- The Montreal Victoire’s replica Walter Cup went missing in transit to Alberta
- A shipping container reached Lethbridge without the 35-pound trophy inside
- Read below for what the PWHL said and why the Cup travels without a keeper
The Walter Cup is missing.
Montreal’s replica trophy never showed up in Lethbridge, Alberta this week, and the PWHL told The Associated Press on Friday that it is still trying to track the thing down.
League officials kept it short when the AP asked what happened. The Cup “did not arrive as expected at its latest stop,” the PWHL said in a statement, adding that it is “working closely with the shipping company to locate it.”
AP hockey writer John Wawrow was first with it:
The trophy was headed to Lethbridge to spend a day with Victoire forward Dara Greig, according to a person with knowledge of the plans who spoke to the AP. The container showed up. The Cup did not.
Greig’s public event at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena got pushed on Thursday. The WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes, who play in the building, told fans the celebration was off without saying why:
PWHL writer Melissa Burgess relayed one detail floating around online that the league has not confirmed. A commenter on Reddit claimed the shipping case turned up packed with computer parts:
This is not the trophy handed out on the ice. That one lives permanently at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Champions get their own sterling silver copy built by Tiffany & Co., 35 pounds and roughly 24 inches tall, with six W’s engraved for the league’s six original franchises and a base shaped like a puck.
Here is the part that stings. The NHL sends a keeper along with the Stanley Cup everywhere it travels. The PWHL has no equivalent, so nobody is sure when a Victoire player or anyone else last laid eyes on the Cup.
Montreal won it in May, knocking off Ottawa in Game 4 of the final to become the first Canadian club to take the title. The Frost had won the first two.
Greig is still waiting on a new date. The league is still waiting on the Cup.
