Originally named 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
Prince of Wales Trophy dates back to 1925, when it was donated to the League by the
Prince of Wales, who later became
King Edward VIII and then the
Duke of Windsor. It was originally given to the NHL's playoff 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 1926 to 1938, 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 divisions. However, the trophy now awarded to the conference
playoff 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. Along with the Western Conference, the Eastern Conference was temporarily abolished for the
2020–21 NHL season after the
COVID-19 pandemic in North America forced a realignment of the League to preclude the need for teams to regularly cross the
Canada–United States border. For 2020–21 the three Canadian teams competed in the newly formed
North Division while six Metropolitan Division teams and two American teams from the Atlantic Division formed a re-constituted East Division. The five remaining American teams from the Eastern Conference teams joined the Central Division. These changes were reversed, starting in the
2021–22 season.