It is the dream of every ice hockey player, anywhere, to lift the famous, Stanley Cup, the peak of the National Hockey League (NHL), and it’s coming to Nottingham – next week.

Now, with the announcement that the famous trophy is heading to Nottingham, we take a brief look at the competition, and Nottingham connections to the Stanley Cup, and the NHL itself.

Just seven years ago, in 2016, the Nottingham Panthers added a former, Stanley Cup winner, to their ice-roster, in the shape of Canadian forward, Jason Williams.

Signed by then Head Coach, Corey Neilson, the Panthers supremo said of the addition at the time that: “This guy was a top six forward in the NHL for a while – he has class and skill, he’s ready to go, he’s excited to be coming here and we’re excited to have him.”

Williams, born in Ontario, Canada, played for the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, Atlanta Thrashers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, and the Pittsburgh Penguins, during a career that spanned some twenty-five years.

Of those 25, just the one season, the 2016-17 campaign, was spent in England, with the Panthers, where he played thirteen times, scoring five times, and assisting with another ten; he would lift the world-famous Stanley Cup though, over two decades ago now, in 2002.

That was during one of his many spells with the Detroit Red Wings, they having finished top of the Western Conference, before seeing off Vancouver Canucks (4-2, quarter-finals), St. Louis Blues (4-1, semi-finals), Colorado Avalanche (4-3, Conference Finals), before beating the Carolina Hurricanes, 4 games to 1, to lift the Stanley Cup.

The former, Canadian international, made sixteen, regular season appearances, the title-winning season.

Next week though, ice fans, across the UK, have the opportunity to see, in-person, the rather sizeable, Stanley Cup itself, the trophy set to make an appearance at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena.

The Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America and is awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It was donated in 1892 by Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley, Lord Stanley of Preston and Earl of Derby, to Canada’s top ranking ice hockey club after visiting the country and becoming an ice hockey enthusiast. The National Hockey Association took possession of the Stanley Cup in 1910 and it has become a symbol of professional hockey supremacy.

Anyone possessing a tournament pass, or game-day ticket, for Friday 5 May (2023 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship – Division I, Group A), will have able to take their own photo with the Stanley Cup, in the Arena’s foyer, throughout that day.

Looking at players from Nottingham to have played on ice, stateside, then the late seventies would see Nottingham-born, British-Canadian centre, Paul Messier, have a season in the NHL, with the Colorado Rockies.

Messier, the older brother of Mark Messier (who won SIX Stanley Cups and played for franchises like the Edmonton Oilers and the New York Rangers), played just nine times for the Rockies, his career being more of a journeyman’s.

That was until he arrived in Germany, in the early/mid-eighties, spending six seasons with Mannheimer ERC, which followed a season with ECD Iserlohn – he’d make over 300 appearances when in Germany.

*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).

*Main image @NHL Colorado Avalanche are the current Stanley Cup holders.