Five in a row, then six more

Henri was the youngest of three Richard brothers and the kid brother of Maurice “Rocket” Richard, who himself won 8 Stanley Cups. Henri made the Canadiens at 19 in 1955 and won the Cup as a rookie in 1956 — the start of an unprecedented five-in-a-row dynasty (1956 through 1960). The five straight remains the longest championship streak in NHL history.

Richard added Cups in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971, and 1973 — captaining the team for the last two. He scored the Cup-clinching goal in 1966 and the Cup-clinching goal again in 1971 against Chicago, where he had been benched in Game 5 by coach Al MacNeil and famously called out the coach in the press the next day before scoring the deciding goal himself.

How the leaderboard splits between eras

The top of the list is dominated by Canadiens — Henri Richard (11), Yvan Cournoyer (10), Jean Béliveau (10), Claude Provost (9), Maurice Richard (8), Jacques Lemaire (8), Serge Savard (8). Montreal’s Original Six and 1970s dynasties produced the bulk of the all-time numbers because the league had only six to twenty-one teams during those decades.

Among modern players (post-1990 expansion era), the leaders are Mark Messier (6), Larry Robinson (6), Patrick Roy (4), and Sidney Crosby (3). The expansion to 32 teams and the 16-team playoff format make 11 essentially impossible to chase — a player would need to win the Cup in 11 different years across a career, which historically takes 22+ NHL seasons of being on the right team at the right time.

Cross-sport context

Henri Richard’s 11 Cups is the highest team-sport championship total of any North American athlete except Bill Russell, who won 11 NBA titles in 13 seasons with the Boston Celtics. Russell did it faster (13 years vs. Richard’s 18); Richard did it across a longer playing career and a more-physical sport.

Behind Russell and Richard, no team-sport athlete has reached 10. Yogi Berra won 10 World Series with the Yankees as a player — tied with Cournoyer and Béliveau for third all-time across leagues. The next NFL leader is Tom Brady at 7 Super Bowls; the next MLB leaders behind Berra are Joe DiMaggio and Frankie Crosetti, both at 9.

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Henri Richard and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records. Lead image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).