Vegas Golden Knights get names on the Stanley Cup

The names of the players, owners, and officials of the 2023 Vegas Golden Knights have been engraved on the National Hockey League's (NHL) Stanley Cup.

On their social media platforms on Friday (Saturday in Manila), the team shared the engraving of the newly-minted Stanley Cup champions.

ENGRAVED IN HISTORY The names of the players and officials of the Vegas Golden Knights appear on the Stanley Cup in a social media post on Friday, July 7, 2023. PHOTO FROM THE VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS

The Cup showed 27 players from the active and extended roster. Captain Mark Stone, who scored a hat trick during the clinching game 5 on home ice in Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena on June 13, led the roster of players.

It included six original players who played for the team from the beginning: William Karlsson, Shea Theodore, William Carrier, Brayden McNabb, Reilly Smith, and Conn Smythe trophy winner Jonathan Marchessault, who had 25 points (13 goals, 12 assists) in 22 playoff games. Smith, however, was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins before the NHL Entry Draft on June 28.

Forward Jack Eichel, a former 2nd overall pick of the Buffalo Sabres and was traded to Vegas in the 2021-22 season, is also on the Cup. He tallied 26 points (six goals, 20 assists) in 22 playoff games, in what is his playoff debut after 476 regular season games. In the Cup-clinching game, Eichel tallied three assists. He finished 2nd in Conn Smythe trophy voting behind Marchessault, who he plays with on the same forward line.

It is also the first time four goaltenders appeared on the Cup, namely Adin Hill, Laurent Brossoit, Jonathan Quick, and Logan Thompson. Hill was the starting goaltender who backstopped the team to a Stanley Cup, while Quick earned his third championship after winning twice with the Los Angeles Kings in 2012 and 2014, while serving as the team's backup goaltender during the finals. Brossoit started half of the playoffs but was replaced by Hill in the second round, because of an injury, while Thompson had played 36 regular season games, but missed the playoffs because of a lower-body injury.

Apart from Quick, multiple players on the team have won two or more Stanley Cups in the past. His Los Angeles teammate, defenseman Alec Martinez, also appears on the Cup, after winning it with the goaltender in 2012 and 2014.

Forward Chandler Stephenson, who won the Cup with the Washington Capitals after beating Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena in 2018, now appears on the Cup for the second time after winning it as a member of the home team.

Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and forward Ivan Barbashev, who won with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, also appear on the Cup with Vegas. Barbashev was recently given a 5-year, $25 million contract with the team, after he tallied 18 points in 22 playoff games.

Despite not playing in the finals but played all 82 regular season games with Vegas, NHL ironman Phil Kessel, after winning two previous Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, also sees his name on the Cup for the third time. While with Pittsburgh, he is known to put hotdog sandwiches on the Cup.

Defenseman Zach Whitecloud is the first member of the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, based in the Canadian province of Manitoba, to win the Stanley Cup.

Owner Bill Foley and original general manager George McPhee are also on the Cup, as well as current general manager Kelly McCrimmon. Foley and McPhee were known to be heavily involved in the 2017 NHL expansion draft, which began the team's formation.

Vegas is set to defend its title at the start of the 2023-24 NHL season, which begins on October 10.