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 (NHL).

It was donated to the NHL by the Montreal Canadiens hockey club in 1998–99 and is named in honour of the legendary Montreal Canadiens right winger Maurice "Rocket" Richard and was first won by Teemu Selanne.

The current holder is Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, who scored 53 goals during the 2014–15 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 1998–99 season.

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 1944–45, Richard became the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season, doing so in just 50 games, the latter feat only achieved by a handful of players since then. However, the scoring title eluded him and the closest that he got to it was in 1954–55.

Although the Art Ross Trophy given to the NHL's leading points scorer often wins the Hart Memorial Trophy as league most valuable player, only Alexander Ovechkin and Corey Perry have won both the Richard and the Hart in the same season; Ovechkin doing so 3 times, in 2007–08, 2008–09, and 2012–13.

Eleven players have 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 2003-04 NHL season on featured a three-way tie between Jarome Iginla, Ilya Kovalchuk and Rick Nash.

The second time there was a tie for this award was in the 2009-10 NHL season when both Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos scored 51 goals to win this award.

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.

Winners

Season	Winner	Team	Goals	Games	#
1998–99	Selanne, TeemuTeemu Selanne	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	47	75	1 (3)
1999–2000	Bure, PavelPavel Bure	Florida Panthers	58	74	1 (2)
2000–01	Bure, PavelPavel Bure	Florida Panthers	59	82	2 (3)
2001–02	Iginla, JaromeJarome Iginla	Calgary Flames	52	82	1
2002–03	Hejduk, MilanMilan Hejduk	Colorado Avalanche	50	82	1
2003–04	Nash, RickRick Nash	Columbus Blue Jackets	41	80	1
	Kovalchuk, IlyaIlya Kovalchuk	Atlanta Thrashers	41	81	1
	Iginla, JaromeJarome Iginla	Calgary Flames	41	81	2
2004–05	(No winner was named due to the 2004-05 NHL lockout.)
2005–06	Cheechoo, JonathanJonathan Cheechoo	San Jose Sharks	56	82	1
2006–07	Lecavalier, VincentVincent Lecavalier	Tampa Bay Lightning	52	82	1
2007–08	Ovechkin, AlexanderAlexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	65	82	1
2008–09	Ovechkin, AlexanderAlexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	56	79	2
2009–10	Crosby, SidneySidney Crosby	Pittsburgh Penguins	51	81	1
	Stamkos, StevenSteven Stamkos	Tampa Bay Lightning	51	82	1
2010–11	Perry, CoreyCorey Perry	Anaheim Ducks	50	82	1
2011–12	Stamkos, StevenSteven Stamkos	Tampa Bay Lightning	60	82	2
2012–13*	Ovechkin, AlexanderAlexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	32	48	3
2013–14	Ovechkin, AlexanderAlexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	51	78	4
2014–15	Ovechkin, AlexanderAlexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	53	81	5
2015–16	Ovechkin, AlexanderAlexander Ovechkin	Washington Capitals	50	79	6
2016–17	Crosby, SidneySidney Crosby	Pittsburgh Penguins	44	75	2