The1938 Stanley Cup Final was a best-of-five series between theChicago Black Hawks and theToronto Maple Leafs. Chicago won the series 3–1 to win their secondStanley Cup. With their record of 14–25–9, they possess as of 2022, the lowest regular season winning percentage (.291) of any championship team in the four major professional sports leagues. They are also the Stanley Cup winning team with the lowest number ofHockey Hall of Fame members as a player, with only one (Earl Seibert).

This would be the last best-of-five Stanley Cup Finals.

Toronto defeatedBoston Bruins in a best-of-five 3–0 to advance to the Finals. The Black Hawks had to play two best-of three series after narrowly reaching the postseason by two points (at the time, six of the eight teams made the postseason); the Black Hawks won a 2–1 upset againstMontreal Canadiens and then won 2–1 against theNew York Americans to advance to the Finals.

Chicago lost their regular goaltender,Mike Karakas, during the playoffs and startedAlfie Moore in game one. League presidentFrank Calder ruled that Moore was ineligible, but allowed the victory.Paul Goodman played and lost game two. Karakas returned for games three and four wearing a steel toe in his skate to protect his foot.^[1]

Chicago set a record with eight American players winning the Stanley Cup. Also set a record for attendance with 18,497 in game three. It was the second time in NHL history a team won the Stanley cup after starting three different goalies in the playoffs after theDetroit Red Wings accomplished the feat in the previous year; no Stanley Cup Champion would win the cup while starting three different goalies until thePenguins did it in2016. It was the last time that the Hawks would win the Stanley Cup at home until 2015, and the last year that a Chicago team would win a championship at Chicago Stadium until theBulls won theirsecond straight NBA championship in 1992.^[2]

The NHL did not see fit to make sure that the Stanley Cup was in Chicago when they won the game and the series on April 12.^[3]

The 1938 Stanley Cup was presented to Black Hawks captain Johnny Gottselig byNHL PresidentFrank Calder following the Black Hawks 4–1 win over the Maple Leafs in game four.

The following Black Hawks players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

1937–38 Chicago Black Hawks

• * Bill Stewart was the first American-born, and fifth NHL rookie coach to win the Stanley Cup. Bob Johnson would be the second American born to coach win the Stanley Cup 1991, 53 years later. He was also the first American-born Manager to win the Stanley Cup. The second was Brian Burke in 2007, 69 years later.
• When the cup was redesigned during the 1957–58 season Pete Palangio's name was engraved twice, firstly as PALAGO, secondly as PETE PALANGIO.
• † Six names were left off the cup when it was redone during the 1957–58 season. Four were on the original ring – Virgil Johnson, Paul Goodman, Alfie Moore(players), and Ed Froelich (Trainer). Players Hal Jackson, and Bert Connelly qualified to be engraved on the Stanley Cup, but their names were not included on any version of the 1938 Chicago team's engravings. There is room on the Stanley Cup for all six missing names.
• With this victory,Carl Voss became only the third player to have his name engraved on theStanley Cup and Canadian football'sGrey Cup. He had previously been part of theQueen's Golden Gaels football team that won the12th Grey Cup in 1924. (SeeJoe Miller,Lionel Conacher,Leo Dandurand,Norman Kwong &Wayne Gretzky also won the Grey Cup and Stanley Cup.)

• 1937–38 NHL season

• Diamond, Dan (2000).Total Stanley Cup. Toronto: Total Sports Canada.ISBN 978-1-892129-07-9.
• Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004).Lord Stanley's Cup. Bolton, Ont.: Fenn Pub. pp 12, 50.ISBN 978-1-55168-261-7
• "All-Time NHL Results".

• 1937–38 NHL season
• Stanley Cup Finals
• Chicago Blackhawks games
• Toronto Maple Leafs games
• April 1938 sports events in the United States
• April 1938 sports events in Canada
• 1930s in Toronto
• 1930s in Chicago
• 1938 in Ontario
• 1938 in sports in Michigan
• Ice hockey competitions in Chicago
• Events at Chicago Stadium

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from August 2023