Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy


The Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, also known as the Maurice Richard Trophy, is awarded annually to the leading goal scorer in the National Hockey League. It was donated to the NHL by the Montreal Canadiens in and is named in honour of legendary Montreal Canadiens right winger Maurice "Rocket" Richard. It was first won by Teemu Selanne. The current holder is both Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins, who each scored 48 goals during the shortened 2019–20 NHL season.

History

The Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy was donated by the Montreal Canadiens to the NHL in 1999, and was first awarded at the end of the. It is one of the newest of the NHL's trophies and is named in honour of the legendary right winger Maurice "Rocket" Richard, who spent his eighteen-season career with the Canadiens. He led the NHL in goal scoring five times and was the first NHL player to reach the 500-goal milestone. In, Richard became the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season, doing so in just 50 games, the latter feat achieved by only four other players since then. However, Richard never finished higher than second in points, his closest miss coming in.
The Art Ross Trophy given to the NHL's leading points scorer often wins the Hart Memorial Trophy as league Most Valuable Player. However, only Alexander Ovechkin and Corey Perry have won both the Richard and the Hart trophies in the same season; Ovechkin has accomplished this three times, in,, and. Eleven players won the Hart in the same season in which they led the league in goals before the Richard Trophy was first awarded.
Unlike the Art Ross Trophy, there are no tiebreakers for the Richard Trophy. As a result, it is possible for several players to share the award, such as when the season featured a three-way tie between 41-goal scorers Jarome Iginla, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Rick Nash. The second time there was a tie for this award was in the season, when both Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos scored 51 goals each to win this award. In the shortened season, there was a tie between Ovechkin and David Pastrnak. However, Ovechkin did so in 2 less games, having played 68 to Pastrnak's 70. Rick Nash is the youngest player to have won the trophy, being 19 years old upon receipt.
Alexander Ovechkin is the only player to have won the trophy at least three times; he won his ninth Richard Trophy in. Only four other players have won it more than once.

Winners

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