What to know about The Walter Cup, women’s hockey’s newest counterpart to the Stanley Cup

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Jayna Hefford had a top priority for the design of the first-ever PWHL championship trophy: You had to be able to drink out of it.

“There was no debating whether it needed to be a cup,” the PWHL senior vice president of hockey operations told The Athletic. “It needed to be something that you could drink out of. That was a non-negotiable with us.”

“We didn’t want it to look like a saucer,” added PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer with a laugh.

The league’s trophy was officially unveiled last month as The Walter Cup and will be in the building at the Xcel Energy Center on Sunday night as home team Minnesota has a chance to be the first-ever PWHL champions to hoist it.

Chasing history. Chasing victory.

The Walter Cup is on the line tonight. pic.twitter.com/qj4zEYfjMU

— PWHL (@thepwhlofficial) May 26, 2024

The trophy is women’s hockey’s newest counterpart to the NHL’s Stanley Cup, following the Clarkson Cup (Canadian Women’s Hockey League) and Isobel Cup (National Women’s Hockey League/ Premier Hockey Federation). It’s hard to compete with Lord Stanley’s trophy — its age, size and the way the winner’s names are engraved on it make it perhaps the most famous trophy presented in pro sports — but The Walter Cup is unique in its own way.

First and foremost, it was designed and handcrafted by global luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co., which already crafts some of the top sports trophies including the NFL’s Vince Lombardi Trophy, the NBA’s Larry O’Brien Trophy, the WNBA’s championship trophy, the MLB’s Commissioner’s Trophy and several tennis, soccer and golf trophies. The PWHL’s partnership with Tiffany is the first in hockey.

“Deepening our commitment to women’s sports, Tiffany & Co. is proud to design and handcraft the trophy for the Professional Women’s Hockey League,” the company lists on its website. “Awarded annually to the winner of the championship game, it is the latest addition to our long-standing history of crafting victory.”

The Walter Cup is made of sterling silver and took 123 hours to craft, according to Tiffany & Co. It’s approximately 24.5 inches high, 13 inches wide 12.5 inches long and weighs 35 pounds. For reference, the Stanley Cup is currently listed at 35.25 inches high and 34.5 pounds.

The Walter Cup was initially designed by Tiffany & Co. and refined through a months-long process between the company and the PWHL. “We wanted a lot of elements that could tell the story (of the PWHL),” said Hefford.

The trophy has six “Ws” around the cup commemorating the league’s six teams in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Minnesota, Boston and New York. There are rays of light on the bowl that signify the “dawn of a new era in women’s hockey,” according to the league’s press release. Two hockey sticks hold up the Cup and skate marks are engraved on the inside. The base of the trophy features a PWHL puck “shattering a glass ceiling,” a favorite feature of members of the league’s front office.

It won’t be the type of trophy players get to spend a day with, as is the case with the Stanley Cup. The “real” Walter Cup will be presented on the ice to the eventual champions but will otherwise stay at the Hockey Hall of Fame. A replica of the trophy — which the league is calling a “keeper” — will be given to the winning team each year.

Of course, teams can let players have a day with that version of the Cup if they choose, in which players can bring it to their hometown, bring it to a pool party, prepare a giant ice cream sundae in it or do whatever they want with it for 24 hours. The day with the Stanley Cup is one of the more fun traditions involving the NHL’s trophy and is something the PWHL has talked about eventually moving toward.

“The logistics behind that are really challenging with the team that we have in place and the timelines and everything else that goes into it,” said Hefford. “We know how it’s done in the NHL and it’s a pretty massive undertaking. In this first year, we don’t have the capacity to get there.”

“I think in terms of priorities, we’ll get there and figure out what we’re going to do,” said Scheer. “Teams will get the keeper and they can go have fun with that one for now.”

The Walter Cup won’t be engraved with players’ names, but the base will list every winning team’s name and year. “That’s how it will get displayed in the Hall of Fame,” Scheer said, adding that the replica trophies given to teams will have the franchise name and year they won engraved.

As for the name, that part was easy, said Hefford. PWHL advisory board members Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss proposed naming it after Mark Walter — the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the single financial backer of the PWHL — his wife Kimbra and daughter Samantha.

And while previous women’s hockey trophies had been named after women in the sport — the Isobel Cup was cleverly named after Lord Stanley’s daughter Isobel — the Walter family has invested more money into women’s professional hockey than ever before. “They’ve made this entire thing possible,” Hefford said.

The Walter Cup could be handed out as soon as Sunday, when Minnesota hosts Boston for Game 4 of the PWHL Finals.

The challenge, however, was getting the Walter family to approve the trophy’s name.

“It’s not hard to understand that he does not (want) the spotlight,” Hefford explained. “If he did, he’d be dropping pucks everywhere and all over our buildings. So I think it was Stan (Kasten, the Dodgers president and PWHL board member), specifically and a number of weeks or months to get him to the point where he said OK.

“Mark certainly wasn’t looking for the recognition, but it was important to Billie and Ilana that it was named after them.”

The Walter Cup could be handed out as soon as Sunday night if Minnesota — the lowest seed heading into these playoffs — manages to close out its five-game series against Boston in Game 4. Should Boston force a decisive Game 5 at Tsongas Center, the trophy will travel from Minnesota to Massachusetts and be ready then, too.

For now, it’s secured at Xcel Energy Center and handled by the keepers at the Hockey Hall of Fame. And when it’s handed out to the winning team, the league has been assured it’s sturdy enough to withstand the celebrations.

(Photos courtesy of the PWHL)