Once again..all of this is all true for the other (and any) major professional sports leagues. Yet those leagues don't hand out a meaningless trophy to the 'Champion'. We know the regular season is important, what's not important is celebrating and handing out a trophy to the team that happened to have the best record in it.
Time to abandon the President's Trophy?
- Thread starter Big Z Man 1990
- Start date
Once again..all of this is all true for the other (and any) major professional sports leagues. Yet those leagues don't hand out a meaningless trophy to the 'Champion'. We know the regular season is important, what's not important is celebrating and handing out a trophy to the team that happened to have the best record in it.
SharksFan1992
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- Apr 16, 2025
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In reality, President's Trophy winners still have the highest odds to win or at least reach the Final:
Winning the Cup: 8/38 (21%)
Reaching the Finals: 11/38 (29%)
Every other team's odds would be about 5%?
#2 seeds in that same span have only won the SC 4/38 opportunities. That's more cursed.
In short, the Cup is incredibly difficult to win and every playoff team is good. Margins are razor thin.
Joe McGrath
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- Oct 29, 2009
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You could argue it’s an even greater accomplishment to win the regular season since you actually have to adhere to the salary cap
MoneyManny
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- Jun 28, 2021
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The salary cap era doesn't have any more parity. Half the league is constantly "rebuilding".
You're only parroting the kool-aid sold by Bettsy.
Misfire Puck
Registered User
Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the team get money prize for winning the trophy?
So there is some incentive to try and win it.
So there is some incentive to try and win it.
It has parity. Last year the top 7 teams in the league were within 5 points of each other. Top team of the league are pretty evenly matched. That's why you don't see teams winning 4 in a row anymore and even repeating is super hard.
While I see no good reason for it to exist in the first place, since it already exists, I also see no good reason to get rid of it and retire the trophy.
Either way one team is going to finish with the regular season’s best record. A rose by any other name is still a rose.
Either way one team is going to finish with the regular season’s best record. A rose by any other name is still a rose.
Brookbank
2 goals = brace
- Nov 15, 2022
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The whole way north American sports does it is a joke but it's here to stay. In premiere league soccer , the team with the most points at the end of the year , wins the championship. What a concept.
The team that won the presidents trophy is always the best team in the league. Not the team that won the cup.
Being the best team in the regular season is still an accomplishment, just not the ultimate goal. I see no reason to abandon the trophy.
Every award is a "good job" award. Best goal scorer in the regular season is just as irrelevant come playoff time, for example.
Trophies incentivize players.
Every award is a "good job" award. Best goal scorer in the regular season is just as irrelevant come playoff time, for example.
Trophies incentivize players.
Brookbank
2 goals = brace
- Nov 15, 2022
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Uh what. In most of the world , the team with the most points wins the championship.
It is only north America and a few copycats that make the entire season meaningless. And then have some dog eat dog tournament at the end that favors Cinderellas over the best teams
Preach, brother (or sister)!
The two could even be combined, all it requires is a better season structure.
There has always been an absurdity to the idea that the playoff champion of any NA sport is the best given it's a short tournament where luck and random chance are much larger factors whereas in the longer regular season these see all evened out.
Regular season is harder to win. Luck and random chance are minimized so the regular season is the true test of the best team
And that is the messed up part about NA leagues
The regular season is a de facto pre-season
MoneyManny
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So parity for you means the top teams are close to each other? Then there was no better time for that than pre-salary cap!
When the top team has more than double the points of the worst team, that's the same kind of (non) parity as England's Premier League.
Jerzey Devil
Jerzey-Duz-It
This is kind of like when hotels skip the number 13 and call the 13th floor the 14th floor out of superstition. It’s still the 13th floor.
At least one team will have the most regular season points every season. You can celebrate that or not but it still exists either way.
I think most people think the trophy is pretty useless. Maybe if they rewarded the team with the most points a little better than home ice people would care more.
At least one team will have the most regular season points every season. You can celebrate that or not but it still exists either way.
I think most people think the trophy is pretty useless. Maybe if they rewarded the team with the most points a little better than home ice people would care more.
FinlandPanther
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- Mar 4, 2004
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The Presidents trophy isn’t meant to be a predictor of who will win the Stanley Cup. It’s simply what it is - an award given to the team with the best regular season record.
In my experience here the only importance given to the award is typically by fans of good teams who have failed to win the Cup.
In my experience here the only importance given to the award is typically by fans of good teams who have failed to win the Cup.
Because the NHL didn't market it properly
In England, the FA Cup and Premier Championship have great value to teams and fans.
The NHL never set it up so these two championships were of equal value.
Theoretically, the Stanley Cup could run simultaneously as the regular season- even before it. There's no reason it has to be tied to the outcome of the regular season and therefore occur after the sesson
Rafafouille
Registered User
A god awful concept it is. Makes football even more boring than it actually is. The Pinnacle of sports is having a deciding game between two teams, going to the death. Winning a championship by standings watching sounds like a complete snooze.
The FA Cup and leagues are independent competitions, however (and most countries have both types for soccer - sometimes multiple cup competitions, such as the League Cup in England - even the United States has one between MLS and the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup). The league you play in determines where you begin in the competition, but that's not quite the same as the format that North American leagues use of a regular season followed by a playoff tournament.
Most soccer leagues can get away with crowning a champion without using a playoff tournament because it's often a double round-robin (with some exceptions here and there). It's fair to award a championship to the team in first place once everyone has played against everyone an equal number of times at home and away. They can also get away with that kind of schedule because of having a much smaller geographical footprint so travel isn't much of an issue, as opposed to North America where teams play unequal schedules due to (normally) regional alignment.
Plus they play one game a week. If the NA leagues did that the travel wouldn't be much of an issue.
But that is one of the things I like about soccer, they have more variety in terms of championships.
The NBA tried to capture that with the tournament they had but it's gimmicky when it is just a repackaged regular season
Bringer of Jollity
Registered User
Two different things. President's Trophy recognizes a consistent standard of excellence held over an 82 game stretch. The Stanley Cup awards a peak level of excellence in a short span of time competing directly against the other best teams in the league. The latter may be the big prize but it doesn't negate the former still being a significant, and challenging, accomplishment.
PT rewards consistency, depth, and health, traits that may not be quite as significant in head-to-head post-season play against teams that may be less consistent and have less depth, but have higher skill ceilings and can elevate their play.
PT rewards consistency, depth, and health, traits that may not be quite as significant in head-to-head post-season play against teams that may be less consistent and have less depth, but have higher skill ceilings and can elevate their play.
Domestic rugby in New Zealand has a pretty cool thing as well, called the Ranfurly Shield, which I got reminded of because the stupid "NBA Cup" is just repackaged regular season games with only the final being an extra game they wouldn't otherwise just be playing anyway.
I'll spare you all the exact details but after being initially awarded to undefeated Auckland in 1902, it's basically just a challenge cup - all home matches played by the holders (except for playoff games) are shield defenses. The away team has to win the match to take it; a home victory (or a draw, although those aren't too common in rugby) results in the shield being retained by the holders. Those are normally just league matches that the team would otherwise be playing anyway. Since there are two levels of provincial rugby these days, the holders are required to play teams in the other level (in practice always held by a team in the top level, so they schedule matches against teams from the lower level that they never lose) to give them a chance to contest it. There's a little more to it than that, but I did say I'd spare you on those details because otherwise I have a penchant for long-winded rambling with going off on tangents.
It does have some prestige attached to it due to having such a long history, but I don't think you'll find very many people saying of the shield holders, "hey look, it's the best provincial rugby team in New Zealand!" Still a cool thing to have going for bragging rights though.
