Back To Back Conn Smythe Winners

Patrick Roy leads the Conn Smythe winners list with 3 triumphs in 1986, 1993, and 2001. Roy is also the only player to win with multiple teams.

Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Sidney Crosby, Mario Lemieux, and Bernie Parent are second on the list. These 5 players have won the trophy twice.

Sidney Crosby, the Penguins Center is the only multiple Conn Smythe Winner still active in the NHL. He won his first trophy in 2016 and in 2017 became the third player ever to win the award consecutively.

Mario Lemieux became the first player to win the Conn Smythe with the franchise in 1991 and 1992. He was the second player ever to do it in successive years. Lemieux was the first overall pick by the Penguins in the 1984 NHL draft.

Wayne Gretzky 

Wayne Gretzky is one of the only three players to win the Hart Memorial Trophy, Conn Smythe and the Art Ross Trophy in the same year (1984).

Guy Lafleur and Bobby Orr are the other two players.  The Great One won his second Stanley Cup Playoffs Most Valuable Player Trophy in 1988.

Both of Gretzky's Conn Smythe came during his time with the Oilers and he won the Art Ross Trophy 10 times between 1981 and 1994. He is still the NHL record-holder for most goals (894), assists (1,963), and points (2,857) which remains unbroken to date. 

Patrick Roy 

Patrick Roy won his first two trophies in 1986 and 1993 with the Montreal Canadiens and his third trophy in 2001 with the Colorado Avalanche.

Roy finished his NHL goalie career with a career regular season record of 551-315-131 with 66 shutouts, 2.54 GAA, and a 0.912 save percentage in 1,029 games played. His playoff record in 247 games read 1561 wins, 94 losses, 23 shutouts, 2.30 GAA, and a 0.918 SV%.

Bobby Orr 

Bobby Orr won Conn Smythe playing for the Boston Bruins in 1970  and 1972. Orr is the first player ever to win the trophy more than one time.

Apart from being the first Bruins player ever to win the Con Smythe, he also won the Hart Memorial Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, and the James Norris Memorial Trophy in 1970.

A total of 12 defensemen have won this trophy to date, with Bobby Orr being the only defenseman ever to have clinched the accolade twice.

American Conn Smythe winners are Brian Leetch, Tim Thomas, Jonathan Quick, and Patrick Kane. Only 10 non-Canadians have won the trophy.

Brian Leetch is the first American and the first non-Canadian winner of the Conn Smythe. He won the trophy in the 1994 Stanley Cup-winning run of the New York Rangers after half a decade.

The Rangers defenseman, Leetch scored the opening goal in game seven of the Finals against the Vancouver Canucks and finished at the top of the post-season leaderboard with 34 points (11 G & 23 A) earned in 23 games played. 

The second American to win the Conn Smythe Trophy is Tim Thomas who won it in 2011 with the Boston Bruins. Thomas was the post-season goaltending leader with 16-9, with 4 shutouts, a 1.98 GAA, and a .940 SV%.

Jonathan Quick is the third American-born winner whose 2012 playoff run with the LA Kings has been described as the best statistical run ever. Quick had a post-season record of 16-4 with 1.41 GAA, .946 SV%, and 3 shutouts in 20 games. 

The Chicago Blackhawks' right winger, Patrick Kane became the fourth American Conn Smythe winner in 2013. The Blackhawks won the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals 4-2 against the Boston Bruins with Kane recording 19 points (9 G & 10 A) in their post-season run.

Out of the 10 non-Canadians of the Conn Smythe Winner, 4 are Americans, 3 are Russian and 3 are from Sweden. The Russian and Swedish winners of the Conn-Smythe are given below.

Russian Conn Smythe trophy winners

• Evgeni Malkin | 2009 | Pittsburgh Penguins
• Alexander Ovechkin | 2018 |  Washington Capitals
• Andrei Vasilevskiy | 2021 | Tampa Bay Lightning

Conn Smythe Trophy winners from Sweden

• Nicklas Lidstrom | 2002 |  Detroit Red Wings
• Henrik Zetterberg | 2008 |  Detroit Red Wings
• Victor Hedman | 2020 |  Tampa Bay Lightning

Conn Smythe winners on losing teams are Roger Crozier, Glenn Hall, Reggie Leach, Ron Hextall, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Leach is the only non-goaltender among them. 

The Detroit Red Wings played the Montreal Canadiens in the 1966 Stanley Cup Finals with the Canadiens winning the championship by 4-2.

But for the first time in NHL history, Roger Crozier the losing team's goalie was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy in honor of his contribution to the Red Wings post-season run. 

One of the Six teams to join the NHL in the 1967 expansion, the St. Louis Blues had picked up Glenn Hall in the expansion draft. Despite the Canadiens sweeping the Blues 4-0 in the 1968 Finals, the games went (3–2 (OT), 1–0. 4–3 (OT), and 3–2). 

Hall was detrimental to the Blues' post-season success in their inaugural season and his performance led him to win the 1968 Conn Smythe Trophy making him the second player ever to win with a losing team 

Reggie Leach is the only non-goaltender to win the Conn Smythe trophy with a losing team and the third player ever to do so. Leach had Scored 19 goals in 16 games in the Flyers' 1976 post-season run, a record tied by Oilers Jari Kurri in 1985 by scoring 19 goals in 18 games. 

Ron Hextall won the accolade in his rookie season with the Flyers in 1987 making him the 4th goalie to win with a losing team. Edmonton Oilers won the finals 4-3 but despite that, Hextall won the Conn Smythe due to his incredible performance.

The last player to receive the Conn Smythe with a losing team is Jean-Sebastien Giguere of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim during their 2003 Stanley Cup Finals run. 

Giguere was one of the biggest contributors to the Ducks' dreamlike Cinderella run of the 2003 Stanley Cup playoffs in which they thwarted the defending Champs the Detroit Red Wings in the first round. 

Giguere made an NHL record for most saves by a goalie in their playoff debut in a 2-1 win against the Red Wings with 63 saves. He finished Mighty Duck's dreamlike run ultimately put to a stop by the NJ Devils with a record of 15-6, a 1.62 GAA, and a save percentage of 0.945.

Conn Smythe Winners history starts with Jean Beliveau as the 1st recipient of the trophy given to the most valuable player in a team's playoff run.

There have been 19 ice hockey centers, 12 defensemen, 10 wingers, and 17 goalie Conn Smythe winners in the award history so far. 

Among the  10 wingers, Bob Gainey (1979) with the Montreal Canadiens and Alexander Ovechkin (2018) with the Washington Capitals are the only left-wingers to win the trophy. 

Given below is the full list of NHL Conn Smythe winners.