By 1917, when the NHA first became known as the NHL, it was competing with other pro and semi-pro leagues, mostly from the Western territories, for the cup.
In the era of the Great Depression, all but the NHL in Canadian professional hockey were wiped from the map, making the teams of the NHL the sole contender for the prize.
The NHL Dilemma
By 1947, Lord Stanley’s trustees were convinced, with a bit of arm-twisting from the NHL, that the league represented the best teams in hockey, worthy of vying for the cup. By moving the cup away from its roots as an all-Canada challenge, the NHL had a prize bigger in some ways than the World Series, a focal point for the culmination of every season that fans, and later, the hyperactive sports media, could rally around.
The trustees ceded control of what had been nicknamed the “Stanley Cup” to the NHL on the proviso that it remain the world’s premier hockey league with the highest quality and standards of play, and that a challenge for the cup occurs annually.
Barn Door Opened Wide?
Through its lockout of the players, the NHL has violated the big “c” caveat that gives it control of the cup.
This violation of the spirit of the challenge hits tradition-bound Canadian hockey fans right where they live.
Three, in particular, Tom Thurston, Michael Payne, and Mark Suits, began a crusade to keep the uninterrupted competition for the Stanley cup alive via a protest site on the internet, freestanley.com. The site went on-line in December and has received more than 100,000 hits since then.
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Thurston works for the government museum in Edmonton. Suits is a local web designer. They were curling one night (Men. Ice. Stones.). They were upset, like many hockey fans, about the NHL strike, and the fact that no Stanley Cup would be awarded. Thurston contacted his friend, Michael Payne, a historian.
"He started looking into the history of the cup, and he thought that we had a good case," says freestanley.com co-founder Mark Suits. Payne researched the history of the Cup and found, indeed, that it was not the property of the NHL.
"The Cup was awarded as a challenge cup," Suits continues. "The original cup agreement said that no league or team would own the Cup. The two trustees were in charge of the cup, and they were supposed to make sure that it was awarded each year."
The men secured the freestanley.com domain name, and set out to make their case.
“We propose that the Stanley Cup be returned to its original challenge cup format,” they write in their mission statement. “For now this challenge would be limited to a competition among the remaining top level hockey leagues operating in Canada.”
This would be in keeping with the tradition which Lord Stanley established. Allowing teams from the AHL, ECHL, UHL, and even the LNAH play for a shot at the cup is like cleaning the centuries of dirt off of the Louvre in Paris, or restoring the Tower of London in England.
The Free Stanley movement even seems to suggest, in its survey of readers, that the Cup might become the equivalent of soccer’s World Cup, with the best teams from professional leagues from around the world competing for a chance to take the trophy home. |
Armchair Playoffs
If you can make the big leap of faith into the camp that says the trustees develop a spine, take back the cup from the NHL, and have a challenge, how would it work?
"Our position is that the trustees get to decide who can play. We're suggesting that any team that's interested should issue a formal challenge for cup. Send the trustees a letter."
To date, Suits is not aware of a team that has sent the formal written challenge. It is unlikely that the AHL, which has significant contractual and financial ties with the NHL, is likely to cross them. That still does not preclude challenges from any of the non-affiliated Canadian, U.S. or European teams.
If a challenge is issued, the trustees should ask the defending champions, Tampa Bay, to answer it. If they do not not take the challenge, a difficult proposition as the closest most of the players have been to an NHL rink is their X-Box, then the trustees are free to match up another challenger to vie for the cup.
FreeStanley.com has provided a "How to" page for teams that want to challenge for the cup.
"Why not go for it, I say," Suits remarks with proper Canadian hockey fan pluck.
Vox Populi
Hard core hockey fans want a contest this year, now. In a live vote on freestanley.com, four questions are asked:
“1. Should the trustees simply award the cup to a team they deem to be the best team playing in the best league this year or have a challenge?”
91% of the 2252 respondents want a challenge to the cup this year. That would produce the biggest winner of the Stanley Cup ever… FANS. Awarding the cup to the Manchester Monarchs or the Chicago Wolves would provide sufficient humiliation to the owners and players of the National Hockey League.
Should Commissioner Bettman start talking tough about keeping the cup in the NHL family, then let the Russians and the Euros also play for it. Heck, let the Jamaicans field a squad. Filling the bowl with jerk chicken wouldn’t be out of keeping with past handling of the cup, which has been used as a peanut bowl and a pool toy. It might also fumigate the stench that the NHL has placed upon Lord Stanley's prize by dishonoring a more than century old tradition.
“2. If the trustees award the Cup to one team, which one would should they choose?”
33% of 1652 respondents said that the AHL should be the league where a champion is crowned. 28% said it should be the Memorial Cup champion, and 15% want the Allan Cup champ. It’s a flawed question, though, as the competition is supposed to be open to all of the best teams from leagues in Canada. The UHL, and the LNAH, where Donald Brashear is playing this season, should also be eligible.
3. “Which teams should be included?”
38% of fans of the 2474 fans responding say it should be Canadian teams only. 35% say North American teams, and 27% say world teams. Of course when ESPN moves its corporate empire to Montreal, the Maple Leaf-only crowd might prevail. As long as Bud outsells Molson in TV ad dollars, however, this would remain a no-brainer.
“4. If a challenge is organized, who should be included?”
Winners of the American Hockey League and the East Coast Hockey League and Allan Cup and elite European Championship are ahead by 30% in the 734 responses recorded. As the number of responses drops for each question, it appears clear that hockey fans may only be able to answer two poll questions between beer and bathroom runs from the PC.
Are the Trustees Still In Charge of the Cup?
The NHL could hire National Rifle Association Prez Charlton Heston as a spokesperson for their cause: “The only way you’ll get the Stanley Cup is out of our cold, dead hands.”
Don’t expect anyone within the NHL power structure to give up the Grail any time soon. The NHL plans for a lot of asterisks around this season, and one blank plate on the prize.
Of course, the fate of the cup is really not up to them. The Stanley Cup still has stewards. Ian "Scotty" Morrison and Brian O'Neill, the long-deceased Lord's current trustees, could decide to take the cup away from the NHL for the season, and host a challenge. |
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While MLN was not able to contact Morrison or O'Neill for this story, previously published reports suggest that they think, under the 1947 deal which the previous trustees made with the NHL, that the league controls the cup.
"In the media, they've said that the trustees no longer control the cup, the NHL does." Suits notes of the previous stories that he's seen. "They say in 1947 the trustees signed the cup over."
The three defenders of the cup hired an Edmonton lawyer Roderick C. Payne, Jr. to study the trust created for the Cup and give them a legal opinion on the current trustees claims.
"That opinion says that under the basics of trust law for any trust, trustees don't normally rewrite their own trust agreements and give away their powers. So our opinion is that 1947 wouldn't be valid, shouldn't be valid. so the trustees are still in control of the Cup."
The trio has not had direct contact with the Trustees, but they are trying.
"We did send the trustees a letter earlier this week asking them some questions about ownership of the cup."
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The Ice is Less Slippery
The “Free Stanley” movement is gaining some traction. The U.S. media is starting to pick up on their campaign. Fans are emailing each other with links to the site. It is clearly touching a nerve with the hockey faithful. They make a valid point, rooted in the cup's tradition and the law. If the strike continues, more voices may pick up
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the call to uphold the Cup, even if the NHL is broken down. Feedback at the website has been good.
"Probably 95% [of emails] are supportive," Suits notes of the email that the organization receives. "They're supportive in different ways. They think that they miss hockey and they want to have exciting playoffs at the end of the season. Some are supporting us because they're fed up with the NHL. They just want to see something else happen. No more than five percent of the emails are critical, and the only criticism is that they think our campaign is cheapening the trophy because they say it's the NHL's trophy. If any team other than an NHL team were to win it, it would cheapen the image of the cup."
FreeStanley hit a larger pocket of criticism when a Tampa Bay, Florida publication released a story on them. Lightning fans see it as a bald-faced attempt by Canucks to cajole the cup out of tropical Tampa.
If the NHL's most recent round of talks, which seemed destined for failure, do not produce a shred of a season, the trustees could award the cup to the World Hockey Championships winner. That recognized tournament features many of the NHL players playing for their national teams.
Yet the Cup belongs to Joe Average (or Jacques Avérage for you fans in Quebec), after all, who pay the bills to keep the lights on in the arenas and the players in pucks.
In response to those who think that awarding the cup to a team in the challenge format diminishes it, Suits has this response:
"As far as cheapening the cup, our argument is that not playing your season just because you can't agree how to split up millions of dollars is cheapening the cup more than anything else would."
To email the trustees, Click HERE. |
