Conn Smythe Trophy - Stanley Cup Playoff MVP

Moments before each Stanley Cup crowning the Conn Smythe Trophy is bestowed upon the Hockey Writers' selection of the postseason's best. First presented to Jean Beliveau in 1965, the honor dedicated to the Leaf legend has been handed out 58 times to 51 different players.

Typically finding a Stanley Cup champion (52 times) who is Canadian (48 times), the trophy has only found six Stanley Cup Final losers (Roger Crozier, Glenn Hall, Reggie Leach, Ron Hextall, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Tim Thomas) and eight non-frostbacks (Brian Leetch, Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Evgeni Malkin, Tim Thomas, Jonathan Quick, Patrick Kane, Alexander Ovechkin, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy). That said, only 7 of the past 13 winners were Canadian (Justin Williams 2014, Duncan Keith 2015, Sidney Crosby 2016-2017, Ryan O'Reilly 2019, Cale Makar 2022, Jonathan Marchessault 2023) with the remaining six awarded to a Swede (Victor Hedman 2020), two Russians (Alexander Ovechkin 2018, Andrei Vasilevskiy 2021) and three Americans (Tim Thomas 2011, Jonathan Quick 2012, Patrick Kane 2013).

Positionally the award has been dominated by centers (19) and goalies (17), followed by defensemen (12), right wingers (6) and left siders (4). Only Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy has taken the trophy three times with the well-heeled five-some of Bobby Orr, Bernie Parent, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby each taking it twice. Bernie Parent (1974, 1975), Mario Lemieux (1991, 1992) and Sidney Crosby (2016, 2017) are the only to win it in consecutive seasons.

On June 13th of 2023, Jonathan Marchessault became the 48th Canadian, 4th left winger, 2nd undrafted player, and 1st Vegas Golden Knight to earn the honor. Tim Thomas is the eldest recipient of the award at age 37 (2011), while Patrick Roy remains the youngest at age 20 (1986).