To make this all the more interesting -- and to demonstrate that as a hockey nation we are not beholden to the whims of the NHL corporate office in New York -- these junior hockey players should be allowed to play for hockey's holy grail, the Stanley Cup.
It sounds odd, but it could happen, and it should. As was made clear by Garth Woolsey in the Toronto Star on Sept. 17, the NHL does not actually own the Stanley Cup. The cup (originally and officially called the Dominion Challenge trophy) was donated in 1892 by Lord Stanley, the Earl of Derby and then Governor General of Canada, to be awarded to "the leading hockey team in Canada." In the early years, the trophy was a challenge cup for amateur teams. In 1926, the NHL was made the steward of the Stanley Cup. But the wording of the deed to the NHL said that if the league ceased to be the "world's premier hockey league" as demonstrated by its level of play, or upon the "dissolution" of the league, the trophy and the honour it represents would revert back to the Cup's trustees to award as they saw fit.
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