Eastern Conference (NHL)

Eastern Conference

Eastern Conference logo, circa 2006
League	National Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	1974 (as the Prince of Wales Conference)
Teams
No. of teams	16
Most recent Eastern Conference champion(s)	Pittsburgh Penguins

The Eastern Conference (French: Conférence de l'Est) is one of two conferences in the National Hockey League (NHL) used to divide teams. Its counterpart is the Western Conference.

Previously known as the Prince of Wales Conference (or Wales Conference for short), it was created in 1974 when the NHL realigned its teams into two conferences and four divisions. Because the new conferences and divisions had little to do with North American geography, geographical references were removed. The conference was instead named for the Prince of Wales Trophy.. The current champions are the Pittsburgh Penguins, winning in 2015-16.

The Prince of Wales Trophy dates back to 1925, when it was donated to the League by the then-current Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VIII. It was originally given to the NHL's champion. (Until 1926, the Stanley Cup was presented to the winner of a post-season playoff between the NHL and Western Hockey League champions.) Since 1926–27, the Stanley Cup has gone to the NHL's playoff champion. During the years when the NHL had no divisions, (i.e., 1925–26; 1938 to 1967), the Prince of Wales Trophy was presented to the League's regular season champion (analogous to today's Presidents' Trophy). From 1928 to 1937, the Trophy went to the American Division regular season champion; from 1967 to 1974, it was presented to the East Division regular season champion; and from 1974 to 1981, it was presented to the Wales Conference regular season champion.

The conferences and divisions were re-aligned for the 1981–82 to better reflect the geographical locations of the teams, but the existing names were retained with the Wales Conference becoming the conference primarily for the NHL's eastern teams. The names of conferences and divisions were changed for the 1993–94 season to reflect their geographic locations. Then-new NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made the change to help non-hockey fans better understand the game, as the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) all use geographic-based names for their conferences and divisions. However, the trophy awarded to the conference champion, the Prince of Wales Trophy, retains some connection to the heritage of the League. In 2005, following the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Bettman changed the Eastern Conference logo (along with the Western Conference and NHL logos) to its current format.