Clarence S. Campbell Bowl

Lore & Background

The trophy has served as a counterpart to the Prince of Wales Trophy 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, 2022–present). Due to a modified playoff format held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Campbell Bowl was awarded to the Montreal Canadiens, normally an Eastern Conference team, after they defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup semifinals.

In Their Own Story

The air inside Chicago Stadium was thick with Zamboni exhaust and the scent of stale popcorn, a sensory time capsule of the late 1960s. A young fan clutched a program, his eyes wide as the announcer's voice boomed over the PA system: 'The winner of the Campbell Conference...'

It wasn't just about the band; it was about the gauntlet. In those days, to reach the Stanley Cup Final, you had to survive the brutal Western Division first. For Montreal fans watching from the Forum or on TV, the Campbell Bowl represented a distant, icy frontier. It was the trophy their rivals in St. Louis and Chicago fought over while the Canadiens ruled the East. But mostly, it remained a monument to a divided league: a gleaming barrier that Western dynasties had to topple before they could ever dream of lifting the Cup.

Reader's Guide

The 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. From its inception through to 1974 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 through the 1981 season. Beginning with the 1981 season, it switched to the Campbell Conference playoff champions, and since the 1993 season, when the Campbell Conference became the Western Conference, the trophy has gone to the Western Conference playoff champions. The NHL temporarily suspended the conferences and re-aligned the league into four temporary divisions for the 2020–21 NHL season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the semifinal round of the 2021 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, but it was later decided that the Campbell Bowl would be awarded to the winner of the Stanley Cup semifinals between the North and West divisions. Eventually, the Montreal Canadiens (the only Eastern Conference team in that half of the 'bracket') defeated the Vegas Golden Knights to win their first and (barring a further change in the playoff format) only Campbell Bowl in their history.

Did You Know?

• A traditional superstition among many NHL players is that no player should touch or hoist the Campbell Bowl after winning the conference playoffs; instead, the captain often poses solemnly with the trophy.
• Some teams have ignored the superstition and hoisted the trophy, then went on to win the Stanley Cup.
• The Montreal Canadiens won the Campbell Bowl in 2021, their first and only such win as of the source.