Prince of Wales Trophy

The Prince of Wales Trophy, or simply the Wales Trophy, is a National Hockey League trophy awarded to the Eastern Conference (formerly the Wales Conference) playoff champions. The Montreal Canadiens have won this trophy 25 times, followed by the Boston Bruins with 15 times.

History

The Prince of Wales Trophy was donated by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII of the United Kingdom), in 1924. It was first presented to the playoff champion of the NHL(replacing the O'Brien Trophy) who then went on to face the Western Hockey League champion for the Stanley Cup. After the WHL folded and the Stanley Cup was awarded exclusively to the NHL playoff champion, the Prince of Wales Trophy was awarded to the regular season champion of the NHL American Division while the O'Brien Trophy was awarded to the NHL Canadian Division. It was then repurposed to being the trophy for the overall regular season champion in the 1938-39 NHL season when the NHL reverted to a single division.

With the Modern Era expansion in the 1967-68 NHL season and the creation of the West Division, the Wales Trophy was awarded to the team that finished in first place in the East Division during the regular season. When the league formed two conferences in the 1974-75 NHL season, the award was transferred to the team that finished with the best regular-season record in the Wales Conference. Starting with the 1981-82 NHL season, when the league changed its playoff format so that the two teams meeting in the Stanley Cup finals could no longer come from the same conference, the trophy was presented to the Wales Conference playoff champions, and since the 1993-94 NHL season the Eastern Conference playoff champions have won the award.

A tradition (or rather superstition) that is prevalent among many of today's NHL players is that no player should neither touch nor hoist the Wales Trophy (or the other conference trophy, the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl) when they have won the conference playoffs; the players feel that the Stanley Cup is the true championship trophy and thus it should be the only trophy that they should be hoisting.