Dilapidated Distinction for the Rangers’ Best

“It looks terrible,” Henrik Lundqvist, the team’s goaltender, said recently after practice. “I’m going to say it looked O.K. the first couple of games, but now...”

Lundqvist laughed. He has been awarded the Broadway Hat a team-high five times this season for playing what his teammates regarded as the most notable role in a Rangers victory. Eighteen others have won the hat, but none of them have received it more than twice.

“Guys are getting restless with Hank here,” defenseman Michael Del Zotto said, referring to Lundqvist. “He’s been winning it too many times.”

Some grumbling, all of it good-natured, has surfaced among the Rangers that their teammates should be doing a better job of sharing the honor of the Broadway Hat, but the rules governing the distribution of the hat are apparently a work in progress.

The origin of the Broadway Hat is shrouded in secrecy, but Lundqvist said the tradition, such as it is, was started by the new center Brad Richards on Oct. 18, when the Rangers beat Vancouver in the fourth game of the season.

“Obviously, people think it’s funny, because it’s a funny-looking hat, but the point is, you want to be awarded that hat,” said center Brian Boyle, who was awarded the hat for the first time after the Rangers’ win over Toronto on Saturday. “I think it’s a cool thing we have. Another quirk. Just goes to show you that our team’s a pretty tight group.”

The hat is believed to have come from Sweden, where the Rangers played the first two games of the regular season, but no one will say. The Broadway Hat is awarded only after a victory, and the player handed the hat must wear it for postgame interviews.

The winning goaltender, leading scorer or player who put in the winning goal does not always get the hat. There is only one person on the selection committee: the player who won the hat after the Rangers’ previous victory.

He decides, usually on the spur of the moment, to hand it out as the team celebrates in the dressing room. Most of the time, the recipient is obvious, as it was Jan. 6, when Lundqvist played particularly well to help the team pull out a 3-1 victory at Pittsburgh.

“Sometimes, guys throw little curveballs,” the backup goaltender Martin Biron said. “They’ll say, ‘Well, so-and-so, you played a very good game, but I’m going to give it to someone else.’ ”

Biron won the Broadway Hat on Oct. 24 after leading the Rangers past Winnipeg, 2-1, in the seventh game of the season. Biron decided to pass the hat to Ryan Callahan, the first-year captain, after he scored two goals in a 5-2 victory a week later over San Jose. Biron plopped it on Callahan’s head as he did a postgame television interview.

“I’ve never seen a fedora being passed around the locker room,” Biron, the oldest Ranger at 34, said.

The hat has often gone to what the members of the selection committee refer to as unsung heroes — for scoring their first goal for the team or of the season. Jeff Woywitka, Carl Hagelin, John Mitchell and Michael Sauer have won the hat. (Marian Gaborik, the team’s leading scorer, has won the hat only once.)

As seen on HBO’s “24/7,” after the Rangers’ victory over Philadelphia in the Winter Classic on Jan. 2, Lundqvist reached in his locker and, after hollering, “Rupper!” presented the Broadway Hat — or, rather, tossed it across the dressing room — to Mike Rupp, the grinding forward who scored two goals in the game. Rupp pulled off his Rangers’ stocking cap and pulled on the Broadway Hat with a snap, as Humphrey Bogart might wear it.

“It’s pretty gross,” Rupp said. “I don’t think it’s worn for looks. It’s more the pride that you get with it.”

He added: “It seemed like the same guys are getting a couple of touches with it. It’s good to show some diversity with the selection of the Broadway Hat.”

The Rangers had 28 victories in 43 games, so the hat has been worn a lot. It has already done a lot of travel; the winner is responsible for carrying the hat around in his bag, or handing it to an equipment manager for safe-keeping.

“I don’t know how popular it is, but each win means a lot to us,” Lundqvist said. “We go out and work hard. So after each game, everyone’s excited. It’s fun to acknowledge someone who worked really hard or did something special.”