Just about every NHL team has some kind of post-win prize awarded to the locker room MVP. From the New York Rangers’ fedora to the Edmonton Oilers’ wrestling belt, these awards range from light-hearted to just plain bizarre. The Montreal Canadiens, however, have taken their trophy game to a whole new NSFW level.
As revealed in Episode 4 of The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens, a new documentary series about the team’s 2023-24 season, Montreal’s post-victory tradition features not one but two awards.
“We have a ritual for best player. We give each other a helmet with antlers,” Habs forward Juraj Slafkovsky explained in a one-on-one interview with documentary producers.
The second piece of hardware, though, is where things get a little more daring.
“For the toughest guy of the game, we’ve got another trophy. Let’s just say… it’s for the ballsy guy,” Slafkovsky added with a smirk.
The young Slovakian’s English may not be perfect but his description of the tough guy accolade is spot on. As seen in the doc, Montreal’s players pass around a trophy depicting an unmistakable part of male genitalia.
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We did some digging and discovered that the trophy, typically used in fantasy football pools, has an official name — the “Golden Nutsack Award,” available on Etsy for a little over $60.
While the rebuilding Habs might be a few years away from being Stanley Cup contenders, at least they’ve got a pretty “ballsy” consolation prize to keep things entertaining in the meantime. After all, if you can’t take home hockey’s most prestigious hardware, you might as well go for the most unique.