On Monday night, Brandon Montour and the Florida Panthers won the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals. With 11 points in 24 playoff games, he was one of the best offensive defensemen in the league this season.
With the Cup, Montour joins a small list of indigenous players to win hockey’s greatest prize.
Some fans may be unaware, but Montour was also a talented lacrosse player. He won the Minto Cup with Six Nations in 2014, scoring 4 goals and 4 assists in six games during the tournament. The Chatham Kent Sports Network wrote a good story about Montour here.
In 32 regular season games played for Six Nations over three seasons, Montour scored 18 goals and 51 assists. He added 25 goals and 29 assists in 34 Ontario playoff games.
Montour is another example in a long line of lacrosse players who played in the NHL. But with the win, he joins a much more exclusive list of players to hoist both the Stanley Cup and the Minto Cup.
Note: For any readers who are more hockey-oriented, the Minto Cup is awarded to the Junior A Lacrosse Champion of Canada every year. It is the lacrosse version of the Memorial Cup.
Aside from some common winners, the two trophies themselves share some similarities. The Stanley Cup was commissioned in 1892 by Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governer General of Canada from 1888-1893. The Minto was donated just nine years later by Lord Minto, who served as Governor General of Canada from 1898-1904. They have both been competed for since at least 1901.
Without further ado, let’s look at the very few others who won both cups, and the ones who got close.
Joe Nieuwendyk
Nieuwendyk had a remarkable career in both sports. In total, he won the Minto Cup twice with the Whitby Warriors in 1984 and 1985, and won the Stanley Cup three times, with the Calgary Flames in 1989, the Dallas Stars in 1999, and the New Jersey Devils in 2003.
But Nieuwendyk didn’t just win the Minto, he was the MVP. In 1984, he scored 90 points in 13 games to lead Whitby through the Ontario playoffs. Then he secured the MVP award with 13 goals and 9 assists in five games at the Warriors defeated the New Westminster Salmonbellies.
Nieuwendyk also won in 1985 with the Warriors, and was again among the leading scorers.
In 1,257 NHL games, he scored 564 goals and 562 assists. He won the Conn Smythe trophy for 1999 with the Stars after he scored 10 goals and 11 assists in 23 playoff games.
Gary Roberts
This one is a bit of a technicality as Roberts appears in the statistics from the Ontario playoffs in 1985 alongside his childhood friend Nieuwendyk, but not on the Minto Cup statistics. Look at the above image, and note Roberts’ 25 penalty minutes in four playoff games.
But playing playoff games is enough for this article. Roberts also played alongside Nieuwendyk on the 1989 Calgary Flames. In 1,224 career games in the NHL, he had 438 goals and 471 assists.
He also won the Memorial Cup with the Guelph Platers in 1986.
As far as my research can tell, those are the three to win both championships in their career. Please let me know in the comments if there are others!
Now, let’s look at some honourable mentions.
Honorable Mentions
While those three appear to me as the only to hoist both cups, there is a long line of notable athletes who have been wildly successful in both sports.
Editors note: Thank you to commenter Dave Stewart-Candy for adding additional context to this article. Rather than modifying the original article, we have included Dave’s full comment below.
“Newsy Lalonde won the Minto Cup twice officially (and a further time unofficially) – with Vancouver Lacrosse Club in 1911 and Vancouver Terminals in 1920. He also won it in 1918 with Vancouver but that title was reversed the following year. Angus ‘Bones’ Allen won the Minto Cup in 1906 with Ottawa Capitals and 1911 with Vancouver Lacrosse Club while his Stanley Cup came with the Ottawa Silver Seven in 1904-05.”
“Newsy” Lalonde
Édourd “Newsy” Lalonde is one of four people to be inducted into both the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and the Hockey Hall of Fame. One of the best hockey and lacrosse players of his generation, Lalonde won the 1916 Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadians.
He played in, though never won, a Minto Cup (correction, see editors note above). In 1909, he was part of the Regina Capitals teams that lost to the New Westminster Salmonbellies. Though, it is worth noting that in that era, the Minto Cup was not designated for Junior players. It was not until 1937 that the Minto became a Junior championship.
In 1919, he again had the opportunity to win another Stanley Cup. But he was hospitalized with influenza as part of one of North America’s worst pandemics in history. The series was eventually forfeited, and the illness led to the death of teammate Joe Hall.
LCD’s Todd Tobias wrote about Lalonde’s hockey and lacrosse cards. That article can be found here.
Lionel Conacher
Named the Canadian athlete of the half-century in 1950 by the Canadian Press, Conacher won the Gray Cup and Stanley Cup. He never won the Minto Cup, but is the only other player alongside Lalonde to be in the Hockey and Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
According to the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame, Conacher won the 1922 Senior championship in Ontario with the Toronto Maitlands.
He also won amateur titles in baseball, wrestling, and boxing. According to this edition of the Saskatoon Star, Conacher once said that boxing was the toughest sport he ever played. How did he know? He was knocked out in an exhibition match by Jack Dempsey, who would go on to be the Heavyweight champion of the world, and was named the greatest boxer of the previous 50 years in 1950.
Conacher later also served in the Canadian Parliament
Wilfred Bucko Mcdonald
Bucko McDonald won a Mann Cup rather than a Minto, and won Stanley Cups in 1936 and 1937 with the Detroit Red Wings, and in 1942 with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
He was a member of the 1931 Brampton Excelsiors that won the Mann Cup.
Check out this story in Elora-Fergus Today about Bucko’s legacy. The MSL scoring title is still called the Bucko McDonald Trophy.
Like Conacher, Bucko also served in Canadian Parliament.
Adam Oates
A legendary player in both the NHL and junior lacrosse, Oates set scoring records in the summer and winter. In 1981, Oates had 181 points in 19 games to lead the OLA in scoring as a member of the Etobicoke Eclipse. He also famously had 29 points in a single game.
The 1981 Eclipse were eventually beat by the Oshawa Green Gaels, who were led in scoring by Derek Keenan.
As a hockey player, Oates is eighth all time in assists in NHL history. Oates twice led teams to the Stanley Cup Finals, losing to the Detroit Red Wings in 1998 and the New Jersey Devils in 2003.
Adam Foote
Another Whitby product, Foote scored 50 points for the Warriors in 1988 and 17 more in the playoffs. However the Warriors were eventually bounced by the Peterborough Maulers, a team that included Philadelphia Wings general manager Paul Day.
Foote won cups in 1996 and 2001 with the Colorado Avalanche, and won an Olympic Gold Medal for Canada in 2002.
There are of course many more outstanding players who played both sports at a high level. But these were the athletes who got the closest to winning in both.
Who else should be included in this list? Sound off in the comments below.
Great content – JD. Articles as of late have been awesome & incredibly resourceful.
Newsy Lalonde won the Minto Cup twice officially (and a further time unofficially) – with Vancouver Lacrosse Club in 1911 and Vancouver Terminals in 1920. He also won it in 1918 with Vancouver but that title was reversed the following year. Angus ‘Bones’ Allen won the Minto Cup in 1906 with Ottawa Capitals and 1911 with Vancouver Lacrosse Club while his Stanley Cup came with the Ottawa Silver Seven in 1904-05