Is it time to change the name of the trophies awarded?

[JianYang]

This feels like a proposed change that nobody is really asking for.

Who really gets worked up about who the trophy is named after?

For example, the Norris Trophy simply means most outstanding d-man to me. The name is just a side note, and thats fine. I barely know anything about Norris tbh.

 

[Shark Finn]

So NHL, the ultimate old boys club, would actually go and do something about things? Nah.

 

[Elvs]

I suggest the city of Anaheim should change name. It was named by German settlers in the 1800's. Why not change the name to something that's more up with the times? Disneylandland maybe?

 

[Svencouver]

wtf is happening in here lol

 

[daver]

I agree with the premise of updating things to reflect the modern era and recognizing Wayne.

How about the Wayne Gretzky Over/Under Award for the team that covered the spread the most during the season.

 

[daver]

View attachment 621411

So are you saying the OP is practicing Retrospective Bigotterism?

How ironic.

 

[Nut Upstrom]

If they are looking for names to use, I hear that Uncle Ben is available.

 

[Aladyyn]

Need an award for the best overall D man. Both ends of the ice. You know somebody who plays defense and doesn't rely on his center to do all the work for him. I'm tired of these ballerinas getting all the credit when other people have to do their work.

This is an imaginary problem lol

 

[Aurinko]

Let's be reality, the awards should be named after the respected corporate sponsors of the NHL

Art Ross: Crypto.com leading scorer - for all the dorks who love stats too much

Rocket Richard: Navy Federal Credit Union goal leader - put it in the bank some credit union with them goals

Hart: BioSteel most valuable player - gotta drink BioSteel (wtf is BioSteel lol?) to be the best

Lindsay: Tim Hortons most outstanding player - still gets to be named after a player

Norris: Geico best defenseman - guy back there got our back like Geico

Selke: SAP defensive forward of the year - this has become a fancy stat award anyway

Vezina: Draft Kings Sportsbook goalie of the year - best goalie any year is a gamble anyway

Calder: Great Clips rookie of the year - gonna be a while before you need to get freshened up after the hazing kid

Lady Byng: Verizon sportsmanship award - Verizon customer service is the best of course

Adams: Enterprise coach of the year - no need to take a taxi after you get fired, we'll pick you up

Jim Gregory: EA Sports GM of the year - self explanatory

Masterton: Chipotle perseverance award - if you can stomach down Chipotle you got guts

King Clancy: Climate Pledge humanitarian award - need to recognize humanitarian efforts done for show

Messier: Lays leadership award - obvious

Stanley Cup: Discover Card cup - fourth rate credit card for a fourth rate league's championship of course

Hey man, u're owning it

 

[Weztex]

.

Greatest goalie in the first 70 years? That’s a hot take man. Glenn Hall, Sawchuk, Plante, Durnan?That’s an insane take imo. They made the award 1935 and he was the first goalie for the Canadians. That’s why a trophy is named after him.

Vezina was the first star goalie in hockey history and played 16 seasons with the Canadiens, which is more than anybody still to this day. He still was their starting goalie when he died at age 39. Of all the trophies names, that's absolutely the last who should be changed. It's hockey's birth, elite status and horrible tragedy all wrapped into one single name. That's perfect.

That said, I don't get why people want to rename awards after players who won them. I mean, you already won the award. What's up with getting the naming rights? 15 years ago some people were bringing up the Gainey trophy instead of the Selke. Bergeron have one more so what now? It seems like a pretty volatile and fast-food-y way to go. I get that some of those people weren't exactly grade-A people but as far as I know they don't really stand out from any of their contemporaries. Like someone already said, Conn Smythe wasn't the only owner to snub Herb Carnegie. They all did. The owners weren't the problem as much as the whole era was problematic.

It's still a valid discussion to have. But if they were to change a trophy's name because of somebody's past, I certainly hope that they'd honor another builder instead of a players who happened to win the award. Gretzky's name is already plastered all over the Hart. Does it really need to bare his name? It's not like he's about to be forgotten. Let's keep honoring guys that built the game, in a better way if need be, instead of re-hashing the same names over and over. Hockey fans already suck when it comes to the history of the sport. Let's keep (or bring) the builders of the game in our sport vocabulary.

 

[bobbyking]

Perhaps before asking for dramatic changes based on historical reasons, you should learn a bit about the history of the game. For example, Art Ross played 3 NHL games, but he played 131 games in the NHA + playoffs. The NHA is the NHL's ancestor league.

no one cares at all about that league let alone heard of it

 

[Washed Up 29YearOld]

No. People will purposefully/accidentally refer to old trophy names and would just build confusion.

 

[bobholly39]

Personally I'd be fine with renaming some, but I get a lot of people are bigger on tradition than I am and wouldn't want most changed.

What I'm really adamant about is if you ever do name a trophy after Gretzky, or Orr or the likes - only do so if you have one worthy of their talent.

Most assists for Gretzky? No Thank you. Most assists would be the.....6th most important trophy a forward can win in a season, at most? (Ross/Hart/Lindsay/Smythe/Rocket). 6th best for the greatest player ever seems like a slap in the face. Name a trophy after Gretzky worthy of recognizing the best in the game (such as a smythe/ross/hart) or don't bring Gretzky's name in at all. Same for Orr, Lemieux and Howe.

 

[amnesiac]

I’d like to see:
Conn Smyth: Jean Beliveau Award
Art Ross: Wayne Gretzky Award
Hart: Gordie Howe Award
Frank Selke: Patrice Bergeron Award
Calder: Teemu Selanne Award
Vezina: Vladislav Tretiak Award
Jennings: Dominick Hasek Award
Norris: Orr-Lidstrom Award

Hart = Gretzky/Howe
Art Ross = Howe/Gretzky
Vezina = Hasek
Norris = Orr
Selke = Bergeron
Calder = Lemieux
Adams = Bowman
Conn Smythe = Roy
Jennings = Lemaire (its a team award imo)
Byng... scrap it

No. People will purposefully/accidentally refer to old trophy names and would just build confusion.

how long did it take for people to start saying Lindsay and not Pearson? a year?

 

[Dr Pepper]

No. People will purposefully/accidentally refer to old trophy names and would just build confusion.

I still call it the Pearson award from time to time, just out of habit.

Don't know how on board I'd be with re-naming the Art Ross after Gretzky or anyone else.

 

[BigEezyE22]

Because he retired at like 29…

Good point. Name it the Lemieux award.

 

[jigglysquishy]

.

Greatest goalie in the first 70 years? That’s a hot take man. Glenn Hall, Sawchuk, Plante, Durnan?That’s an insane take imo. They made the award 1935 and he was the first goalie for the Canadians. That’s why a trophy is named after him.

Organized hockey starts in the 1880s.

He started playing elite hockey in the mid 1910s and kept it up for 10 years.

All of Hall, Sawchuk, and Plante were elite after organized hockey was 70 years old.

 

[Macbanan]

To me, the biggest advantage of the current names are that they are interchangeable with the descriptions of the awards, just because we have very little relation to the people they were named after. It's just a name with a little bit of history.

As soon as you decide on a more current player, it will tint it a bit. Rename the Norris after a defensive defenseman and people will feel inclined to award it to someone similar in the future.

Also, naming it after living people carries a lot of risk. No one wants to have won the Bill Cosby award for the greatest comedy act.

 

[Ceremony]

The answer to this question is always no.

The OP's attempts at justification are the reason the answer is no.

 

[badfish]

I would replace the Norris for two trophy's, one for offensive defensemen and one for defensive. The offensive one could be called the Paul Coffey Memorial Trophy.

 

[MichaelFarrell]

The OP's attempts at justification are the reason the answer is no.

How? My justifications are: More impactful people deserve the awards named after them. Legends of the game should be honored rather than league executives.

 

[Lindberg Cheese]

Jeff Marek brought this up on todays episode of the Jeff Marek show and I agree with him. I think it’s time to rename some the awards. We have no awards named after Wayne, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Etc. Nearly all the awards are named after executives.

-Conn Smyth was a racist.

-Art Ross, despite being an innovator, had 1 point in the 3 nhl games played.

-James Norris was an owner of several organizations but it’s not like he ever played.

-The Hart trophy was donated by the Hart family, Cecil Hart was the coach of the Montreal Canadians.

-Ted Lindsay’s name being on a trophy is well deserved and I’d want that one to stay.

-Georges Vezina only played 88 NHL games.

-The Bill Masterton trophy is named after the only player to die in the NHL from on-ice related injury.

-Frank Calder was the first President of the NHL.

-Frank Selke was a successful GM.

-William Jennings was the president of the Rangers

-Maurice Rocket Richard is obviously an award who’s name shouldn’t change.

——————————————————————————
I’d like to see:
Conn Smyth: Jean Beliveau Award
Art Ross: Wayne Gretzky Award
Hart: Gordie Howe Award
Frank Selke: Patrice Bergeron Award
Calder: Teemu Selanne Award
Vezina: Vladislav Tretiak Award
Jennings: Dominick Hasek Award
Norris: Orr-Lidstrom Award

I agree with 2 conditions:

- All corresponding statues get pulled down by an angry mob
- the Lady Byng is renamed to Tiger Williams

 

[seafoam]

If they changed the names of the throphies they wouldn’t be named after more relevant players, they would be sold for advertising rights.

They should have a trophy for most assists IMO. They have one for goals. I am used to the names. Would not want them changed.

Hamburger Helper Award.

 

[ottawa]

Let history remain history.

Also how tf do you change the name of a trophy that was donated by the Hart family and then in the next sentence say you wouldn't change the Ted Lindsay one. If there's one that shouldn't be changed, it's the Hart one based on the donation.

Ass backwards.

 

[Beerz]

They should really change the name of this website. The whole concept of changing names of these types of things is dumb.