Renaming the Hart Trophy as the Gordie Howe Trophy?

The idea of renaming the NHL's individual trophies comes up every now and again. Apparently it is back again, complete with a petition.

From Freep.com:

The Hart Memorial Trophy, the NHL’s MVP award, has been given out since 1924. Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe won it six times.

Now a group of fans is petitioning to have the trophy named after Mr. Hockey.

The NHL Fan Association has started a Facebook page urging for the renaming. The fan group, which has been around since 1998, says the NHL community owes an “enormous debt” to Howe, who was “instrumental in building the game for today’s generation of owners, players and executives. ... Away from the rink, Gordie has always been a model ambassador for the sport.”

Here's the full story.

My stance on this literal renaming of hockey history remains the same as always. It is true that most fans have no clue who David Hart was. His contributions to hockey are pretty minimal even. Certainly so in comparison to the great Gordie Howe. All this Hart guy did was donate a trophy, right?

But would you rename the Stanley Cup?

Of course not. It's pretty much the same story there.