Which team was first to engrave its roster on the Stanley Cup?

The Montreal Wanderers were the first team to engrave its roster on the Stanley Cup.

The achievement belongs to the 1906–07 Montreal Wanderers, who became the first champions to add the names of their winning members. Their names were engraved on the inside of the Cup’s bowl, rather than on one of the later bands that fans usually associate with Stanley Cup inscriptions.

This early engraving was not yet part of a standardized annual process. The Wanderers’ entry included 20 members, and the team also recorded its championship over the Kenora Thistles. Earlier winners had engraved club names, dates, scores, or other details, but not a complete winning roster in the modern sense.

The Montreal Canadiens are often associated with the tradition because roster engraving became an annual practice in 1924, when they won the Cup. The trophy later evolved into a rolling historical record: bands were added as space filled, and the names of players, coaches, executives, and staff could all appear. Thus, Montreal’s first roster inscription predates the regular tradition by almost two decades.