The Carolina Hurricanes have joined the Detroit Red Wings in a rare Stanley Cup club: teams that used every one of the trophy’s 55 available name slots.
For Carolina, the full engraving list includes owner Tom Dundon’s five-year-old son, Tagan, along with Dundon’s wife, Verushka, and their other children - Caden, Dax, Drew and Blake. The move drew backlash, but the Hurricanes stood by it.
“Forever etched in history,” the Hurricanes posted on X, alongside a photo of the trophy.
Detroit was the last team to max out the Cup, doing it after its 1997-98 championship. The Red Wings’ request for all 55 names included nine members of the Ilitch family: Mike Ilitch (owner/chairman), Marian Ilitch (owner), Denise Ilitch, Michael Ilitch Jr., Ronald Ilitch, Lisa Ilitch Murray, Carole Ilitch Trepeck (minority owners), Atanas Ilitch and Christopher Ilitch (vice presidents).
The NHL has a set process for deciding whose names get engraved on the sport’s most famous trophy. Teams choose the non-playing personnel, but the league has to approve it.
Players must appear in at least 41 regular-season games or one Stanley Cup Final game to qualify. If there’s an extenuating circumstance, such as an injury, teams can ask the commissioner for an exception.
That process has also allowed for some unusual additions before. In 1998, the league agreed to include Vladimir Konstantinov and masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov after both suffered life-altering injuries in a limousine crash just six days after Detroit’s 1997 title.
The Red Wings had 52 names engraved from their Stanley Cup championship teams in 1997, 2002 and 2008.
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