Lady Byng Memorial Trophy

The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) player “adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.” The trophy was donated to the NHL in 1925 by Lady Evelyn Byng, wife of Governor General Byng. It was known as the Lady Byng Trophy until her death in 1949, when it was renamed the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. The winner is chosen through a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association at the end of the regular season and is awarded after the Stanley Cup playoffs. Notable winners include Frank Boucher, Wayne Gretzky, Red Kelly, Pavel Datsyuk, Mike Bossy, Ron Francis and Martin St. Louis.

Lady Byng
Lady Byng, née Marie Evelyn Moreton. Painting by Philip de László
(courtesy Bonhams/Wikimedia CC)

History of the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy

The trophy was donated in 1925 by Lady Evelyn Byng, wife of Governor General Byng. Both she and her husband loved sports and became hockey fans after moving to Ottawa, where they attended Senators games. She decided to donate a trophy that would promote sportsmanship and gentlemanly play, qualities she greatly admired.

In March 1925, Lady Byng wrote to Frank Calder, president of the NHL, offering to present an annual “challenge cup” for the “cleanest and most effective player in the league.” It was only the second individual award in the league, after the Hart Trophy for the league’s most valuable player (first awarded in 1924).

“Lady Byng Gives Cup to Elevate the Game In the Pro. League”

Desiring to raise the standard of professional hockey, Lady Byng of Vimy proposes to present a challenge cup to be held each year by the cleanest and most effective player in the league.

In a letter to Frank Calder the wife of the Governor-General says:

“Feeling a great desire to help your effort to ‘clean hockey’ and eliminate the needless rough play that at present is a threat to the game, and also to leave a tangible record of the enjoyment I personally have had from the game during our sojourn in Canada, I am writing to ask if you will let me offer a challenge cup for the man on any team in the league who, while being thoroughly effective, is also a thoroughly clean player.

“I am convinced that the public desires good sport, not the injuring of players, and if by donating this challenge cup I can in any way help towards this end it will give me a great deal of pleasure.

“(Signed) Evelyn Byng of Vimy.”

It is understood that the cup will be for annual competition among the players. The same jury of sports editors which selects the winner of the Hart Trophy will decide which player deserves the cup.

(The Globe, 9 March 1925)

Lady Byng Trophy: Early Winners

Frank Nighbor of the Ottawa Senators won the trophy in both 1925 and 1926, while Billy Burch of the New York Americans received it in 1927. The following year, Frank Boucher of the New York Rangers won his first Lady Byng Trophy. In 1935, after Boucher had won the trophy seven times, he was given it to keep, and Lady Byng donated another trophy to the league. According to an article in the Globe that year, Boucher “announced he will not allow himself to be considered eligible for the trophy in the future, so that others may have a chance at the award.” (The original trophy was destroyed in a fire at Boucher’s home in 1962.)

Lady Byng Memorial Trophy

After Lady Byng died in 1949, the NHL presented a new trophy and renamed it the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. Wayne Gretzky has won the trophy five times, second only to Boucher. Red Kelly and Pavel Datsyuk won four times each, followed by three-time winners Bobby Bauer, Alex Delvecchio, Mike Bossy, Ron Francis and Martin St. Louis.