Presenters will unveil a repaired Stanley Cup on the field at Carter-Finley Stadium Thursday night during the N.C State-Florida State football game.
The Carolina Hurricanes took home their first National Hockey League championship trophy in last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. The Hurricanes first received the Cup Sept. 29 engraved with the 52 names of players and executive staff. It was originally supposed to be presented in the Brickyard today.
But according to Doug Warf, manager of promotions and fan development of the Carolina Hurricanes, the keepers of the cup sent it to a jeweler in Montreal, Canada, Monday afternoon for repairs.
The Stanley Cup consists of five rings that make up the base of the trophy, which is where jewelers engrave all team and players’ names. Each ring holds names for up to 13 teams.
The trophy was first presented to a championship hockey team in 1893, and is so old the jeweler must replace the oldest ring as the trophy fills up with names. The jewelers shift each ring up, removing the topmost ring, and place a blank ring at the bottom when all the existing rings are filled.
This year, the Hurricanes are the first team to grace the bottom ring.
“Right now, we are the only team on there,” Warf said. “There will be another 12 teams added to that ring, but we were the first ones on it.”
According to Warf, when the jeweler removed the top ring from the stack to put the brand new ring on the bottom, the then-second ring shifted into its new top position.
But this is what caused the problems, Warf said.
This new top ring, originally from the mid-50s, did not fit as well into the top of the Cup as the previous one had. Warf said the jeweler must now repair the cup so the rings will fit without breaking.
“They have to do some craftsmanship to it to make sure it fits because right now, it’s like putting a lid on a Tupperware container that doesn’t fit,” Warf said. “It’s causing a lot of pressure on top of the ring that could cause it to break if it doesn’t get fixed.”
Louise St. Jacques, a jeweler in Montreal whose family jewelry shop has been involved with the Stanley Cup since the start of the engraving of the names, will do the job.
To repair the Cup, the jeweler will have to heat the metal and reform the silver to where the rings connect correctly.
Warf said he expects jewelers to repair the Cup within 24 hours and send it back to Raleigh before the Carolina Hurricanes’ regular season opening Wednesday.
The Stanley Cup will be presented on the field at the football game Thursday night. However, it is not yet scheduled to be on campus in the Brickyard for students to view.
“We want to bring it to N.C. State,” Warf said. “We really value the students and the staff there.”