Brett Andrew Hull (born August 9, 1964 in Belleville, Ontario and raised in Chicago, Winnipeg and Vancouver) is a former NHL player, the current co-general manager of the Dallas Stars, and the son of legendary player Bobby Hull and nephew of Dennis Hull, also known as "The Golden Brett". Though in the earliest years of his career few saw him as a potential star, the colorful and often outspoken Hull announced his retirement on October 15, 2005 with 741 career goals, placing him third on the all-time list. He played for the Calgary Flames, St. Louis Blues, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings and Phoenix Coyotes. He also scored a controversial Stanley Cup winning goal on Buffalo Sabres goaltender Dominik Ha?ek in 1999 to give Dallas their only Cup win. Hull also won the Cup as a member of the Red Wings in 2002. The son of a Canadian father and American mother, he holds dual U.S./Canadian citizenship.

The centre (originating in Canada) (center in the U.S.) in ice hockey is a forward position of a player whose primary zone of play is the middle of the ice, away from the side boards. Centres have more flexibility in their positioning and are expected to cover more ice surface than any other player. Centres are ideally faster skaters who can back check quickly from deep in the opposing zone. Centres usually play as part of a line of players that are substituted frequently to keep fresh and the game moving. First liners are usually the top players, although some top players make the second line to allow for offensive scoring opportunities.

The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The team is named after the famous W. C. Handy song "St. Louis Blues," and plays in the 19,150-seat Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis.

This is a list of Stanley Cup champions, including finalists and challengers. The Stanley Cup, donated by former Governor General of Canada Lord Stanley of Preston in 1892, is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America. Originally inscribed the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy started out as an award for Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. Today, it is awarded to the top team in the National Hockey League, a professional ice hockey league.

In 1915, the two professional ice hockey organizations, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), reached a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other for the Stanley Cup. After a series of league mergers and folds, it became the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926. The Cup later became the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.

Since the 1914-15 season, the trophy has been won a combined 92 times by 17 active NHL teams and five defunct teams. Prior to that, the challenge cup was held by nine different teams. There are two seasons that the Stanley Cup has not been awarded: the 1918-19 season, because of a Spanish flu epidemic, and the 2004-05, because of the NHL lockout.

The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league composed of 30 teams in North America. It is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the North American major professional sports leagues. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league champion at the end of each season.

The league was formed in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from a predecessor organization, the National Hockey Association (NHA), founded in 1909. It started with four teams, and through a series of expansions, contractions and relocations, the league is now composed of 30 teams, 24 of which are based in the United States and six in Canada. After a labour dispute that led to the cancellation of the entire 2004?05 season, the league has staged a successful comeback, including revenue and profit growth.

The NHL draws many highly skilled players from all over the world. Currently, the league has players from about 20 different countries. Canadians have historically constituted a large majority of the players in the NHL because both the sport and the league originated in Canada. In the past 25 years, the percentages of American and European players have increased because of the NHL's continued expansion into the United States, its high standard of play compared to other leagues, and the availability of highly skilled European players.European players taking more and more leadership roles, captaincies in NHL