Hat trick in hockey: meaning, records and why fans throw hats

A hat trick in hockey is three goals by the same player in one game. In Quebec it is called a tour du chapeau, and when it happens fans throw their hats on the ice, a tradition with roots in Montreal's old Forum. Here is what counts as a hat trick, the natural and Gordie Howe versions, where the name and the hats come from, the NHL and Canadiens records, and how likely a three-goal game really is.

Hat trick at a glance

• Hat trick: three goals by one player in a single game.
• Natural hat trick: three goals in a row by the same player, with no other goal by either team in between.
• Gordie Howe hat trick: a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game. It is a joke, not an official stat.
• NHL career record: Wayne Gretzky, 50 hat tricks.
• Canadiens leader: Maurice Richard, 26, ninth in NHL history.
• Most goals in one NHL game: 7, by Joe Malone of the Quebec Bulldogs on January 31, 1920.

What counts as a hat trick in hockey?

Any three goals by the same player in one game count: even strength, power play, shorthanded or into an empty net. The goals do not have to be consecutive. If they are, with no other goal scored by either team in between, it is a natural hat trick (tour du chapeau naturel).

Where the term comes from

The word started in cricket, not hockey. In 1858, at a match in Sheffield, England, the bowler H. H. Stephenson took three wickets with three consecutive balls. Fans took up a collection, as was the custom for an outstanding feat, and bought him a hat with the proceeds. The term first appeared in print in 1865. Hockey borrowed it later for three goals.

Why fans throw hats on the ice

Throwing hats after a hat trick is said to have started among NHL fans around the 1950s, and several cities claim it. Two stories stand out:

• Montreal: in the 1950s and 1960s, the Montreal hat maker Henri Henri gave a hat to any player who scored a hat trick at the Forum, whatever his team.
• Guelph, Ontario: in 1946, the Biltmore Hat Company sponsored the junior Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters. Fans threw hats when a player scored three, and the player received a new Biltmore fedora.

Other kinds of hat tricks

• Natural hat trick: three straight goals by the same player in one game, with no other goal in between.
• Gordie Howe hat trick: a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game. Despite the name, Gordie Howe recorded only two in his NHL career. Rick Tocchet has the most, with 18.
• Terry Harper hat trick: a Quebec joke about scoring three goals in a whole season, named after Terry Harper, a defenceman who rarely joined the attack.

NHL hat trick records

Career leaders as listed by Hockey-Reference, updated November 4, 2026. Ovechkin is the only active player in the top 10.

Other records worth knowing:

• Fastest hat trick: 21 seconds, by Bill Mosienko of Chicago in 1952.
• Most hat tricks in one NHL season, all players combined: 139, in 1981-82.
• Most goals in one game: 7, by Joe Malone, born in Sillery, Quebec, for the Quebec Bulldogs against Toronto on January 31, 1920. It is still the NHL record. Two seasons earlier, with the Canadiens, Malone scored 44 goals in 20 games.

Junior hockey keeps its own record book; at the 2026 Memorial Cup, Kitchener's Jack Pridham led the tournament with five goals, and our Memorial Cup 2026 guide has every result.

The Canadiens and the hat trick

Hockey-Reference lists 423 hat tricks in Canadiens history. Maurice Richard had 26, all for Montreal, and no Canadien appears higher on the NHL career list. On December 28, 1944, Richard had 5 goals and 3 assists in one game, and his 8 points remain the franchise record for a game, shared with Bert Olmstead (4 goals, 4 assists on January 9, 1954). The franchise record for goals in one game is 6, by Newsy Lalonde on January 10, 1920.

To see which Canadiens are scoring now, check our Canadiens roster and the league-wide NHL scoring leaders.

How rare is a hat trick?

A simple way to estimate it is the Poisson model, which treats goals as random events at a steady rate. These are our own calculations, not league data:

Even a 0.50 goals per game scorer, which is a 42-goal pace over the 84-game NHL season, gets a hat trick in only about 1 game out of 69. Over a full season that is about 1.2 hat tricks on average, and roughly a 30% chance of not getting any. The model ignores ice time, power play use and empty nets, so treat it as a rough guide.

Hat trick bets

Some sportsbooks post a "to score 3 or more goals" market as a prop bet. To judge the price, convert it to an implied probability. Take an example price of +4000 (41.00 in decimal): it implies about 2.4%. For a player scoring 0.50 goals per game, the model above gives 1.44%, so that price pays less than fair value. Fair odds at 1.44% are about +6800. Our guide to NHL player props explains how goal scorer odds are set.

In Quebec, Mise-o-jeu is Loto-Québec's legal sports betting platform. Long-shot props pay big because they rarely hit, so set a deposit limit and only bet what you can afford to lose.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Hat-trick" (1858 cricket origin and H. H. Stephenson, 1865 first print use, natural hat trick, Guelph Biltmore 1946, Mosienko 21 seconds, Gretzky 50, 139 in 1981-82, Gordie Howe hat trick, Howe 2 and Tocchet 18).
• Wikipédia, "Coup du chapeau" (Quebec term tour du chapeau, Henri Henri at the Forum, Terry Harper hat trick).
• Hockey-Reference, "NHL Leaders and Records for Hat Tricks" (career totals, page updated November 4, 2026) and "Montreal Canadiens Hat Tricks" (423).
• Wikipedia, "Joe Malone" (7 goals on January 31, 1920, birthplace, 44 goals in 20 games in 1917-18).
• Wikipedia, "List of Montreal Canadiens records" (Lalonde 6 goals, Richard and Olmstead 8 points).
• Poisson probabilities and fair odds: own calculations.