teams from several leagues played for the Stanley Cup before 1926, since which time the cup's trustees have ceded control of

6789-626: Is regarded as the first team to pay each of the players on the team, while players in prior years in the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League were compensated via a mix of a small monetary payment and jobs in the Pittsburgh community, with the 30 players of the then four-team Western Pennsylvania Hockey League each receiving a weekly salary ranging from $ 10 (equivalent to $ 339 in 2023) to $ 20 (equivalent to $ 678 in 2023) per week in January of 1903, depending upon their agreements with James Wallace Conant , which resulted in

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7008-514: Is surrounded by numerous legends and traditions , the oldest of which is the winning team drinking champagne from it. Since the 1914–15 season, the Cup has been won a combined 106 times by 21 current NHL teams and five teams no longer in existence. It was not awarded in 1919 because of the Spanish flu epidemic and in 2005 because of the 2004–05 NHL lockout . It was held by nine different teams between 1893 and 1914. The Montreal Canadiens have won it

7227-416: Is that he doesn't want to lose, and it's infectious through the hockey club." Despite the praise for the offensive aspects of his game, McDavid has received criticism from sports journalists for his defensive elements, particularly his high rate of turning over the puck to his opponents while in the Oilers' defensive zone. McDavid met his wife, interior designer Lauren Kyle, in 2016 after they were set up on

7446-623: Is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) considers it to be one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The trophy was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and

7665-515: Is the top tier of the Nationalliga or Ligue Nationale or Lega Nazionale, the main professional ice hockey league in Switzerland . It is the oldest league remaining today, dating to 1916. Between the wars, British ice hockey grew rapidly with new ice rinks and an influx of Canadian players. A European competition was instituted, and in the 1936 Winter Olympics at Garmisch, Germany, Great Britain won

7884-457: Is topped with a copy of the original bowl, made of a silver and nickel alloy. It has a height of 89.5 centimetres ( 35 + 1 ⁄ 4  in) and weighs 15.6 kilograms ( 34 + 1 ⁄ 2  lb). Like the Grey Cup , and unlike the trophies awarded by the other major professional sports leagues of North America, a new Stanley Cup is not made every year. The winners originally kept it until

8103-542: The 2007–08 season . His 153 points were the most for a player since Lemieux in 1996, and the fourth-most for any player in NHL history, behind Gretzky, Lemieux and Steve Yzerman . The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation dubbed it "the season of the century." He was once again named finalist for both the Hart Memorial Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award. Winning both awards, he finished the season with four individual player trophies. He received 195 of 196 first-place votes for

8322-549: The 2013 IIHF World U18 Championships and 2015 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships . After finishing his junior hockey career, McDavid joined the Oilers for their 2015–16 season . Despite missing three months of his rookie season due to a fractured clavicle , he was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team and was a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy . The following year, the Oilers appointed 19-year-old McDavid

8541-765: The AHL , ECHL , SPHL , and FPHL . The AHL and ECHL are official minor leagues to the NHL, with the ECHL subservient to the AHL; the FPHL and SPHL operate as low-level independents. The NHL is considered one of the four major professional sports leagues of the United States. It is historically most popular in areas near the Canada–US border and along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. There

8760-744: The CHL Top Draft Prospect Award . Although the Otters were defeated in the J. Ross Robertson Cup finals by the Oshawa Generals , McDavid recorded 21 goals and 49 points in 20 postseason games, including two goals and six points in five championship series games, and received the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award for the most valuable player in the OHL playoffs. With five individual OHL awards in his three-year career, McDavid also finished his junior hockey tenure as

8979-662: The Calgary Flames . With a team-leading 14 goals and 45 points by the halfway point of the season, McDavid won the fan vote to captain the Pacific Division at the 2018 NHL All-Star Game, his second such selection. He successfully defended his Fastest Skater title at the Skills Competition, completing the course in 13.454 seconds to narrowly defeat Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning. On February 5, shortly after

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9198-644: The Chicago Blackhawks , Detroit Cougars (now called the Detroit Red Wings ), and New York Rangers joined the NHL. With the NHL now firmly established in the largest markets of the Northeastern United States, and with the Western teams having been stripped of their best players, the PHL was deemed to be a "minor league" unworthy of challenging the NHL for hockey supremacy. The PHL lasted only two seasons. Over

9417-610: The Clarkson Cup was created instead. Meanwhile, a group in Ontario, also known as the "Wednesday Nighters", filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court, claiming that the Cup trustees had overstepped their bounds in signing the 1947 agreement with the NHL, and therefore must award the trophy regardless of the lockout. On February 7, 2006, a settlement was reached in which the trophy could be awarded to non-NHL teams should

9636-626: The Columbus Blue Jackets . On February 11, while facing his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs , McDavid was involved in all five of the Oilers' points: in addition to scoring twice, he also had assists on every part of Jordan Eberle 's hat trick . That single-game performance helped boost McDavid to tenth overall in NHL rookie scoring at that point, despite playing in only his 19th game of the 2015–16 season . Despite appearing in only 45 games due to injury, McDavid finished his rookie season with 16 goals and 32 assists, fourth in rookie scoring. He

9855-538: The Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs , becoming only the sixth player, and first since Jean-Sébastien Giguère in 2003 , to win the award despite not winning the Stanley Cup . He is a four-time NHL First Team All-Star, a five-time recipient of the Art Ross Trophy, a four-time winner of the Ted Lindsay Award, a three-time recipient of the Hart Memorial Trophy, and

10074-640: The Czech Republic . Canada defeated the United States team 3–2 in the gold medal match, breaking Team USA's four-year championship streak, and McDavid was named both the Best Forward and Tournament MVP after the win. In 2014, McDavid became the sixth 16-year-old in history to join the Canadian junior team for that year's World Junior Ice Hockey Championship . Although McDavid recorded a goal and three assists in

10293-603: The Estonian Ice Hockey Association , Kazakhstani Championship , Latvian Hockey League , Lithuania Hockey League , and Ukrainian Major League . The remnant Russian Federation-based teams created the Russian Super League . The Russian Pro Hockey League's "Super League" was the highest level of play in Russia from 1996 to 2008. During the 2000s (decade) the calibre of play and the league economics recovered as

10512-640: The Europa Cup from 1965 to 1997, the European Hockey League from 1996 to 2000, the IIHF European Champions Cup 2005 to 2008 and the Champions Hockey League in 2008. The Champions Hockey League returned for the 2014-15 season and has since been held yearly. The most successful North American team is the Montreal Canadiens who have won 24 Stanley Cups, the most successful European club is HC CSKA Moscow which has won 20 European Cups. Teams from North American and Europe do not regularly compete against each other in " friendlies " as do soccer clubs, although efforts to expand intercontinental play have increased since

10731-418: The Guelph Storm in the Western Conference finals. The Otters named McDavid their captain for the 2014–15 season during training camp. McDavid recorded at least one point in all but one of the first 18 games of the season and led the OHL with 51 points before breaking his hand in a fight with Bryson Cianfrone of the Mississauga Steelheads on November 11. McDavid had already recorded a goal and assist at

10950-442: The Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy winner for 2022–23 as the league's leading goal-scorer. His opponents have praised his speed on the ice, and McDavid has won Fastest Skater at the NHL All-Star Skills Competition four times. He is one of only two players – after fellow Oilers captain Wayne Gretzky in 1982  – to unanimously win the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player . McDavid

11169-408: The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 2003 . McDavid's international ice hockey career began with the 2013 World U-17 Hockey Challenge , where he led the sixth-place Team Ontario with nine points in five games, including two goals and an assist in their 7–6 tournament-ending loss to Team Pacific. Despite his team's disappointing performance, McDavid was named to the tournament all-star team. The next year,

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11388-428: The National Hockey League Players' Association , and a selection to the NHL First All-Star Team at centre. On July 5, 2017, McDavid signed an eight-year, $ 100 million contract extension with the Oilers, which went into effect at the beginning of the 2018–19 season . His second hat-trick, meanwhile, came in the first game of the 2017–18 season , when McDavid scored every Edmonton goal in their 3–0 shutout of

11607-404: The New Jersey Devils on January 13, McDavid became the first player to reach 50 points during the 2016–17 season. Five days later, he recorded his 100th NHL point with an assist on Zack Kassian 's goal against the Florida Panthers . He reached the milestone in only 92 games, following Wayne Gretzky (61 games) and Blair MacDonald (85) as the third-fastest Oiler to reach 100 career points. With

11826-451: The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), and became the founder of ice hockey in Great Britain. Arthur and Algernon persuaded their father to donate a trophy to be "an outward and visible sign of the hockey championship". Stanley sent the following message to the victory celebration held on March 18, 1892, at Ottawa's Russell House Hotel for the three-time champion Ottawa Hockey Club : I have for some time been thinking that it would be

12045-424: The Ontario Hockey Association considering each of these teams as a "purely professional team". Beginning with the start of 1904 season the semi-professional Pittsburgh-based teams of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League consolidated to become Pittsburgh Professionals and joined with the Houghton-Portage Lakes to become two of the original five teams of the International Professional Hockey League , marking

12264-486: The Ontario Hockey League (OHL) selected him first overall in that year's draft, and he played there until 2015. McDavid's OHL career concluded with a 2014–15 season in which he recorded 120 points and received a number of OHL and Canadian Hockey League (CHL) awards, including the Red Tilson Trophy , Wayne Gretzky 99 Award , and CHL Player of the Year awards. McDavid also represented Canada at several international competitions during this time, winning gold medals at

12483-449: The Ontario Professional Hockey League was formed. The competition for players increased salaries, a factor in the demise of the IPHL in 1907 and the temporary end of professional hockey in the United States. In 1908, the ECAHA became fully professional, as the ECAHA's amateur teams separated from the league and competed for the new Allan Cup , a new challenge cup instituted for amateur teams. The ECAHA, now fully professional, renamed itself

12702-517: The Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association and opted to boycott existing leagues in pursuit of a unified, financially stable professional league. In 2023, the NWHL—rebranded as the Premier Hockey Federation in 2021—was purchased and ultimately dissolved as part of the foundation of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL), the unified league many players had been working towards. The league debuted in January 2024. Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup ( French : La Coupe Stanley )

12921-446: The Quebec Hockey League , which included several stars such as Jean Beliveau and Willie O'Ree . In the 1950s, with the rise of NHL television broadcasts, such as those on Hockey Night in Canada , attendance suffered and the minor professional leagues folded or merged to survive. A new Western Hockey League was formed on the west coast with teams in several cities including Vancouver. The WHL's Vancouver Canucks organization would join

13140-400: The Red Army , Red Air Force or other national institutions. Technically they were paid for their military service, and not for their play as athletes. This allowed them compete at the Olympic games without violating the International Olympic Committee 's amateur-only rules of the era. Throughout the history of the Soviet league, Red Army -affiliated CSKA Moscow dominated, winning 32 of

13359-437: The Slovak Extraliga is the highest-level ice hockey league in Slovakia. The name of the league is leased to sponsor and changes frequently. From 1993/94 to 1997/98 season, it was called Extraliga, then the name changed to West Extraliga until the end of 2000/01 season. In 2001/02, its name was Boss Extraliga. Since 2002/03 season to 2004/05, the name changed to ST Extraliga and in 2005/06 to T-Com Extraliga. From January 16, 2007,

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13578-430: The Stanley Cup brought them together for annual playoffs, starting in 1915. In November 1917, the NHA itself suspended operations and several NHA owners formed the National Hockey League (NHL) following a dispute between NHA team owners. The new league began play in December that year with four Canadian teams. The NHL continued the annual Stanley Cup playoffs with the PCHA. In the west, the Western Canada Hockey League

13797-508: The Vegas Golden Knights in the second round. The second round matchup attracted media attention due to the presence of Jack Eichel on the Golden Knights roster, as Eichel had been drafted second overall in the same year as McDavid and was viewed at the time as a potential career rival, though the narrative had largely faded in the following years due to neither party's interest in establishing further tension, Eichel's original Buffalo Sabres team from 2015 to 2021 not achieving much success, and

14016-455: The Victoria Cougars won the Cup, the last team outside the NHL to do so. The WHL folded in 1926 and was quickly replaced by the Prairie Hockey League . However, in the meantime, the NHL (which had entered the U.S. only two years before) bought up the contracts of most of the WHL's players and largely used them to stock the rosters of three new U.S. teams. In what would turn out to be its most significant expansion of its pre- Original Six era,

14235-510: The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League , a semi-professional hockey league started in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1896. The International Professional Hockey League began play in 1904 with teams from Houghton, Michigan ( Houghton-Portage Lakes ), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ( Pittsburgh Professionals ), Calumet, Michigan ( Calumet-Laurium Miners ), Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario ( Sault Ste. Marie Marlboros ), and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan ( Michigan Soo Indians ). Prior to 1904, playing for pay

14454-403: The world champions. The Cup was awarded every year until 2005, when a labour dispute between the NHL's owners and the NHL Players Association (the union that represents the players) led to the cancellation of the 2004–05 season . As a result, no Cup champion was crowned for the first time since the flu pandemic in 1919. The lockout was controversial among many fans, who questioned whether

14673-452: The 2003-04, 2004–05 and 2005–06 seasons it was known as the Tipsport Extraliga; for 2001-01 and 2001-02 it was called the Český Telecom Extraliga, and in 1999-00 the Staropramen Extraliga. During the 2006-07 season it was known as the O2 Extraliga. Hockey Club Lev Praha (stylized as HC LEV Praha) is a professional ice hockey team located in Prague, Czech Republic, which debuts in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in 2012–13. In Slovakia ,

14892-528: The 2005 tournament. Although he received the Tim Adams Memorial Trophy as the tournament MVP, McDavid's team was defeated 2–1 in the OHL Cup final by the Mississauga Rebels. Although McDavid contemplated playing NCAA Division I hockey, he ultimately decided to enter the junior ice hockey circuit as an adolescent rather than waiting to begin a college career. McDavid applied for exceptional player status through Hockey Canada , and after passing through evaluations of his athleticism, academics, and maturity, he

15111-425: The 2014 Bobby Smith Trophy for the OHL's Scholastic Player of the Year and was named the 2014 CHL Scholastic Player of the Year . He was also named to the OHL Second All-Star Team alongside Otters defenceman Adam Pelech and coach Kris Knoblauch . The Otters, meanwhile, finished the regular season second in the OHL, and McDavid added an additional four goals and 19 points in 14 postseason games before Erie fell to

15330-490: The 46 championship seasons. The Soviet League's talent level was severely diminished following the fall of communism when most elite players moved to the NHL in search of higher pay. The league also changed its name to the CIS Championship in 1991-1992, and then to the International Hockey League from 1992 to 1996. After the communist era ended, the league became explicitly professional. By 1996, most of former Soviet republics had created their own national leagues: including

15549-414: The 60-goal mark for the first time in his career on March 22, scoring the game-winning goal in overtime against the Arizona Coyotes . He was only the fourth player to do so in the 21st century, and, in 72 games, reached it faster than anyone since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96 . McDavid scored his 64th goal on April 8, which made him the sixth player in NHL history to hit the 150-point threshold, whilst leading

15768-503: The AHAC, Montreal was the best team in Canada. Naturally, the Ottawas were upset by the decision because there had been no challenge games scheduled and because the trustees failed to convey the rules on how the Cup was to be awarded prior to the start of the season. As a result, the Cup trustees issued more specific rules on how the trophy should be defended and awarded: Lord Stanley never saw

15987-609: The All-Star Game, McDavid had his first NHL four-goal game with a 6–2 win over the Lightning, breaking Edmonton's 0-for-17 power play cold streak in the process. McDavid's third hat-trick of the season came on February 18, when he broke both the Oilers' six-game losing streak and the Colorado Avalanche's 10-game at-home winning streak. While the Oilers finished the season well outside of playoff contention, finishing 17 points behind

16206-616: The Anaheim Ducks in the second round. That series went to seven games, with the Oilers falling 2–1 in the winner-takes-all match. McDavid added five goals and nine points in 13 playoff games before elimination. Once the Stanley Cup playoffs concluded, McDavid was honoured at the 2017 NHL Awards with the Hart Memorial Trophy for the most valuable player in the NHL, the Ted Lindsay Award for the most outstanding player as decided by

16425-461: The Avalanche in the wild-card race, McDavid set career highs with 41 goals and 108 points along with 67 assists, and he led the NHL with 84 even-strength points. Although his team's poor performance left McDavid out of serious contention for the Hart Trophy, he became the first player to receive the Art Ross Trophy in back-to-back years since Jaromír Jágr in 2000 and 2001. McDavid additionally took home

16644-547: The Canucks. He was the first player to reach the milestone in so few games since Mario Lemieux during the 1995–96 season . He finished the season with 33 goals and a league-leading 72 assists for a league-leading 105 points in all 56 games, 21 more than runner-up and teammate Leon Draisaitl , and took home his third career Art Ross Trophy . At the end of the regular season, he was named to his fourth NHL First All-Star Team, won his third Ted Lindsay Award , and joined Wayne Gretzky as

16863-575: The Chicago Blackhawks eliminated the Oilers in the qualifying round. That included a postseason hat-trick in Game 2 to help the Oilers to a 6–3 win. On January 14, 2021, in the second game of the pandemic -shortened 2020–21 season , McDavid scored the first hat-trick of any player that year as the Oilers won 5–2 against the Vancouver Canucks . With eight goals and 14 assists in the first 11 games of

17082-690: The Cup came the next year by the Winnipeg Victorias , the champions of the Manitoba Hockey League. On February 14, 1896, the Winnipeg squad defeated the champions 2–0 and became the first team outside the AHAC to win the Cup. As the prestige of winning the Cup grew, so did the need to attract top players. Only nine months after winning the Cup, in March 1906, the Montreal Wanderers pushed through

17301-410: The Cup in the event the 2012–13 season were cancelled, which it was not. In 2007, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) formalized the " Triple Gold Club ", the group of players and coaches who have won an Olympic Games gold medal, a World Championship gold medal, and the Stanley Cup. The term had first entered popular use following the 2002 Winter Olympics , which saw the addition of

17520-610: The Cup. One year later, the Montreal HC and the Montreal Victorias, the two remaining amateur teams, left the ECAHA, and the ECAHA dropped "Amateur" from their name to become a professional league. In 1910, the National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed. The NHA soon proved it was the best in Canada, as it kept the Cup for the next four years. Prior to 1912, challenges could take place at any time or place, given

17739-500: The Cup. Also included was the 1918–19 no decision between the Montreal Canadiens and Seattle Metropolitans. Since 1958, the Cup has undergone several minor alterations. The original collar and bowl were too brittle, and were replaced in 1963 and 1969, respectively. The modern one-piece Cup design was introduced in 1958, when the old barrel was replaced with a five-band barrel, each of which could contain 13 winning teams. Although

17958-470: The Cup. By this time, all Cup trustees were longtime NHL loyalists, and under the direction of NHL president Clarence Campbell the WHA's challenge for the Cup was blocked. However, notwithstanding the aforementioned legal obligation, the NHL (considering not only the WHA's presence but also the rising caliber of European ice hockey leagues) quietly stopped calling its champions the world champions . Nevertheless,

18177-654: The Cup. Sweetland and Ross first presented the trophy in 1893 to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association on behalf of the affiliated Montreal Hockey Club, the champions of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC), since they "defeated all comers during the late season, including the champions of the Ontario Association" (Ottawa). Sweetland and Ross also believed that the AHAC was the top league, and as first-place finishers in

18396-569: The ECHA and compete for the Stanley Cup. Rebuffed by the ECHA, the mine owners formed the National Hockey Association (NHA) in 1910, splitting the ECHA's teams between the Canadian Hockey Association and the NHA. The CHA dissolved after less than a month, with some teams absorbed by the NHA. After one season of extravagant salaries, the NHA team owners imposed a salary cap, causing dissension amongst

18615-533: The ECHA. The MPHL folded in 1909, the OPHL in 1908, leaving the ECHA as the only 'elite' professional league in Canada. In northern Ontario, silver mining had made small towns affluent, and mines in the area hired professional players for their ice hockey teams. By 1910, several teams in the area had hired enough professional players from the ECHA, that the teams, notably the Renfrew Creamery Kings , wanted to join

18834-531: The East and the West each year, with alternating games played according to NHA and PCHA rules. The PCHA's Vancouver Millionaires won the 1915 series three games to none in a best-of-five series. Prior to organized ice hockey expanding to any serious extent outside Canada, the concept that the Stanley Cup champion ought to be recognized as the world champion was already firmly established – Stanley Cup winners were claiming

19053-478: The Erie Otters. At the time of the coaching change, the Oilers had a 3–9–1 record. The Athletic remarked that the hirings of Jackson and Knoblauch "have put the spotlight squarely on McDavid," given their prior relations to him. The team's fortunes soon revived under Knoblauch, and McDavid saw his scoring surge. On April 15, 2024, McDavid recorded his 100th assist of the 2023–24 season on a goal by Zach Hyman in

19272-476: The Hart Trophy, narrowly missing a second unanimous win. The Oilers finished second in the Pacific Division and sixth in the league, qualifying for the 2023 playoffs . They drew the Los Angeles Kings in the first round for the second consecutive year, entering as the favourite to advance. The Oilers ousted the Kings in six games, with McDavid and Draisaitl again credited as dominant forces in the contest, and moved to face

19491-467: The Jets' players to foul him with impunity. It was noted that McDavid did not draw a single penalty during the series against the Jets, and had only drawn one in the preceding year's playoff series against the Chicago Blackhawks . McDavid asked that referees "call the rule book, that's what it's there for." McDavid began the 2021–22 season on a 17-game point streak, which came to an end on November 23, 2021, in

19710-537: The KHL into a new pan-European league called United Hockey Europe . Since 2007, the NHL has operated the NHL Premiere series, which brings a limited number of NHL teams (usually four) to Europe to compete in exhibition games against both each other and local professional teams. The NHL teams have won a large majority of the games against European clubs. In North America, professional women's hockey developed much later than in

19929-514: The Lord Stanley of Preston was appointed by Queen Victoria as Governor General of Canada on June 11, 1888, he and his family became highly enthusiastic about ice hockey. Stanley was first exposed to the game at Montreal 's 1889 Winter Carnival, where he saw the Montreal Victorias play the Montreal Hockey Club . The Montreal Gazette reported that he "expressed his great delight with

20148-691: The Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins as the two teams he most enjoys watching for that reason. Outside of hockey, he supports the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball and threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Blue Jays game in 2016. On June 21, 2017, Electronic Arts revealed that McDavid would be the cover athlete for NHL 18 , their annual installment of the NHL video game series . Additionally, McDavid's unique skating style inspired

20367-476: The Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans to cancel the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals after game five, marking the first time the Stanley Cup was not awarded. The series was tied at 2–2–1, but the final game was never played because Montreal Manager George Kennedy and players Joe Hall , Billy Coutu , Jack McDonald , and Newsy Lalonde were hospitalized with influenza . Hall died four days after

20586-528: The NHL came under pressure to allow its champion to play the WHA champion. Eventually, following the establishment of the Canada Cup as the first best-on-best international hockey tournament, NHL president Clarence Campbell (who was a vocal opponent of the tournament) made public overtures to establish a true world professional championship in ice hockey, "just like the World Series ". Under Campbell's proposal,

20805-453: The NHL champion would have played the WHA champion for the right to face the European champion. In the end, Campbell's proposal went nowhere – eventually, the NHL resolved the WHA challenge by agreeing to merge with its rival , by which time the older league had quietly withdrawn its support for the idea. Neither the NHL nor any other professional hockey league makes a claim to its champions being

21024-402: The NHL had exclusive control over the Cup. A website known as freestanley.com (since closed) was launched, asking fans to write to the Cup trustees and urge them to return to the original Challenge Cup format. Adrienne Clarkson , then Governor General of Canada, alternately proposed that the Cup be presented to the top women's hockey team in lieu of the NHL season. This idea was so unpopular that

21243-655: The NHL in 1970. Since the demise of the QHL, the American Hockey League (AHL) has had Canadian teams, starting with the Quebec Aces . In 1972, the World Hockey Association was formed with professional teams in Edmonton, Ottawa, Quebec City and Winnipeg. Ottawa relocated to Toronto after one season, but the other teams survived until the WHA merged with the NHL in 1979, with Edmonton, Quebec City and Winnipeg joined

21462-514: The NHL season that kept him from participating. McDavid was one of the first three players named to the Canadian roster for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, joining Sidney Crosby and Alex Pietrangelo . In December 2021, however, the NHL declared that no players would be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games, citing COVID-19 outbreaks throughout the league. McDavid, who had already missed

21681-506: The NHL to inscribe the name of Vladimir Konstantinov , whose career ended after a car accident on June 13, 1997, on the Stanley Cup after Detroit defended their title in 1998. With the Montreal Canadiens having won by far the most Cup championships of any team, the list of the players who have been engraved on the Cup the most often is dominated by Montreal players. Henri Richard of the Canadiens, with his name engraved eleven times, played on more Stanley Cup champions than any other player. He

21900-626: The NHL's 30 teams were in the United States (the loss of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg in 2011 reduced this number to 23; it returned to 24 American teams when the Vegas Golden Knights joined in 2017). The NHL reached a higher peak when the Seattle Kraken joined the league in 2021-22 as the 25th American team. There are several other pro leagues in the US as well; as of 2019 these include

22119-555: The NHL, McDavid's 1.34 points per game have been on par with Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin . When asked by ESPN in 2016 what made McDavid such a strong player, several, including Auston Matthews, Ryan Getzlaf , Joe Thornton , and Brendan Gallagher , mentioned his speed on the ice. John Tavares praised McDavid's adaptability, while defenceman Cam Fowler said, "I don't think there's a specific way to shut him down." In 2021, Gretzky praised McDavid's increased maturity and physicality compared to previous seasons, saying, "His body language

22338-646: The NHL, along with the Hartford, Connecticut -based New England Whalers, which joined the NHL as the Hartford Whalers . The inclusion of all three Canadian WHA teams was a key point of contention in merger talks between the NHL and WHA, and only after the NHL agreed to that stipulation was agreed upon did the merger happen. In 1980, the Atlanta franchise moved to Calgary. In the 1990s, the Quebec and Winnipeg franchises relocated to

22557-721: The OHA, including the two teams from Sault Ste. Marie, the Sault Ste. Marie Marlboros and Michigan Soo Indians in 1903-04. Some banned players in Ontario considered starting a professional team in 1898, and there was a proposal to start a professional league in western Ontario in 1899, but professional hockey did not take off in Canada until 1907 with the establishment of the Ontario Professional Hockey League . The earliest known instance of hockey players playing publicly for pay occurred in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when

22776-773: The OHL First All-Rookie Team, McDavid took home the 2013 Emms Family Award for OHL rookie of the year. He was also a finalist for CHL Rookie of the Year , a title which ultimately went to Valentin Zykov of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar . In contrast to their poor finish during the previous season, the Otters opened the 2013–14 season with 25 points in their first 15 games, including a 10-game winning streak. During this stretch, McDavid personally had five goals and 28 points, three points behind OHL leader and teammate Connor Brown . He

22995-655: The OHL with a +60 plus–minus rating. At the end of the 2014–15 season, McDavid received a number of awards from the OHL and CHL. In addition to winning the Bobby Smith Trophy and CHL Scholastic Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, he was also named to the OHL First All-Star Team, received the Red Tilson Trophy for the most outstanding player in the OHL, the CHL Player of the Year title, and

23214-513: The Oilers to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2006 . The Oilers were ultimately defeated by the top-seeded Colorado Avalanche, the eventual Stanley Cup champions, in a four game sweep, bringing the postseason to an end. With 10 goals and 23 assists for a total of 33 points, he led all players in scoring in the 2022 playoffs. He became the first player since Peter Forsberg in 2002 to first in scoring without playing in

23433-579: The Ottawa team receiving a bye to the final because they were the only road team. On March 17, in the first Stanley Cup playoff game, the Montreal Hockey Club (Montreal HC) defeated the Montreal Victorias, 3–2. Five days later, in the first Stanley Cup Finals game, Montreal HC beat the Ottawa Hockey Club 3–1. In 1895, Queen's University was the first official challenger for the Cup, although it

23652-564: The Real Player Motion technology used in NHL 19 , in which player size and other attributes affect their skating speed and power. In 2022, McDavid was one of several Canadian athletes to appear on boxes of Cheerios cereal as part of their "Be the Cheer" promotion, in which customers could write personalized messages to athletes competing at the Olympic Games . That same year, McDavid became

23871-630: The Russian economy did. Before the 2008-09 season the RSL was reformed into the Kontinental Hockey League which includes teams from several other former Soviet republics (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine) and plans to expand further. In Sweden , the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) is the highest-level professional ice hockey league. It is generally regarded as one of

24090-497: The Sabres being in a different division and conference than the Oilers. The Oilers were ultimately defeated by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights in a six-game series, bringing their postseason to an end. In the summer 2023 off-season, the Oilers hired Jeff Jackson , McDavid's longtime agent, to serve as the CEO of hockey operations. McDavid vowed that it would be "Cup or bust" for

24309-638: The Stanley Cup continued styling themselves as the world champions just like in baseball. Two years later, the Rosebuds became the first American-based team to play in the Stanley Cup Finals, although all its players were Canadians. In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American-based team to win the Cup. After that season, the NHA dissolved, and the National Hockey League (NHL) took its place. The Spanish influenza epidemic forced

24528-511: The Stanley Cup had had 3,177 names engraved on it; of those, 1,331 belong to players. Currently, to qualify for automatic engraving, a player: However, since 1994 teams have been permitted to petition the NHL Commissioner , to be considered on a case-by-case basis, to engrave a player's name on the cup if the player was unavailable to play due to "extenuating circumstances". For example, the Detroit Red Wings received special permission from

24747-535: The Stanley Cup in 1906. In 1915, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the two main professional ice hockey organizations, reached an agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup. It was established as the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926 and then the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947. There are actually three Stanley Cups:

24966-414: The Stanley Cup trustees on March 17, that the trustees would not let the Stanley Cup travel west, as they did not consider Victoria a proper challenger because they had not formally notified the trustees. However, on March 18, Trustee William Foran stated that it was a misunderstanding. PCHA president Frank Patrick had not filed a challenge, because he had expected Emmett Quinn of the NHA to make all of

25185-504: The Ted Lindsay Award and was named to the NHL First All-Star Team. With a point in all nine of the Oilers' first goals of the 2018–19 season, McDavid broke Adam Oates 's record, set in 1986–87 , when Oates was involved in the Detroit Red Wings ' first seven goals of the season. With an overtime goal against Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Cam Ward on October 28, McDavid became the first Oiler to record at least 17 points through

25404-420: The U.S., to Denver and Phoenix respectively, while Ottawa rejoined the NHL in 1992; the NHL returned to Winnipeg in 2011, and a proposal to return to Quebec currently sits in purgatory. On February 16, 2005, the NHL became the first major professional team sport in North America to cancel an entire season because of a labor dispute. Play resumed again in the fall of 2005. During the dispute, controversy arose over

25623-585: The United States and Canada around the turn of the 20th century. Houghton, Michigan , was formally considered the "birthplace of professional hockey"; however, recent investigations have proven otherwise, beginning with the establishment of the International Professional Hockey League , the first fully professional hockey league, in Houghton in 1904 following conversations between James R. Dee from Houghton, Michigan and representatives of

25842-586: The Vancouver Canucks in seven games and the Dallas Stars in six games in the third round to help clinch the Oilers first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals since 2006. After losing the first three games of the series against the Florida Panthers , McDavid led the team on a comeback to avert elimination with a historic scoring surge in the next two games. In game four, he registered his 32nd assist of

26061-570: The WHL and took control of the Stanley Cup, forming Canadian and American divisions; it also brought in one WHL team, the Victoria Cougars , and relocated it to the U.S. to eventually become the modern Detroit Red Wings . The NHL lost Canadian teams in the 1920s and 1930s, leading to a rise in senior-level amateur teams and leagues in cities such as Quebec City and Ottawa, former NHL cities. After World War II, several of these teams became professional in

26280-559: The Wanderers challenged the Thistles to a rematch. Despite an improved lineup, the Thistles lost the Cup to Montreal. In 1908, the Allan Cup was introduced as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, and the Stanley Cup started to become a symbol of professional hockey supremacy. In that same year, the first all-professional team, the Toronto Trolley Leaguers from the newly created Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL), competed for

26499-405: The Week with 12 points through the first five games of the year, all of which the Oilers came back from behind to win. With the first goal of his hat-trick against the Anaheim Ducks on November 10, McDavid reached 400 NHL points in 306 games, joining Sidney Crosby as the only other active NHL player to reach the milestone in that many games. It was also 64 days before his 23rd birthday, making McDavid

26718-399: The York Simcoe Express, a team coached by his father. In 2009, McDavid participated in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with his York Simcoe team, which also featured future professional ice hockey player Sam Bennett . In 2011, McDavid left the Express for the Toronto Marlboros of the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL), the team that he and his father had defeated in

26937-401: The York Simcoe Express, but he left the team in 2011 to join the Toronto Marlboros of the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL). There, McDavid was named the GTHL Player of the Year and the winner of the Tim Adams Memorial Trophy . He was granted exceptional player status in 2012 by Hockey Canada , which allowed him to begin playing junior ice hockey at the age of 15. The Erie Otters of

27156-420: The appropriate rink conditions, and it was common for teams to defend the Cup numerous times during the year. In 1912, Cup trustees declared that it was to be defended only at the end of the champion team's regular season. In 1914, the Victoria Aristocrats from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) challenged the NHA and Cup champion Toronto Blueshirts . A controversy erupted when a letter arrived from

27375-445: The arrangements in his role as hockey commissioner, whereas the trustees thought they were being deliberately ignored. In any case, all arrangements had been ironed out and the Victoria challenge was accepted. Several days later, trustee Foran wrote to NHA president Quinn that the trustees are "perfectly satisfied to allow the representatives of the three pro leagues (NHA, PCHA, and Maritime ) to make all arrangements each season as to

27594-455: The bands were originally designed to fill up during the Cup's centennial year in 1992, the names of the 1965 Montreal Canadiens were engraved over a larger area than allotted and thus there are 12 teams on that band instead of 13. When the bands were all filled in 1991, the top band of the large barrel was preserved in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and a new blank band was added to the bottom so the Stanley Cup would not grow further. Another new band

27813-444: The beginning of fully professional hockey in North America. Professional leagues emerged from amateur leagues. In 1904, the predominantly U.S.-based International Professional Hockey League (IPHL) hosted the first Canadian professional team, the Canadian Soo. The league hired many amateur players away from Canada, causing the amateur leagues to convert to all-out professionalism or allow professional players in order to compete for

28032-418: The beginning of the 2019–20 season . The season also saw significant developments for the Oilers as a team, with general manager Peter Chiarelli sacked midway through in January 2019 after years of criticism for his inability to assemble a competitive team around McDavid. Subsequently, Ken Holland was hired as the team's new general manager. McDavid started the 2019–20 season as the NHL First Star of

28251-457: The beginning, this time while also scoring goals at the highest pace of his career thus far. On January 22, McDavid scored his 40th goal of the season in a win over the Vancouver Canucks, becoming the fastest NHL player to notch 40 goals in a season since Pavel Bure during the 1999–2000 season . McDavid reached 800 career points against the Philadelphia Flyers in a February 21 game, the fifth-fastest pace of any player in league history. That game

28470-404: The best players in the modern era of the NHL, with frequent comparisons to elite offensive players such as Sidney Crosby . Responding to a 2017 survey from the Associated Press , defenceman Seth Jones described McDavid as "what Crosby was when he was 20", while Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask said that McDavid "just skates and he stick handles and it's something I've never seen before as

28689-411: The best teams in Europe. The winner of the Champions Hockey League will face an NHL challenger each year in the Victoria Cup providing a regular contest between NHL and European teams since the end of the Super Series in 1991. The Champions League was suspended for the 2009-10 season due to withdrawal of sponsors such as Gazprom . In 2009, KHL and Gazprom executive Alexander Medvedev proposed merging

28908-432: The board of SM-liiga . The board have committed themselves to promote the first winner of Mestis (the second highest competition) that meets certain standards. The Finnish ice hockey championship has been played since 1928. In Germany , the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (German Hockey League, shortname DEL) is a German high-calibre ice hockey league, and has the highest number of American and Canadian players overseas. It

29127-400: The bronze medal game, Canada finished the World Championship without a medal for the first time since 2014. McDavid, who was joined by Oilers teammates Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse , finished the tournament third in scoring with five goals and 17 points in 10 games. McDavid intended to play for Canada again at the 2019 IIHF World Championship , but suffered a leg injury at the end of

29346-442: The cancelled game, and the series was abandoned. The format for the Stanley Cup Finals changed in 1922 , with the creation of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). Three leagues competed for the Cup: two league champions faced each other for the right to challenge the third champion in the final series. This lasted three seasons as the PCHA and the WCHL later merged to form the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 . In 1924–25

29565-535: The case of the concurrent development of professional gridiron football , the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania metropolitan area was one of the first areas to promote a professional ice hockey team. The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League began hiring professional players in 1902 and acted as a pro–am league. This league joined with teams in Michigan and Ontario to form the International Professional Hockey League in 1904, with Houghton, Michigan dentist Jack Gibson its founder. While this league had folded by 1907, it

29784-399: The championship match, and McDavid's 11 points (three goals and eight assists) tied Sam Reinhart and Nic Petan for first in the tournament. He was named to the media all-star team at the end of the championships. McDavid first joined the Canadian senior team for the 2016 IIHF World Championship in Russia. Although he had eight assists in the tournament, McDavid did not score a goal until

30003-418: The coach of the Oilers AHL affiliate Bakersfield Condors . McDavid was once again selected as the captain of the Pacific Division team at the 2022 NHL All-Star Game, where he was upset by Jordan Kyrou of the St. Louis Blues in the Fastest Skater competition. The Oilers recovered their form under Woodcroft, finishing the season in second place in the Pacific Division to qualify for the playoffs after posting

30222-407: The country split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia . In the Czech Republic, the Czech Extraliga is rooted in the Czechoslovak Extraliga. The Czech Extraliga was spun off in 1993 following the administrative break-up of Czechoslovakia. The Czech Extraliga is the highest-level ice hockey league in the Czech Republic . The name of the league is leased a general sponsor and changes frequently. In

30441-399: The crowning of the 2017–18 champions, the Washington Capitals , the band listing the 1953–54 to 1964–65 winners was removed in September 2018, with a new band for the 2017–18 to 2029–30 champions added to the bottom of the cup. Since the introduction of the five-band cup, each engraved team is displayed on the trophy between 52 and 65 years (though in practice, this was reduced by one year as

30660-429: The cup. The NHL has registered trademarks associated with the name and likeness of the Stanley Cup, although there has been dispute as to whether the league has the right to own trademarks associated with a trophy that it does not own. The original bowl was made of silver and is 18.5 centimetres ( 7 + 5 ⁄ 16  in) high and 29 centimetres ( 11 + 7 ⁄ 16  in) in diameter. The current Stanley Cup

30879-430: The decision not to award the Stanley Cup; some considered this decision a violation of the terms of the Stanley Cup's handover ("Deed of Gift") to the NHL. Following a legal challenge, it was agreed that the Cup's trustees could award the Cup to a non-NHL team, although this did not actually occur. In Czechoslovakia , the Czechoslovak Extraliga was the elite ice hockey league in Czechoslovakia from 1930 until 1993, when

31098-411: The eighth player to record 400 points before turning 23. Five days later, McDavid recorded another hat-trick as part of a career-high six-point game against the Colorado Avalanche. Although he reached 50 points on December 1 in a 3–2 win against the Vancouver Canucks , McDavid's scoring pace began to slow after his pair of hat tricks: he recorded 48 points in the first 25 games of the season but only 10 in

31317-437: The final game of the 2018–19 season but underwent a nonsurgical rehabilitation process that allowed him to return in time for the start of the 2019–20 season . In 2020–21 , despite the COVID-19 pandemic shortening the NHL season to only 56 games, McDavid recorded 100 points for the fourth time in his career. In 2023–24 , McDavid captained the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Finals , their first since 2006 . McDavid went on to win

31536-554: The final game of the season, McDavid crashed into the Calgary Flames' net at a velocity of over 40 km/h (25 mph), slamming his left knee into the post. He was diagnosed with a complete tear of the posterior cruciate ligament and popliteus muscle , tears to both the medial and lateral meniscus , and a tibial plateau fracture . With the Oilers already eliminated from possible playoff contention, McDavid elected not to undergo surgery but to participate in an extensive rehabilitation program that would allow him to return in time for

31755-422: The final round. On October 12, 2022, during the Oilers' 2022–23 season opener against the Vancouver Canucks, McDavid scored a hat-trick and increased his total career points to 700. This made him the sixth-fastest player in NHL history to reach the milestone, and the fastest player since the 1980s. In a season marked by increased scoring generally across the league, McDavid once again led the league in points from

31974-534: The first 10 games of an NHL season since Mark Messier in 1989–90 . On December 13, with two assists in his 240th NHL game, McDavid became the ninth player to reach 300 points before his 22nd birthday and tied Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins as the 21st century NHL player to reach the milestone in the fewest games. While serving as the Pacific Division captain at his third consecutive NHL All-Star Game, McDavid set an NHL record with his third Fastest Skater victory, defeating Jack Eichel and Mathew Barzal with

32193-516: The first 10 games of the season since Gretzky and Jari Kurri in 1984–85 . After an excellent start to the season, both the Oilers and McDavid began suffering a marked decline in results, culminating in a 2–11–2 stretch of games in December and January. By early February they had dropped out of a playoff spot. Amidst extensive media discussion of the Oilers' lack of depth scoring and questionable goaltending, general manager Holland fired coach Dave Tippett and replaced him with Jay Woodcroft , previously

32412-508: The first Canadian members. In March 2017, to commemorate the Stanley Cup's 125th anniversary, the original Cup and the current Stanley Cup were the focus of a four-day tour of Ottawa, including a stop at Rideau Hall. The Royal Canadian Mint produced two commemorative coins to mark the anniversary. The first is a roll of Canadian quarters with an image of the Stanley Cup, the word Stanley Cup in English and Coupe Stanley in French with two ice hockey players and "125 years/ ans " on

32631-506: The first active professional athlete to serve as a brand ambassador for sports betting company BetMGM . McDavid is involved in charitable efforts with Edmonton's indigenous community and has raised $ 85,000 to help indigenous children play sports. He is also involved in a shuttle program to help sick kids. Career statistics derived from Elite Prospects. Bold indicates led league. Bold italics indicate NHL record. Professional ice hockey Professional hockey developed in

32850-417: The frequent labor disputes in the NHL (it has locked out its players three times in an eighteen-year span), picking up players who are barred from NHL play due to lockouts. Between 2000 and 2003, several NHL teams travelled outside North America to play exhibition games against some Swedish and one Finnish ice hockey teams. This series was known as the NHL Challenge . In 2008, the former Russian Super League

33069-424: The game of hockey and the expertise of the players". During that time, organized ice hockey in Canada was still in its infancy and only Montreal and Ottawa had anything resembling leagues. Stanley's entire family became active in ice hockey. Two of his sons, Arthur and Algernon, formed a new team called the Ottawa Rideau Hall Rebels . Arthur also played a key role in the formation of what later became known as

33288-399: The gold medal, imposing the first ever Olympic defeat on the Canadians. However, because of the disruption of World War II and a lack of suitable venues afterwards the sport faded rapidly. As of 2012, the ten-team, two-division professional Elite Ice Hockey League is the highest level of competition in the United Kingdom and features teams from each of the four Home Nations . Much as was

33507-476: The gold-medal match against Finland , who the Canadians shut out 2–0 to win the tournament. McDavid's was the only goal of the game until the final second, when Matt Duchene scored in an empty net . That same year, McDavid was named captain of Team North America , a team of Canadian and United States players aged 23 or under, at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey . Centreing a line with Auston Matthews and Mark Scheifele , McDavid had three assists in six games during

33726-399: The lack of any interleague championship. In doing so, the NHL copied a policy that had been adopted by the then still-fledgling National Football League from its start in 1920 (and which the National Basketball Association also asserted upon its founding in 1946). Finally in 1947, the NHL reached an agreement with trustee J. Cooper Smeaton to grant control of the Cup to the NHL, allowing

33945-492: The league in goals for the first time in his career. He finished the season with 64 goals and 153 points, winning his fifth (and third consecutive) Art Ross Trophy and, for the first time in his career, earning the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy for leading the NHL in goal-scoring. He was the first Oiler to win the Richard Trophy, and the first to lead the NHL in goals since Gretzky in 1986–87 . His 64 goals were one short of Alexander Ovechkin 's post- lockout record of 65 in

34164-446: The league not operate for a season. The dispute lasted so long that, by the time it was settled, the NHL had resumed operating for the 2005–06 season , and the Stanley Cup went unclaimed for the 2004–05 season. Furthermore, when another NHL lockout commenced in 2012 the trustees stated that the 2006 agreement did not oblige them to award the Cup in the event of a lost season, and that they were likely to reject any non-NHL challenges for

34383-434: The league to reject challenges from other leagues that may have wished to play for the Cup: This agreement was amended on November 22, 1961, substituting the Governors of the International Hockey Hall of Fame in Kingston, Ontario with the Committee of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario as the group to name the two Canadian trustees, if need be. In the 1970s, the World Hockey Association sought to challenge for

34602-473: The men's game, and has seen starts and stops. The Canadian Women's Hockey League , founded in 2014, did not pay salaries, but did pay stipends and bonuses. It folded in 2019 due to financial instability. The National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), the first women's league to pay salaries, was established in the United States in 2015 and expanded into Canada in 2020. However, hundreds of prominent women's players, including Canadian and American Olympians, founded

34821-425: The milestone. Four days later, he had a natural hat-trick and a five-point game in a 7–1 rout of the Calgary Flames . He won the North Division Star of the Month again for March after recording 23 points in 14 games, including an 11-game point streak between March 6 and 29. On May 9, 2021, in only the 53rd game of the pandemic-shortened season, McDavid reached his 100th point of the year in a four-point outing against

35040-431: The most decorated player in league history. Altogether, McDavid had 285 points in his career with the Otters, 24 fewer than franchise leader Brad Boyes , and led the franchise with 188 assists. The Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL), who were coming off of a 24–44–14 season, selected McDavid first overall in the 2015 NHL entry draft . On July 3, 2015, he signed a three-year, entry-level contract with

35259-435: The name changed to Slovnaft Extraliga when a general sponsor agreement with Slovnaft was signed. The agreement is valid until the end of 2007/08 season. The Slovak Extraliga is also rooted in the Czechoslovak Extraliga. The 1993/94 season was the first season of Slovak Extraliga as Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993. Hockey Club Slovan Bratislava (Slovak: Hokejový klub Slovan Bratislava)

35478-424: The new 2000 millennium. The opportunities for fans and media to compare levels of play between the continents were especially limited during the Cold War since many of Europe’s best clubs were behind the Iron Curtain . After the success of the Summit Series which featured the Canadian and Soviet national teams, there was a demand for more international hockey at the club level. It has also proved that Soviet hockey

35697-446: The next nine, a stretch which also included four pointless outings. McDavid made his fourth All-Star Game appearance in 2020 as captain of the Pacific Division. He was kept from a fourth consecutive Fastest Skater win by Mathew Barzal , who finished the course in 13.175 seconds, ahead of McDavid's 13.215-second lap. With their February 9 outing against the Nashville Predators , during which Draisaitl scored twice and McDavid had an assist,

35916-402: The next two decades other leagues and clubs occasionally issued challenges, but none were accepted by the Cup's trustees. Since 1926, no non-NHL team has played for the Cup, leading it to become the de facto championship trophy of the NHL. In addition, with no major professional hockey league left to challenge it, the NHL began calling its league champions the world champions , notwithstanding

36135-447: The next year, as his parents lied about his age to allow him to play with five-year-olds. When he was six, the local youth hockey association in his hometown of Newmarket forbade McDavid to play against older children, and his parents, believing that he would be "bored out of his mind" in house league hockey, enrolled him in an Aurora, Ontario , hockey program. From there, he won four Ontario Minor Hockey Association championships with

36354-465: The only players in the 97-year history of the award to win the Hart Memorial Trophy by unanimous selection. The Oilers were unexpectedly swept by the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the 2021 playoffs , with McDavid recording only one goal and three assists in the four-game series. The officiating standards during the playoffs subsequently became a public point of contention, with McDavid joining many fans and commentators in saying that referees allowed

36573-417: The original bowl of the "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup", the authenticated "Presentation Cup", and the spelling-corrected "Permanent Cup" on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame whenever the Presentation Cup is not available. While the NHL has maintained control over the trophy itself and its associated trademarks, the NHL does not actually own the trophy but uses it by agreement with the two Canadian trustees of

36792-446: The pair became the first teammates to reach 30 goals and 80 points apiece in 55 games since Mario Lemieux and Jaromír Jágr with the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 1996–97 season . McDavid injured his knee in a collision with Dante Fabbro during the second period of that game, and although the knee itself did not suffer any serious damage, MRI scans revealed a quadriceps injury. He missed six games before returning on February 23 for

37011-437: The players, and closed most of the teams in mining towns. In 1911, Lester and Frank Patrick, who had played in the NHA, formed the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association in British Columbia and took the opportunity to sign many of the NHA's players, notably Cyclone Taylor . In 1912, the NHA expanded west to Toronto, becoming a six-team league from Toronto to Quebec City. While the leagues competed for players, competition for

37230-422: The playoffs on a goal by Dylan Holloway , breaking Wayne Gretzky's record for most assists in one playoff year in an 8–1 victory. Following a dominant performance in which he scored four points during a 5-3 victory in the fifth game, McDavid achieved a historic feat by becoming the first player in NHL history to achieve back-to-back games with four points or more in the Stanley Cup Finals. Additionally, he also holds

37449-420: The pre-tournament and round robin stages of the World Cup. Team North America was eliminated after the round-robin portion of the tournament, with Russia winning the tiebreaker. Two years later, McDavid was named captain of Team Canada at the 2018 IIHF World Championship in Denmark, where he recorded five goals and 13 points through the opening rounds of the tournament. With a 4–1 loss to the United States team in

37668-463: The previous year's Ontario Hockey Federation championship. The decision came at a social cost, as he lost many of the friends that he had made with York Simcoe. He won the GTHL Player of the Year Award in 2012 after scoring 33 goals and recording 39 assists in 33 regular season games. McDavid added another 19 points (11 goals and eight assists) in seven OHL Cup games, the most by any player since Sam Gagner recorded 17 points in five games during

37887-445: The record for most points accumulated over two games in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Oilers forced the series to seven games, but were ultimately defeated. McDavid was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the postseason. He was the sixth person from the losing finalist team to receive the award, only the second forward (after Reggie Leach in 1976 ) to do so, and the first person since Jean-Sébastien Giguère of

38106-405: The regular season. The Oilers ended a 10-year playoff drought on March 29, 2017, when they defeated the Los Angeles Kings to clinch a berth in the 2017 playoffs . McDavid scored his first NHL postseason goal short-handed in the Oilers' 2–0 shutout win over the San Jose Sharks in the opening-round series. Edmonton defeated the Sharks in six games of the best-of-seven series and went on to face

38325-409: The reverse and an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse using plated steel. The second coin was designed with the Stanley Cup on the reverse and an effigy of Elizabeth II, "Stanley Cup" in English and " Coupe Stanley " in French and "50 dollars" above the effigy. It was made using 99.9% silver. In October 2017, the Lord Stanley's Gift Monument , commemorating the donation of the Stanley Cup,

38544-452: The season helped the Otters to reach 100 points as a team for the first time since 2001. He finished the regular season fourth in the OHL with 99 points (28 goals and 71 assists) in 56 games. His 20 penalty minutes , meanwhile, were the lowest among the top 12 scorers in the league, and McDavid was awarded the William Hanley Trophy for the most sportsmanlike player in the OHL. With a 92 per cent average at McDowell High School, McDavid both won

38763-405: The season with 100 points. In doing so, he became the youngest player (just four months past his 20th birthday) to win the Art Ross Trophy for the NHL scoring leader since a 19-year-old Sidney Crosby won in the 2006–07 season . Playing in all 82 games of the season, McDavid recorded 30 goals and 70 assists for 100 points, with at least one point in 59 games and a 14-game point streak to close out

38982-405: The season, McDavid joined Wayne Gretzky as the only Oilers in history to reach 20 points in 11 games during back-to-back seasons, a feat for which he was named the NHL North Division Star of the Month for January. His 500th career point came on an assist against the Winnipeg Jets on February 17. The point came in McDavid's 369th NHL game, tying Sidney Crosby as the eighth-fastest player to reach

39201-446: The season, setting a franchise record for rookie assists. It was also his 62nd point of the season, tying with Tim Connolly for the most rookie points in Otters history. He went on to record four more points in the regular season, breaking Connolly's record. McDavid finished his rookie season with 25 goals and 41 assists in 63 regular season games, second in scoring to Nikolay Goldobin among all OHL rookies. In addition to being named to

39420-428: The second player in history to record six multi-point games in a single playoff series. The Oilers drew the Calgary Flames in the second round, the first playoff " Battle of Alberta " in 31 years. With two goals and four assists in the first two games of the second round, McDavid hit 20 career playoff points in the fewest games of any player in 30 years. McDavid scored the series-clinching goal in overtime in Game 5 to send

39639-418: The series of matches to be played for the Cup". One year later, when the Maritime league folded, the NHA and the PCHA concluded a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other for the Cup, similar to baseball 's World Series , which is played between the American League and National League champions. Under the new proposal, the Stanley Cup Finals series alternated between

39858-440: The team and its players has been an unbroken annual tradition. Originally, a new band was added each year, causing the trophy to grow in size. The "Stovepipe Cup", as it was nicknamed because of its resemblance to the exhaust pipe of a stove, became unwieldy, so it was redesigned in 1948 as a two-piece cigar-shaped trophy with a removable bowl and collar. This Cup also properly honoured those teams that did not engrave their names on

40077-413: The team going into the 2023–24 season . The team had a "disastrous" start to the season, winning only two of their first ten games and sitting second-to-last in the NHL. McDavid missed games due to injury in this period, and at the same point was tied for 57th in league scoring. On November 12, the team fired coach Woodcroft and replaced him with Kris Knoblauch , who had previously been McDavid's coach with

40296-401: The team to victory, posting a goal and two assists in a game-leading 24:02 minutes of ice time to force Game 7. Two days later, McDavid had a primary assist on Cody Ceci 's game-winning goal, before burying a backhand shot in the final minutes to secure a 2–0 Oilers win and clinch the series. McDavid's four goals and 10 assists led the league in the first round of the playoffs, and he became only

40515-465: The team; the total deal was worth $ 11.3 million, including up to $ 3.775 million annually in bonus incentives. He made his NHL debut on October 9, 2015, nearly scoring twice but stopped by Brian Elliott both times in a 3–1 loss to the St. Louis Blues . His first goal came five days later in his third NHL game, when McDavid scored on Kari Lehtonen in the second period of a 4–2 loss to the Dallas Stars . On November 3, in his 13th NHL game, McDavid suffered

40734-409: The third-best points percentage in the league after the coaching change with a 26–9–3 record. McDavid finished the season with 44 goals, 79 assists and 123 points in 80 games to secure his fourth career Art Ross Trophy. This point total was eight points more than runner-up Johnny Gaudreau of the Calgary Flames and Jonathan Huberdeau of the Florida Panthers , who both finished with 115 points. McDavid

40953-454: The time of his injury, giving him a Gordie Howe hat trick , but was forced to miss both the Subway Super Series and several regular season games. He missed six weeks of the regular OHL season, first to injury and then international competition, before returning on January 8 for a 4–3 defeat from the Sarnia Sting . Shortly after his return, McDavid was named the captain of Team Cherry at the 2015 CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game ; teammate Dylan Strome

41172-408: The title of world champions by no later than the turn of the century. After the Portland Rosebuds , an American-based team, joined the PCHA in 1914, the trustees promptly issued a formal statement that the Cup was no longer for the best team in Canada, but now for the best team in the world. Ice hockey in Europe was still in its infancy at this time, so it was without much controversy that winners of

41391-464: The top leagues of Europe, and one of the Swedish major professional sports league. SHL, or the Swedish Elite League , which it is often unofficially called in English, is composed of 14 teams. The first season under the former name Elitserien was played in 1975–76 . The Swedish ice hockey championships has been played in various forms since 1922. In Switzerland , the Nationalliga A (German), or Ligue Nationale A (French), or Lega Nazionale A (Italian)

41610-400: The top players. The first Canadian professional league was the Manitoba Professional Hockey League (MPHL), formed in 1905 from member teams of the amateur Manitoba Hockey Association . The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), formed from prior amateur hockey leagues, emerged in 1906. The ECAHA allowed teams to have professional players from the start, despite its name. In 1907,

41829-414: The tournament, he went pointless in the last three games and spent most of the bronze medal match, in which Canada fell 2–1 to Russia , on the bench . He rejoined the team for the 2015 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Canada, serving as an alternate captain and as the only 17-year-old on a team that was otherwise 19 years of age. Canada took the gold medal in the tournament, defeating Russia 5–4 in

42048-420: The trophy even though they did not officially win it under the new PCHA-NHA system. They had won the title of only the previous champion's league and would have been crowned as Cup champions under the old challenge rules. The winners in 1918 and 1920 to 1923 did not put their winning team name on it. No further engraving occurred until 1924, when the Canadiens added a new band to the Cup. Since then, engraving

42267-422: The trophy to the National Hockey League (NHL). The terms of the NHL's control over the trophy extended only so long as the NHL remained the undisputed, most dominant professional hockey league in the world, a distinction that arguably was voided in the 1970s after Russian teams played, and often defeated, NHL teams but has not been formally challenged since that time. The most elite European clubs have competed in

42486-495: The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers in a game infamous for its roughness . Subsequent Super Series produced more close results, but generally favoured the Soviet sides. However, following the fall of communism, many elite players from the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries went to the NHL for higher pay. The NHL became de facto the world’s most elite league as the quality of play in European leagues suffered. European leagues have, however, benefited from

42705-446: The winning team. I am not quite certain that the present regulations governing the arrangement of matches give entire satisfaction, and it would be worth considering whether they could not be arranged so that each team would play once at home and once at the place where their opponents hail from. Soon afterwards, Stanley purchased what is frequently described as a decorative punch bowl , but which silver expert John Culme identified as

42924-403: The youngest OHL player ever to participate in the Subway Super Series . In January and February, the physical toll of moving from minor to junior hockey, as well as frustration playing for the last-place Otters, limited McDavid's effectiveness on the ice, and his scoring began to slow. On March 10, 2013, despite the Otters falling 6–4 to the Owen Sound Attack , McDavid picked up his 37th assist of

43143-482: The youngest captain in NHL history. Recording 100 points during the 2016–17 season , at the age of 20, McDavid became the second youngest player to win the Art Ross Trophy for the leading scorer in the NHL. He was also awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy , Ted Lindsay Award , and was selected to the NHL First All-Star Team . Although the Oilers missed the Stanley Cup playoffs during the next two seasons, McDavid scored 41 goals in consecutive years. He injured his knee in

43362-399: Was 20 days older when he became captain of the Colorado Avalanche in September 2012. After a 10-game goal drought early in the season, McDavid recorded his first NHL hat-trick on November 19 in a 5–2 victory over the Dallas Stars. The following month, on December 18, 2016, he scored his first shootout goal against Ben Bishop to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3–2. With two assists against

43581-428: Was again named a finalist for both the Hart Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award. The Oilers advanced in the 2022 playoffs to meet the Los Angeles Kings, seen as favourites to advance beyond the first round for only the second time in McDavid's career. The Kings proved a greater challenge than many had expected, and after five games led the series 3–2. With the Oilers facing elimination in Game 6 in Los Angeles , McDavid led

43800-439: Was allowed to enter the junior hockey draft at the age of 15 rather than 16. He was only the third Ontario Hockey League (OHL) player to be granted such an exception, following John Tavares in 2005 and Aaron Ekblad in 2011. On April 7, 2012, the Erie Otters selected McDavid first overall in the 2012 OHL Priority Selection , and he signed with the team that June. As the first overall selection in that year's OHL draft, McDavid

44019-457: Was at a comparable level to the NHL. This led to the Super Series which from 1975 to 1991 featured an annual tour of North America by a Soviet hockey club. The first Super Series featured CSKA Moscow against the Montreal Canadiens on New Year’s Eve 1975, in what was described in the press as a de facto world championship. The game ended as a 3-3 draw but was hailed as one of the greatest games ever played. The following week CSKA played and lost to

44238-419: Was born on January 13, 1997, in Richmond Hill, Ontario . His mother, Kelly, played one year of recreational ice hockey as a child before turning her attention towards skiing, while his father, Brian, was a high school ice hockey player and dedicated Boston Bruins fan. McDavid began playing hockey around the age of three, practicing on rollerblades in the family basement. He began playing organized youth hockey

44457-421: Was constituted in 1975 to replace SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. SM-liiga has an agreement of cooperation with Finnish ice hockey federation Suomen Jääkiekkoliitto. SM is a common abbreviation for Suomen mestaruus, "Finnish championship". At the moment, there are 14 teams. SM-liiga was closed in 2000 so that no team can be relegated to or promoted from the lower leagues without approval of

44676-446: Was controversial. The Montreal Victorias had won the league title and thus the Stanley Cup, but the challenge match was between the previous year's champion, Montreal HC, and the university squad. The trustees decided that if the Montreal HC won the challenge match, the Victorias would become the Stanley Cup champions. The Montreal HC won the match 5–1 and their cross-town rivals were crowned the champions. The first successful challenge to

44895-434: Was erected in Ottawa at Sparks Street and Elgin Street, near the location of the dinner party announcing the Cup at the Russell House, which has since been demolished. Like the Grey Cup , awarded to the winner of the Canadian Football League , the Stanley Cup is engraved with the names of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff. However, this was not always the case: one of Lord Stanley's original conditions

45114-421: Was featured in Vogue. Edmonton Oilers teammates Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse were two of his groomsmen. As a sports fan in Ontario, McDavid was a dedicated childhood fan of Mats Sundin and the Toronto Maple Leafs NHL team. He described his childhood bedroom as "pretty embarrassing" for its volume of Maple Leafs memorabilia. In 2023, he stated that he "likes watching players more than teams", and named

45333-404: Was formed as a replacement for the Bundesliga . It dates back to 1958. The highest league in the Soviet Union was the Soviet Championship League , founded in 1946. This evolved into an elite league with a talent level comparable to the NHL. However, it was always considered an "amateur" league, rather than professional. This was because all elite athletes in the Soviet Union were conscripted into

45552-413: Was formed in 1921 from existing teams in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The annual Stanley Cup playoffs now became a three-way championship, alternating in location between the west and the east. The PCHA would merge with the WCHL in 1924 to form the Western Hockey League before the league ceased operations in 1926. The NHL, having expanded to the U.S.A. and now with ten teams, bought out the players' contracts of

45771-443: Was given to it as early as May 1, 1893, when an Ottawa Journal article used the name as a title. Originally, Stanley intended that the Cup should be awarded to the top amateur hockey team in Canada, to be decided by the acceptance of a challenge from another team. He made five preliminary regulations: Stanley appointed Sheriff John Sweetland and Philip D. Ross (who went on to serve an unsurpassed 56 years) as trustees of

45990-429: Was named the OHL Player of the Month in October and received another Subway Super Series selection, appearing as the youngest player in the tournament for the second year in a row. After experiencing two consecutive four-point outings in an 11–2 win against the Plymouth Whalers and 6–1 victory over the Windsor Spitfires in March, McDavid was named both the OHL and CHL Player of the Week. Later that week, his 25th goal of

46209-404: Was not favored by major hockey circuits, as they were established as purely amateur organizations. Players who were found to be paid were marked as professional and were banned by leagues such as the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), Canadian teams were prohibited from playing in Pittsburgh, and the Canadian teams who played games against professional teams from Northern Michigan were banished by

46428-403: Was refounded as the Kontinental Hockey League , expanded into Belarus, Latvia, and Kazakhstan, and encouraged its clubs to aggressively seek talented players (sometimes at the expense of the NHL), prompting the media to speculate about eventual KHL challenge to the NHL dominance of international hockey. Also in 2008, the new Champions Hockey League was created to provide an elite tournament for

46647-413: Was scheduled to be added to the bottom of the cup following the 2004–05 season, but was not added because of the 2004–05 NHL lockout. After the 2005–06 champion Carolina Hurricanes were crowned and the new bottom ring was finally added (along with the retiring of the band listing the 1940–41 to 1952–53 champions), the cancelled season was acknowledged with the words "2004–05 Season Not Played". Following

46866-515: Was selected to captain Team Orr. After recording his first OHL hat-trick on February 25 against the Guelph Storm, McDavid recorded his 100th point of the season with a goal and assist against the Owen Sound Attack. He was the fourth OHL player that season to reach 100 points, doing so in only 38 games due to his injury, and was named OHL Player of the Month for February. He finished the regular season with 44 goals and 120 points in 47 games, with at least one point in all but two of those games, and he led

47085-417: Was that each team could, at their own expense, add a ring to the Cup to commemorate their victory. Initially, there was only one base ring, which was attached to the bottom of the original bowl by the Montreal Hockey Club. Clubs engraved their team names, usually in the form "TEAM NAME" "YEAR WON" , on that one ring until it was full in 1902. With no more room to engrave their names (and unwilling to pay for

47304-461: Was the first of four consecutive two-goal games that saw him reach the 50-goal mark for the first time in a single season on February 27. He notched a fifth consecutive two-goal game on March 1, becoming only the fifth player in league history to do so. With a goal and an assist in a game against the Ottawa Senators on March 14, he reached 129 points on the season, surpassing Nikita Kucherov 's 21st-century record set four years prior . He then reached

47523-433: Was the recipient of the 2012 Jack Ferguson Award . McDavid joined the Otters for the 2012–13 season , where he scored his first OHL goal on September 21, in an 8–2 loss to the London Knights . That October, he was named the OHL Rookie of the Month after recording at least one point in all 10 games he played. He took home the award again in November with a rookie-leading 17 points in 13 games. That same month, McDavid became

47742-407: Was the start of professional hockey. The United States would continue to see professional hockey with teams from the PCHL, beginning with the Portland Rosebuds , followed by a Seattle-based franchise a year later. When the Boston Bruins joined the NHL in 1924, the United States was finally represented in the league. It would continue to grow in the NHL until a peak in the 2000s (decade), when 24 of

47961-444: Was third place in Calder Memorial Trophy voting, behind Shayne Gostisbehere of the Philadelphia Flyers and winner Artemi Panarin of the Chicago Blackhawks , and all three players were named to the 2015–16 NHL All-Rookie Team . On October 5, 2016, the Oilers named McDavid their captain for the 2016–17 season . At 19 years and 266 days old, McDavid became the youngest captain in NHL history, unseating Gabriel Landeskog , who

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