The Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, or simply the Campbell Bowl, is a team award presented by the

National Hockey League 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 ...

(NHL). Named after

Clarence Campbell Clarence Sutherland Campbell, (July 9, 1905 – June 24, 1984) was a Canadian ice hockey executive, referee, and soldier. He refereed in the National Hockey League (NHL) during the 1930s, served in the Canadian Army during World War II, then s ...

, who served as president of the NHL from to , it has been awarded for different accomplishments throughout its history, serving as a counterpart to the

Prince of Wales Trophy The Prince of Wales Trophy, also known as the Wales Trophy, is a team award presented by the National Hockey League (NHL). Named for Prince Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII and then Duke of Windsor), it has been awarded for diffe ...

since the 1967 NHL expansion by using the same criteria in the opposite competitive grouping. The Campbell Bowl has been awarded to the West Division regular season champions (1967–1974), the Campbell Conference ''regular season'' champions (1974–1981), the Campbell Conference ''playoff'' champions (1981–1993), and the Western Conference playoff champions (1993–2020, 2021–present). Due to a modified playoff format held in 2021 because of the

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, the Campbell Bowl was awarded to the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

after they defeated the

Vegas Golden Knights The Vegas Golden Knights are a professional ice hockey team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference. Founded in 2017 as an expan ...

in the Stanley Cup Semifinals.

History

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 the Modern Era expansion. Throughout its history it has been a parallel to the

, using the same criteria in the opposite competitive grouping. From its inception in the season through to it was awarded to the first-place finisher in the West Division during the regular season. With NHL realignment in 1974–75, it was given to the team with the best regular season record in the

Campbell Conference Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

(the successor to the West Division) through the season. Beginning with the season, it switched to the Campbell Conference ''playoff'' champions, and since the season, when the Campbell Conference became the Western Conference, the trophy has gone to the Western Conference playoff champions. 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) or

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

( Eastern Conference champion) trophies after they have won the conference playoffs; these players feel that the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

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. The NHL temporarily suspended the conferences and re-aligned the league into four temporary divisions for the

2020–21 NHL season The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

due to the

. As a result, the semifinal round of the

2021 Stanley Cup playoffs The 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs was the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL). The playoffs began on May 15, 2021, and concluded on July 7, 2021, with the Tampa Bay Lightning winning their second consecutive and third overall St ...

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. However, as it happened, the first round results caused a ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' firm bracket to be established for the rest of the playoffs in which the teams advancing from the North and West Divisions would play in the semifinals, and also where this half of the "bracket" contained all of the Western Conference teams remaining in the playoffs. As a result, it was decided that the Campbell Bowl would be awarded to the winner of the Stanley Cup Semifinals between the North and West Divisions. Eventually,

(the only Eastern Conference team in that half of the "bracket") defeated the

to win their first and (barring a further change in the playoff format) only Campbell Bowl in their history.

Winners

;Key * – Eventual Stanley Cup champions

West Division regular season champions (1967–1974)

Campbell Conference regular season champions (1974–1981)

Campbell Conference playoffs champions (1981–1993)

Western Conference playoffs champions (1993–2020)

Stanley Cup Semifinals (2020–2021)

Western Conference playoffs champions (2021–present)

References

External links

Clarence S. Campbell Bowl history at NHL.com

{{Featured list National Hockey League trophies and awards Western Conference (NHL) NHL Conference Finals