Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
The NHL's award for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.
The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, formerly known as the Lady Byng Trophy, is presented each year to the National Hockey League 'player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.' The trophy has been awarded 90 times to 53 different players since it was first awarded in 1925. The original trophy was donated to the league by Lady Byng of Vimy, then–viceregal consort of Canada.
- Award Name
- Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
- Primary Criteria
- Sportsmanship and Gentlemanly Conduct combined with High Playing Ability
- First Canadiens Winner
- Howie Morenz (1927-28)
- Most Wins by a Canadien
- 5
- Notable Multi-Winners
- Babe Siebert, Jean Beliveau, Yvan Cournoyer, Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt
Lore & Background
The trophy is named in honour of Marie Evelyn Moreton (Lady Byng), wife of the Viscount Byng of Vimy, who commanded Canadian forces at the Battle of Vimy Ridge and who was Governor General of Canada from 1921 to 1926. Lady Byng, an avid hockey fan, decided to donate the trophy to the NHL in 1924–25. Lady Byng decided the trophy's first winner would be Frank Nighbor of the original Ottawa Senators. Late in the season, she invited Nighbor to Rideau Hall, showed him the trophy, and asked him if the NHL would accept it as an award for its most gentlemanly player. When Nighbor said he thought it would, Lady Byng, much to Nighbor's surprise, awarded him the trophy. After Frank Boucher of the New York Rangers won the award seven times within eight years, Lady Byng was so impressed that she gave him the original trophy to keep. She then donated a second trophy in 1935–36. When Lady Byng died in 1949, the NHL presented another trophy and changed the official name to the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. In 1962, the original trophy was destroyed in a fire at Boucher's home.
In Their Own Story
The air inside the Forum was thick with smoke and the deafening roar of ten thousand fans, yet a strange, magnetic silence seemed to cling to Jean Beliveau on the ice. As he carried the puck into the offensive zone, a defender lunged, fingers outstretched for a hooking penalty that never came. Beliveau didn't flinch; he simply shifted his weight, gliding past the aggression with a fluidity that made the violence around him look clumsy and desperate. He didn't shout, he didn't shove, and he certainly didn't retaliate. With a flick of his wrist, the puck found the back of the net as the referee's whistle remained stubbornly silent—a testament to a captain who dominated so thoroughly he never needed to break the rules. Up in the glass case, the Lady Byng trophy seemed to catch the arena lights, glowing brighter for a man who played the game with grace.
Reader's Guide
The voting is conducted at the end of the regular season by members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, and each individual voter ranks their top five candidates on a 10–7–5–3–1 points system. Three finalists are named and the trophy is awarded at the NHL Awards ceremony after the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Did You Know?
- Frank Nighbor of the original Ottawa Senators was the first winner of the trophy in 1924–25.
- Frank Boucher won the award seven times within eight years.
- Wayne Gretzky won the trophy five times, Red Kelly and Pavel Datsyuk four times each.
- Five players have won both the Lady Byng Trophy and the Hart Memorial Trophy in the same season: Buddy O'Connor (1947–48), Bobby Hull (1964–65), Stan Mikita (1966–67 and 1967–68), Wayne Gretzky (1979–80), and Joe Sakic (
- Bill Quackenbush, Jaccob Slavin, Red Kelly, and Brian Campbell are the only defensemen to have won the award.
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