Prince of Wales Trophy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prince of Wales Trophy on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame
Prince of Wales Trophy on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame

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 claimed this trophy 25 times, the most of any team. The next highest is 15, held by the Boston Bruins. The current holders of the Prince of Wales Trophy are the Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes.

Contents

The Prince of Wales Trophy was donated by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), 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 either touch or 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 hoisted.

v • d • e
National Hockey League 1917 to present
Current teams Anaheim • Atlanta • Boston • Buffalo • Calgary • Carolina • Chicago • Colorado • Columbus • Dallas • Detroit • Edmonton • Florida • Los Angeles • Minnesota • Montreal • Nashville • New Jersey • NY Islanders • NY Rangers • Ottawa • Philadelphia • Phoenix • Pittsburgh • San Jose • St. Louis • Tampa Bay • Toronto • Vancouver • Washington
Trophies and awards Stanley Cup • Prince of Wales • Clarence S. Campbell • Presidents' Trophy • Adams • Art Ross • Calder • Conn Smythe • Crozier • Hart • Jennings • King Clancy • Lady Byng • Masterton • Messier • Norris • Patrick • Pearson • Plus/Minus • Rocket Richard • Selke • Vezina
Defunct and relocated teams Atlanta Flames • California/Oakland (Golden) Seals • Cleveland Barons • Colorado Rockies • Hamilton Tigers • Kansas City Scouts • Minnesota North Stars • Montreal Maroons • Montreal Wanderers • New England/Hartford Whalers • New York/Brooklyn Americans • Ottawa Senators (original) • Philadelphia Quakers • Pittsburgh Pirates • Quebec Bulldogs • Quebec Nordiques • St. Louis Eagles • Winnipeg Jets
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/r/i/Prince_of_Wales_Trophy_95c2.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.