Jack Adams Award

Lore & Background

The award is named in honor of Jack Adams, a Hall of Fame player for the Toronto Arenas/St. Patricks, Vancouver Millionaires and original Ottawa Senators, and long-time Coach and General Manager of the Detroit Red Wings. It was first awarded at the conclusion of the 1973–74 regular season. Pat Burns is the only coach to win the award three times, as well as the only coach to win it with three different teams. Five coaches have won the award twice: Jacques Lemaire, Pat Quinn, Scotty Bowman, Barry Trotz, and John Tortorella. Jacques Demers is the only coach to win the award in consecutive seasons. The franchises with the most Jack Adams Award winners are the Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins and Phoenix Coyotes with four winners each, although the Coyotes had two winners in Winnipeg before they moved to Arizona. Bill Barber, Bruce Boudreau and Ken Hitchcock are the only coaches to win the award after replacing the head coach who started the season. The closest vote occurred in 2006, when winner Lindy Ruff edged out Peter Laviolette by a single point.

Reader's Guide

The Jack Adams Award recognizes the NHL coach deemed most responsible for his team's success, as voted by the National Hockey League Broadcasters Association. Its history includes notable milestones: Pat Burns stands alone with three wins, each with a different team, while Jacques Demers is the only back-to-back winner. Five coaches have won with two different franchises, and five franchises have produced four winners each, with the Phoenix Coyotes' tally including two from their time in Winnipeg. The award has been presented 51 times to 43 coaches, reflecting both repeat winners and a broad distribution. Three coaches—Bill Barber, Bruce Boudreau, and Ken Hitchcock—won after taking over mid-season, highlighting the impact of in-season changes. The closest vote came in 2006, when Lindy Ruff won by a single point over Peter Laviolette. The award is named for Jack Adams, a Hall of Fame player and longtime Detroit Red Wings coach and general manager, and has been awarded since the 1973–74 season.

Did You Know?

• Pat Burns is the only coach to win the Jack Adams Award three times.
• Five coaches have won the award with two different teams: Jacques Lemaire, Pat Quinn, Scotty Bowman, Barry Trotz, and John Tortorella.

Place in the NHL's Award Hierarchy

The Jack Adams Award occupies a position within a sprawling constellation of NHL honors that has grown over more than a century. The league currently bestows eighteen annual individual trophies and awards, a number that reflects decades of expansion and the addition of new categories. At the top of the hierarchy sits the Stanley Cup, first presented in 1893 to the playoff champion, making it both the oldest and most recognizable prize in the sport. Below that peak, individual recognition is split between statistical achievements—such as the Art Ross, Richard, and Jennings trophies, which are handed out automatically based on regular-season numbers—and selections determined by votes cast by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association or team general managers. The Jack Adams falls within this broader ecosystem of voted and statistical honors, sitting alongside the Hart, Lady Byng, Vezina, and Conn Smythe trophies, among others. The most recently added individual honor, the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, debuted in 2010, illustrating that the league continues to refine how it acknowledges excellence across every role in the game.

A Growing Tradition of Individual Recognition

When the NHL first began recognizing individual players, the slate of trophies was modest. The Hart Trophy, first presented in 1924 for the league's most valuable player, opened the era of individual honors. The Lady Byng followed a year later in 1925, celebrating gentlemanly play, and the Vezina for goaltenders arrived in 1927. For years, these three formed the core of individual recognition. The Conn Smythe Trophy, honoring the playoff's most valuable player, was not added until 1965. It was the league's expansion that accelerated the growth of the award roster, as new categories were created to reflect a broader competitive landscape. Today, the eighteen individual trophies and awards represent a far more granular system of recognition than the early days. The Hart Trophy itself was replaced by the current Hart Memorial Trophy in 1960, when the original became too unwieldy to present, a small but telling detail about how these physical symbols of achievement evolve alongside the sport they celebrate.

The Ceremony and Timing of Presentation

The Jack Adams Award, like the vast majority of NHL trophies and all-star selections, is formally presented at an annual awards ceremony that takes place in late June, following the conclusion of the Stanley Cup playoffs. This timing is deliberate: the league waits until the postseason is fully resolved so that the Conn Smythe Trophy and other playoff-related honors can be included in the same evening of celebration. The ceremony thus serves as a culminating event, wrapping up the season's competitive narrative before the offseason begins. However, the 2019–20 season presented an unusual circumstance. Because of extraordinary external disruptions, the awards for that year were handed out during the last two rounds of the playoffs rather than after their conclusion. This deviation underscored how the ceremony's traditional late-June slot, while deeply rooted in routine, can be bent when circumstances demand flexibility. For most seasons, though, the Jack Adams and its fellow trophies share a single stage in a ceremony that marks the definitive end of the NHL calendar year.

The Culture of Multi-Award Seasons

The breadth of the NHL's individual award system creates the possibility of extraordinary single-season accomplishments, where a player sweeps multiple trophies simultaneously. Several pre-expansion-era players achieved this feat. Stan Mikita captured the Hart, Art Ross, and Lady Byng trophies in consecutive seasons, 1966–67 and 1967–68. Guy Lafleur and Wayne Gretzky each took home the Art Ross, Hart, and Conn Smythe, plus the Stanley Cup, in 1976–77 and 1984–85 respectively. Bobby Orr stands apart as the only player to collect four original NHL awards in a single season, adding the Art Ross to his Hart, Norris, and Conn Smythe haul in 1970, while also earning a First Team All-Star selection. The one honor he was eligible for but did not win was the Lady Byng, a nod to his physical playing style. These multi-award campaigns highlight how the interconnected web of trophies—from statistical to voted, from regular season to playoffs—creates a rich tapestry of recognition that the Jack Adams and its peers contribute to each year.