Hockey's Great Silver Reward

By Mike Maharrey, Money Metals Exchange

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Go for the gold!”

Well, in hockey, they do things a little differently. It’s “Go for the silver!”

Tonight, hockey players from either Edmonton or Florida will skate around holding a giant silver Cup over their heads.

The NHL will crown its champion after 10 weeks of competition. The winner will have played four seven-game series, winning 16 games over that period. 

Let’s just say there are a lot of easier ways to get silver. 

I’m admittedly a bit biased. I play hockey. But I don’t think there is a more difficult championship to win. Think about it – these guys play as many as 28 games to win the Cup. And don’t forget, they are crunching each other into walls at high speed night after night.

Just consider this: last year Las Vegas Golden Knights capital Mark Stone broke his wrist in the first period of game five of the Cup final. He played the rest of the game and scored three goals. As a reward, he got to hoist a 34.5-pound silver over his head with that broken wrist.

So, what’s the big deal about the Stanley Cup? 

Ask any hockey player and they’ll tell you that the Cup is priceless. Winning a championship and being immortalized on the iconic trophy is the ultimate dream of every kid who laces up the skates and picks up a hockey stick.

The Stanley Cup is the only trophy that includes the name of every player who won it.

The names are etched into the rings on the bottom 2/3 of the Cup. Obviously, the trophy would grow ridiculously tall if they keep all the rings attached, so the bottom one is removed once the top one is full. The old rings are kept at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Nevertheless, nobody will ever forget Erwin Murph Chamberlain won the 1946 Cup with the Montreal Canadians. It’s chiseled right into the silver.

But you might be wondering what the cup itself is worth. As it turns out, that’s pretty hard to pin down. But we know it’s valuable enough to have its own bodyguard. Phil Pritchard serves as the “Keeper of the Cup.” He and his cohorts travel everywhere with the trophy to make sure it stays safe.

As far as the monetary value goes, the best estimate is that it’s worth about $650,000. 

The silver alone is worth a pretty penny. The Cup is made almost entirely of a silver-nickel alloy. The melt value of the Cup is estimated to be about $23,400. In comparison, the melt value of the much smaller Lombardi trophy given to the NFL champion (total weight of 7 pounds) is around $2,318.

This just goes to show the value of silver!

By the way, the Stanley Cup is the fourth-most expensive trophy in sports. 

You might be wondering which trophy in the sporting world is worth the most. Well, to win that, you have to play soccer.

The FIFA World Cup trophy is formed from solid 18-karat gold with a weight of over 11 pounds. The melt value of the gold itself comes in at well over $100,000, but the estimated value of the trophy is over $20 million.

Who wouldn’t want to get their hands on over $23,000 in silver or over $100 grand in gold? Of course, if you don’t play hockey or soccer, you’re out of luck. 

But as I already mentioned, there are easier ways to get silver or gold. You don’t even have to break your wrist to do it!

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for MoneyMetals.com with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.