The Torriani Award is given annually by the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 m ...

(IIHF) to an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player with an "outstanding career from non-top hockey nation". It was inaugurated in 2015, and is awarded alongside the annual

IIHF Hall of Fame The IIHF Hall of Fame is a hall of fame operated by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was founded in 1997, and has resided at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto since 1998. Prior to 1997, the IIHF housed exhibits at the Interna ...

induction ceremony at the

Ice Hockey World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annua ...

. It is named for

Bibi Torriani Richard "Bibi" "Riccardo" Torriani (1 October 1911 – 3 September 1988) was a Swiss ice hockey player and coach, and luge athlete. He played for HC Davos from 1929 to 1950, and served as captain of the Switzerland men's national ice hockey t ...

, who played internationally for the

Switzerland men's national ice hockey team The Switzerland men's national ice hockey team (german: Schweizer Eishockeynationalmannschaft; french: Équipe de Suisse de hockey sur glace; it, Nazionale di hockey su ghiaccio della Svizzera) is a founding member of the International Ice Hock ...

. Recipients of the Torriani Award are inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame into their own category, separate from other players, referees and builders. When the award was first announced, IIHF president

René Fasel René Fasel (born 6 February 1950) is a Swiss retired ice hockey administrator. He served as president of the International Ice Hockey Federation from 1994 to 2021. He started his ice hockey career as a player for HC Fribourg-Gottéron, in 1960, ...

was quoted as saying; "we wanted to create a trophy which honours players for a great international career irrespective of where they played. Nowadays, with

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

players and international players often being the same, we feel that there are so many top players to honour. Still, we wanted to ensure we recognized players who didn’t necessarily win

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

and World Championship medals but who still had remarkable careers. As a result, we created the Torriani Award, and Lucio Topatigh is a very worthy first recipient".

Recipients

Notes

References

{{Torriani Award Awards established in 2015 Ice hockey-related lists Ice hockey trophies and awards *

Recipients

See also

Notes

References