 | |
| Sport | Ice hockey |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Western Conference playoff champions of theNational Hockey League |
| History | |
| First award | 1968 |
| First winner | Philadelphia Flyers |
| Most wins | Edmonton Oilers (9) |
| Most recent | Edmonton Oilers (9) |
TheClarence S. Campbell Bowl,[1] or simply theCampbell Bowl, is a team award presented by theNational Hockey League (NHL). Named afterClarence Campbell, who served as president of the NHL from1946–47 to1976–77, it has been awarded for different accomplishments throughout its history, serving as a counterpart to thePrince of Wales Trophy since the1967 NHL expansion by using the same criteria in the opposite competitive grouping. The Campbell Bowl has been awarded to theWest Division regular season champions (1967–1974), the Campbell Conferenceregular season champions (1974–1981), the Campbell Conferenceplayoff champions (1981–1993), and theWestern Conference playoff champions (1993–2020, 2022–present).[1]
Due to a modified playoff format held in 2021 because of theCOVID-19 pandemic, the Campbell Bowl was awarded to theMontreal Canadiens after they defeated theVegas Golden Knights in theStanley Cup semifinals.
The Clarence S. Campbell Bowl was donated by the NHL's clubs in recognition of the contributions and services of its namesake, the League President at the start of theModern Era expansion. Throughout its history it has been a parallel to thePrince of Wales Trophy, using the same criteria in the opposite competitive grouping. From its inception in the1967–68 season through to1973–74 it was awarded to the first-place finisher in theWest Division during the regular season.[1] With NHL realignment in1974–75, it was given to the team with the best regular season record in theCampbell Conference (the successor to the West Division) through the1980–81 season.[1] Beginning with the1981–82 season, it switched to the Campbell Conferenceplayoff champions, and since the1993–94 season, when the Campbell Conference became the Western Conference, the trophy has gone to the Western Conference playoff champions.[1]
A traditional superstition that is prevalent among many of today's NHL players is that no player should either touch or hoist the Campbell (Western Conference champion) orPrince of Wales (Eastern Conference champion) trophies after they have won the conference playoffs; these players feel that theStanley Cup is the true championship trophy and thus it should be the only trophy that they should be hoisting. Instead of touching the conference trophy, the captain of the winning team merely poses (usually looking solemn) with the trophy, and sometimes, the entire team poses as well. There have been other teams, however, that have ignored the superstition and hoisted the conference trophy and then went on to win the Cup anyway.[2][3][4]
The NHL temporarily suspended the conferences and re-aligned the league into four temporary divisions for the2020–21 NHL season due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the semifinal round of the2021 Stanley Cup playoffs was contested between the winners of the divisional playoffs and they were seeded according to their regular season record. Initially the trophy was not going to be awarded,[5] but it was later decided that the Campbell Bowl would be awarded to the winner of theStanley Cup semifinals between the North and West divisions. Eventually,Montreal Canadiens (the only Eastern Conference team in that half of the "bracket") defeated theVegas Golden Knights to win their first and (barring a further change in the playoff format) only Campbell Bowl in their history.[6]
| Season | Winner | Win # |
|---|---|---|
| 2020–21 | Montreal Canadiens | 1 |
| Season | Winner | Win # |
|---|---|---|
| 2021–22 | Colorado Avalanche † | 3 |
| 2022–23 | Vegas Golden Knights † | 2 |
| 2023–24 | Edmonton Oilers | 8 |
| 2024–25 | Edmonton Oilers | 9 |
In addition to a spot in the Stanley Cup Final, the winner of the Golden Knights–Canadiens series will claim the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, while the Islanders–Lightning will battle for the Prince of Wales Trophy.
| |||||||||
