Maurice Richard Trophy (National Hockey League)

The Maurice Richard Trophy or Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy is awarded annually to the player scoring the most goals in a given season. It was donated to the NHL in 1998-99 by the Montreal Canadians in honor of the iconic Montreal Canadians right-winger Maurice Richard.

History

The first recipient of the Maurice Richard Trophy was Teemu Selanne of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1998-99; he finished the season as the league’s number one goal scorer, scoring 47 goals and edging out runners-up Tony Amonte (Chicago Blackhawks) 44 Goals, Jaromir Jagr (Pittsburgh Penguins) 44 Goals and Alexei Yashin (Ottawa Senators) 44 Goals. It is one of the NHL’s newest awards.

Richard spent his entire 18-year career with the Montreal Canadians. He led the NHL in scoring five times and was the first player to reach the 500 goal milestone. In addition, he was the first player to score 50 goals in 50 games, accomplishing the milestone in 1944-45. Joe Malone of the Montreal Canadians owned the previous record for most season goals, scoring 44 in 20 games in 1917-18. Only four other players have achieved the milestone. Thirty-six years later, Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders became the second player in NHL history to notch fifty goals in fifty games when on January 24th, 1981, with time running out in a game against the Quebec Nordiques and needing two goals to reach the 50 in 50 plateaux, Bossy broke through dramatically, with five minutes left in the game Bossy beat John Grahame twice. Richard was on hand to congratulate Bossy for this achievement. Bossy finished the season with 68 goals in 79 games played.

After Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky reached the Milestone three times, Mario Lemieux once in 1989, Brett Hull twice.

Wayne Gretzky

1981–82: 61 in 50 games (50 in 39)
1983–84: 61 in 50 games (50 in 42)
1984–85: 53 in 50 games (50 in 49)

Mario Lemieux

1988–89: 54 in 50 games (50 in 46)

Brett Hull

Mike Bossy, 50 in 50. January 24, 1981.

1990–91: 52 in 50 games (50 in 49)
1991–92: 50 in 50 games (50 in 50)

The Maurice Richard Trophy is a trophy shared by players, as there is no tiebreaker. The first time the Trophy was shared was at the end of the 2004 season when there was a three-way tie between 41 goal scorers Rick Nash, Jarome Iginla, and Ilya Kovalchuk. Sydney Crosby and Steven Stamkos tied for the Trophy in 2009-10, scoring 51 goals, and in 2019-20, Alexander Ovechkin and David Pastrnak tied for the trophy, having scored 48 goals.

Rick Nash is the youngest player to have won the trophy, receiving it at the age of 19. No player has won the trophy more than Alexander Ovechkin, Having won it 9 times and four consecutive years from 2013-2016.

I met Maurice Richard in Regina, Saskatchewan, at an autograph signing after an old-timers game in February 1991. He was reticent, soft-spoken, and polite, rather shy and humble.

Maurice Richard Trophy (winners list)

Season	Winner	Team	Goals	Games	#
1998–99	Teemu Selanne	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	47	75	1 ⁽³⁾
1999–2000	Pavel Bure	Florida Panthers	58	74	1 ⁽²⁾
2000–01	Pavel Bure	Florida Panthers	59	82	2 ⁽³⁾
2001–02	Jarome Iginla	Calgary Flames	52	82	1
2002–03	Milan Hejduk	Colorado Avalanche	50	82	1
2003–04	Rick Nash	Columbus Blue Jackets	41	80	1
Ilya Kovalchuk	Atlanta Thrashers	41	81	1
Jarome Iginla	Calgary Flames	41	81	2
2004–05	No winner was named due to the lockout.
2005–06	Jonathan Cheechoo	San Jose Sharks	56	82	1
2006–07	Vincent Lecavalier	Tampa Bay Lightning	52	82	1
2007–08	Alexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	65	82	1
2008–09	Alexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	56	79	2
2009–10	Sidney Crosby	Pittsburgh Penguins	51	81	1
Steven Stamkos	Tampa Bay Lightning	51	82	1
2010–11	Corey Perry	Anaheim Ducks	50	82	1
2011–12	Steven Stamkos	Tampa Bay Lightning	60	82	2
2012–13*	Alexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	32	48	3
2013–14	Alexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	51	78	4
2014–15	Alexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	53	81	5
2015–16	Alexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	50	79	6
2016–17	Sidney Crosby	Pittsburgh Penguins	44	75	2
2017–18	Alexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	49	82	7
2018–19	Alexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	51	81	8
2019–20**	Alexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	48	68	9
2019–20**	David Pastrnak	Boston Bruins	48	70
2020–21**	Auston Matthews	Toronto Maple Leafs	41	52	1