Every Conn Smythe Trophy Winner in NHL History

The Conn Smythe Trophy goes to the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It has been handed out 61 times since 1965 — to 54 different players — and the most recent winner is Carolina Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal, who took it in June 2026 at 37 years and 277 days old, the oldest winner ever.

Below is the complete year-by-year list, plus the quirks that make this award different from every other MVP trophy in North American sport: it is voted on before the Stanley Cup Final ends, which is why six players have won it while losing.

The Conn Smythe at a Glance

What the Conn Smythe Trophy Actually Is

Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. donated the trophy to the NHL in 1964, naming it for Conn Smythe — the coach, manager, owner and driving force behind the Toronto Maple Leafs, who bought the Toronto St. Patricks in 1927 and renamed them. The trophy itself is shaped like Maple Leaf Gardens, the arena Smythe built. The first winner, in 1965, was Montreal center Jean Beliveau.

It is a playoff award, not a regular-season one. The NHL playoffs are four best-of-seven rounds; a player who wins the Conn Smythe has usually been the best player over roughly two months and 20-plus games, not just the Final. That is a different question from the Hart Trophy, which is a regular-season award.

The voters are a panel from the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA), the group of reporters who cover the league. The crucial detail is the deadline. Ballots are cast during the last game of the Stanley Cup Final, before anyone knows who will win it. In 2026, 21 PHWA voters submitted ballots that closed roughly ten minutes before the end of Game 6. Staal received 17 of 21 first-place votes and 97 voting points on a 5-3-1 scale, ahead of teammate Taylor Hall (59) and Logan Stankoven (17).

That timing is the whole reason a player on a beaten team can end up holding the trophy.

Every Conn Smythe Trophy Winner, 1965–2026

"Cup?" means whether the winner's team went on to win the Stanley Cup that spring.

The 2005 gap is not an oversight. A labor dispute canceled the entire 2004-05 season, the only time a major North American league has lost a full season to a lockout, so there were no playoffs and no trophy. For the full championship history, see List of Every Stanley Cup Winner by Year.

The Six Who Won It on a Losing Team

Because the ballots close before the Final is decided, voters sometimes pick a player whose team then loses. It has happened six times:

Four of the six were goaltenders, and the pattern makes sense: a hot goalie can drag an outgunned team through three rounds and into a Final it has no business reaching. Glenn Hall's 1968 Blues were a first-year expansion club. Giguere's 2003 Ducks were a seventh seed. McDavid's 2024 win was the first by a skater on a losing team since Leach in 1976, and came after Edmonton lost Game 7 to Florida having trailed the series 3-0.

Multiple Winners

Roy stands alone in two ways: he is the only three-time winner, and the only player to win it with two different franchises (Montreal in 1986 and 1993, Colorado in 2001). Parent, Lemieux and Crosby won in back-to-back years.

By franchise, the Montreal Canadiens have produced the most Conn Smythe winners with nine — Beliveau, Savard, Dryden, Cournoyer, Lafleur, Robinson, Gainey and Roy twice. That tracks with Montreal's place at the top of the all-time championship table, which you can see in Which NHL Teams Have Won the Most Stanley Cups.

How Often Goaltenders Win

Goaltenders have taken 17 of the 61 Conn Smythes — about 28 percent — even though a team dresses only two of them and one usually plays every minute. Fourteen different goalies have won it: Crozier, Hall, Dryden, Parent (twice), Billy Smith, Roy (three times), Hextall, Ranford, Vernon, Giguere, Ward, Thomas, Quick and Vasilevskiy.

The rest of the breakdown, by the position each winner is listed at:

Among forwards, centers dominate with 22 wins, ahead of right wings (8) and left wings (2 — Bob Gainey in 1979 and Alexander Ovechkin in 2018). Defensemen have won 12 times, with Bobby Orr the only repeat winner on the blue line.

Goalies have gone quiet lately, though. Andrei Vasilevskiy in 2021 is the most recent netminder to win; the five since have all been forwards, and Staal in 2026 was the fourth straight forward.

The Youngest and the Oldest

Oldest: Jordan Staal, 2026. Carolina's captain was 37 years, 277 days old when he won it, breaking a record that had stood since 2011. Staal put up eight goals and four assists in 19 playoff games, including six goals in the Final against Vegas, while taking the hardest defensive matchup and winning better than 56 percent of his faceoffs. He also set an NHL record with 17 years between Stanley Cup wins — 2009 with Pittsburgh, 2026 with Carolina — passing Chris Chelios's 16. The previous oldest Conn Smythe winner was Boston goaltender Tim Thomas, 37 years and 61 days old when he shut out Vancouver in Game 7 in 2011.

Youngest: Patrick Roy, 1986. Roy was 20 years old and a rookie when he backstopped Montreal to the Cup, and no one has come close since — Bobby Orr (1970), Cam Ward (2006) and Jonathan Toews (2010) all won it at 21.

How It Compares to the NBA and NFL Versions

Every league has a championship MVP, but they are not built the same way.

Two differences stand out. First, the Conn Smythe covers the entire postseason, while the NBA Finals MVP and Super Bowl MVP cover a single series or a single game. Second, the Conn Smythe is the only one of the three where the vote closes before the outcome is known, which is why its losing-team list runs to six names instead of one.

The NBA's award has been the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award since 2009; Jalen Brunson won it in 2026. The Super Bowl MVP went to Seattle running back Kenneth Walker III after Super Bowl LX in February 2026. You can browse those histories in Every NBA Finals MVP Winner in History and List of Every Super Bowl Winner by Year.

For how a team even reaches the Final in the first place, see NHL Playoff Format Explained - How Teams Qualify and Seed, and for what happens to the trophy afterwards, Who Keeps the Stanley Cup After the Final.

This page is updated every June, when the Conn Smythe is presented on the ice immediately after the Stanley Cup Final ends.

FAQ

Who won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2026? Jordan Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes. He was 37 years and 277 days old, making him the oldest winner in the trophy's history, and he had eight goals and four assists in 19 playoff games as Carolina beat Vegas in six games.

Can you win the Conn Smythe if your team loses? Yes, and six players have. Voters submit ballots before the final game of the Stanley Cup Final is over, so a player can be chosen and then watch the other team lift the Cup. Roger Crozier, Glenn Hall, Reggie Leach, Ron Hextall, Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Connor McDavid have all done it.

Who has won the most Conn Smythe Trophies? Patrick Roy, with three (1986, 1993, 2001). He is also the only player to win it with two different teams. Bobby Orr, Bernie Parent, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby have two each.

Why was there no Conn Smythe Trophy in 2005? A lockout canceled the entire 2004-05 NHL season. No games were played, so there were no playoffs, no Stanley Cup and no individual awards for that year.

Do goalies win the Conn Smythe more than skaters? No, but they win it far more often than their numbers suggest. Goaltenders account for 17 of the 61 awards, roughly 28 percent, with defensemen at 12 and forwards at 32.

Who is the youngest Conn Smythe winner? Patrick Roy, who was 20 years old and a rookie when he won it with Montreal in 1986. No one has won it younger.

Who votes for the Conn Smythe Trophy? A panel of writers from the Professional Hockey Writers Association, the organization of reporters who cover NHL teams. In 2026 the panel had 21 voters, using a 5-3-1 points system for first, second and third place.

What is the difference between the Conn Smythe and the Hart Trophy? The Conn Smythe is the playoff MVP award, decided over the postseason. The Hart Memorial Trophy is the regular-season MVP award, voted at the end of the 82-game schedule. Only a handful of players have won both in the same year.