Nicknamed "Old Poison," and with Siebert and veteran stars Clint Benedict, Punch Broadbent and Reg Noble, he would lead the Maroons to the Stanley Cup championship that season.

Stewart himself led the league in goal- and point-scoring that year, and became one of the few rookies in history to win the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player.

Stewart would later center the legendary "S Line", with Hooley Smith and Siebert, and star for the Maroons for seven seasons in all, winning a second Hart Trophy in 1930, having led the league once more with 39 goals in 44 games.

Unlike Howie Morenz, Frank Fredrickson or Aurèle Joliat, he resorted to – and perfected – a hard-hitting style of play, with emphasis on collecting rebounds and scoring from bad angles around the crease.

Bruins goaltender Tiny Thompson claimed that Stewart was hockey's most dangerous goal scorer around the net – when the latter was 34 years old and near retirement[5] – while Art Ross referred to him as “the greatest inside player in the game”.

[6] A few players from previous decades like Pud Glass,[7][8] similarly lacking in finesse or all-around talent but possessing strength, good balance and a hard shot, had made their living by playing a hard-nosed “garbage-collector” style.

However, Stewart was the first to gain superstar status via this mode of play, and he paved the way for future garbage men like Gordie Drillon, Wally Hergesheimer, Phil Esposito and Tim Kerr.

For eight playoff games, including four in the 1926 Stanley Cup Finals, Stewart served ably on the back end, where his physical presence and shiftiness kept the opposition hemmed in.

Separated from the puck by five feet and sliding prone across the ice, Stewart nevertheless managed to hook the rubber with his stick and poke it past Victoria goalie Hap Holmes for the leading goal.

In the second period of the fourth and deciding game against Victoria in 1926, Stewart joined a rush which saw Hap Holmes stop four shots in rapid succession, all from the left side.

With the entire Victoria defence having moved over to block for Holmes, Stewart corralled a rebound, skirted behind the right side of the net and picked the top-left corner with a backhand shot.

As a large, heavy centre who used his size and grit to complement his scoring touch, Nels Stewart soon developed a ferocious reputation as both a fighter and an effective pest.