The black and white sketch lives in a silver frame on the wall of Stan Neckar’s home office.It’s a prized possession, a snapshot capturing a rite of passage for NHL-champion fathers.There was Neckar, the former Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman, holding then-1-year-old son Ty in a jubilant dressing room after the club won the 2004 Stanley Cup. Music blared. Beers flowed. And Ty sat in the silver bowl of hockey’s holy grail, staring straight ahead at a photographer, who was ready to capture the scene before the infant wiggled out.It was the final moment of Neckar’s 11-year NHL career, and the photo is what the Czech native is still asked about most today.“It never goes away,” said Neckar, 50, now a youth hockey coach in Tampa. “I see this picture in different magazines. Sometimes, people in Canada will tell me, ‘Oh I saw you and Ty.’”The youngest generation has been actively participating in Cup-celebrating photo opportunities for more than a century. Perhaps the earliest documented example shows Marcel “Stanley” Vezina, then the cherub-cheeked newborn son of legendary Canadiens goalie Georges Vezina, dangling his feet over his namesake’s rim after Montreal clinched the 1916 Cup against Seattle.From on-ice celebrations to dressing room parties to dedicated summer days with the Cup for every victorious player, there is no shortage of opportunities for little ones to share in the legacy of Lord Stanley’s trophy. Former defenseman Jack Johnson’s three kids, for instance, were baptized in the bowl instead of a font. And it’s not just infants: Over the years, older children have eaten ice cream, pasta or cereal out of it, slept next to it, put it between their swingsets. Florida Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues’ kids got so into the fun, they dressed up like the Hockey Hall of Fame’s white-gloved Keepers of the Cup.More babies are poised to take center stage if the Carolina Hurricanes clinch the 2026 Stanley Cup in Game 6 on Sunday night, with three Hurricanes welcoming kids in the last month alone. Same for if the Vegas Golden Knights stage a championship comeback, as five players have partners whose due dates landed during the current playoffs. For many fortunate enough to win, the most special part is sharing it with their families — and giving their offspring an iconic, bucket-list moment to look back on for the rest of their lives.As former NHL defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said, “It’s natural instinct when you have a tiny human to plop them in there.”These are their stories.Marcel “Stanley” Vezina sits in the Cup in 1916. (Via Archives de la Ville de Montréal)Mike Rupp had just gone through one of the greatest moments of his life.The then-Devils rookie had scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal in the 2003 Final against the Anaheim Ducks. It was bedlam at the Continental Airlines Arena. The team partied pretty much the whole night there in the building.So did Rupp’s nine-month-old daughter, Maddie.“It was, omigosh, like 2 in the morning, her clothes were drenched because I was carrying her the whole time,” Rupp recalled, laughing. “I was sweating — it was gross. She was doused with champagne. I’m like, ‘Do we put her to bed or give her a bath? This is disgusting.’ But everyone was on their own planet.”The photo of Maddie sitting on the edge of the Cup, a light pink hat on her head and a pacifier in her lap with Rupp and his then-wife Christi behind her, is framed in a few places at Rupp’s home. And Maddie, now 23, still holds it over her younger brother, Mason, 21, who has played hockey his whole life.“That’s how she shuts him up all the time,” Rupp said. “She’s like, ‘I was in the Cup, so see ya.’”Rupp holds his daughter Maddie in the Cup after the Devils’ clincher in 2003. (Gary Hershorn / Reuters)The younger of Blake Coleman’s two daughters, Carson, was born during the 2021 Eastern Conference final, so she was only three weeks old when the Lightning won their second straight Cup title. After their clinching win over the Canadiens at Amalie Arena, she was nestled into the trophy’s bowl in the family lounge.“I remember it was probably like 1 in the morning and there’s guys smoking stogies and booze flying everywhere,” Coleman said. “My brother was looking at me like, ‘Are you sure this is good parenting?”Carson’s older sister, Charlie, took her turn the previous year, after the Lightning returned victorious from 65 days in the 2020 playoff bubble. Landing home in front of a large crowd at a private Tampa airport, Coleman deplaned and raised the Cup over his head — just as his wife, Jordan, did the same with 8-month-old Charlie, who was wearing a Lightning jersey and white headband.“Put Charlie in the Cup!” a fan yelled.Even on a hot day, Charlie handled the experience well.“We were feeding her teething crackers so she wouldn’t cry,” Coleman said.“It was a dream of mine to win the Cup and to be able to share it with your kids that way is pretty awesome.”Photos of the Coleman girls inside the Cup, or otherwise posing with it, are all over their Dallas-area home. One of Carson marked the first time that Blake and Jordan had seen her smile. Coleman also joked that the girls each have their own box for his two pieces of championship jewelry.“They’re like, ‘That’s my ring, right?’” Coleman said.Kevin Shattenkirk and his Lightning teammates were riding a red and yellow trolley in downtown Tampa, en route to a COVID-friendly celebration for the 2020 Cup.