By Josh Casper, Features writer
In 1938, Edward VIII, the former Prince of Wales, publicly congratulated the NHL’s Boston Bruins on winning the Prince of Wales Trophy, which he had donated nearly a decade-and-a-half earlier, for the only time on record.
Two years earlier, the entire British Empire listened with bated breath as King Edward VIII told his subjects that he could not be their king without the support of the woman he loved. He was thus abdicating the throne, and he would become the Duke of Windsor the following year. ‘The Abdication,’ like ‘The Cup,’ is self-explanatory. Royalty, like sports, is, if nothing else, theater. The Royal Family attempted to erase Edward, now a failed king remembered as the charismatic Prince of Wales, from history so the new reticent king might step out of his brother’s vast shadow.
Similar mythology surrounds the Prince of Wales Trophy, such as why the Montreal Canadiens had their name engraved twice. The silver chalice hovers above an uncut crystal at the base – to symbolize ice – and is buttressed by four legs shaped like gold hockey sticks, surrounded by four golden hockey pucks. Francophone hockey fans often mistake the Prince of Wales feathers atop the trophy, which is emblazoned with the Royal Arms of Canada, for a fleur de lis. Prince Edward gifted the $2,500 trophy (equal to about $45,000 today) to the NHL in 1925.
As the Prince of Wales, Edward was renowned worldwide, especially in North America, where he became a symbol of a generation as the jazz-loving bachelor who also endured the travails of war. In 1919, Edward crisscrossed Canada from St. John’s, Nfld., to Vancouver on a special Canadian Pacific Railway train.
“I want Canada to look upon me as Canadian, if not actually by birth, yet certainly in mind and spirit,” said the Prince of Wales in St. John’s.
Edward developed a particular affection for the Canadian West and its pioneering ranchers. Before coming back east to America, the prince bought a cattle ranch in Alberta’s High River Valley that he visited five times during the next decade. He said the Canadian West was one of the few places that treated him like a person rather than a prince.
“Canada is a great country,” said Edward to comedian Will Rogers. The prince described Canadians as vigorous and confident.
Americans were more acquainted with the Prince of Wales than with hockey. But that was slowly changing. Ice hockey at the 1924 Chamonix Winter Olympics garnered almost as much attention as (Chariots of Fire runner) Harold Abrahams at the Paris Summer Games. Team Canada and the United States facing off for gold only stoked expectations. Suddenly, hockey was heating up.
The Prince of Wales, a devoted sportsman, took particular interest and planned to attend. Then, days before the final, the avid steeplechaser was thrown from his horse while trying to clear a five-foot jump.
Edward’s equerry noticed a protruding bone: “I am afraid your collarbone is broken, sir.”
Unable to move his mangled shoulder, the prince drolly replied: “Yes, I believe it is.”
The gold-medal game was shaping up to be a similarly gruesome affair. By the first intermission, the players’ blood-soaked sweaters tinged the ice with a crimson hue, mainly from Harry ‘Moose’ Watson, who was bloodied and knocked out cold for two minutes but returned to score the go-ahead goal. Led by captain Dunc Munro, Canada shut down the Americans and claimed the gold with a 6-1 victory. The U.S. took silver and Great Britain got the bronze.
Though he missed the banquet while recovering from surgery, the Prince of Wales was determined to meet Team Canada. The day before they were set to depart, Edward invited them to York House. Manager William ‘Billy’ Hewitt and Munro led the team into the prince’s study. As they sat by the fireplace, Prince Edward turned to Munro and said, “You will know that dislocating a collarbone is not serious. It easily comes out and is easily put back.”
They laughed. Hockey was a rough sport. No helmets. So was point-to-point racing. Not wanting a dead Prince of Wales, the British Racing Association made helmets mandatory in 1924.
The prince had never been to a hockey game, but Hewitt was impressed by his hockey IQ. Edward even recognized Harold McMunn, who was added to the Allan Cup-winning Toronto Granites team that represented Canada.
Like the prince, Munro later admitted that his biggest obstacle came after dark. “Just think of the temptation,” said Munro of the casinos filled with young French ingenues. “But we resisted it.”
Hewitt had them in bed by 10 o’clock, something the prince never mastered. Edward’s nocturnal speakeasy adventures became such press fodder during his 1924 New York holiday that King George V never allowed him to return.
“It seemed a great hardship then,” Munro quipped. “We did not always feel too friendly to Mr. Hewitt, but we are glad of (him) now.”
In 1924, when the NHL added two clubs, the Montreal Maroons and the first U.S. club, the Boston Bruins, Munro signed a three-year, $22,500 contract with the Maroons (over $400,000 today). He played in the first NHL game on U.S. soil, a 2-1 Bruins win at 5,000-seat Boston Arena (now Northeastern’s Matthews Arena) over the Maroons.
To familiarize American audiences with pro hockey, newspaper scribes described the new Prince of Wales Trophy as the NHL pennant, given to the NHL champion, whether or not they beat a western team for the Stanley Cup.
“It is not the intention of the prince that his Cup shall displace the Stanley Cup. There is a championship trophy in Canada, the Stanley Cup, but that is the supreme prize of all.”
Had the 1924-25 season gone smoothly, the Hamilton Tigers might’ve won the first Prince of Wales Trophy, but incensed that they would not receive a $200 bonus, Hamilton quit on the eve of the 1924 playoffs. The third-place Canadiens, next up, got to defend their 1923 Stanley Cup and beat second-place Toronto for the NHL title before losing the Stanley Cup final to Victoria of the Western Canada League.
After the Hamilton players declared they would never again play for Hamilton, Tex Rickard, building a new Madison Square Garden, pounced to help bring hockey to his new arena. The New York Americans were born. Instead of awarding the Prince of Wales Trophy to Montreal, the NHL brass saw an opportunity.
The Prince of Wales Trophy was to be awarded to future NHL champions, so NHL president Frank Calder decided that the winner of the first game at MSG between the New York Americans and Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 15, 1925, would receive the trophy until the next NHL championship.
The Canadiens, reeling without terminally ill goaltender Georges Vezina, beat the Americans 3-1 to earn the first Prince of Wales Trophy. The defending NHL champions, the Canadiens later engraved their name twice: once for their 1924 NHL title and again for winning the Prince of Wales Trophy game.
In March, before an afternoon game between the Maroons and Canadiens, thousands of fans queued in front of silversmith Mappin & Webb’s display window on Rue Ste-Catherine to see the Prince of Wales Trophy, which stayed in Montreal. Munro and his Maroons, who were at Madison Square Garden as spectators, kept the trophy in Montreal, winning the 1926 NHL title and the last inter-league Stanley Cup.
Much more was decided that December 1925 day than who possessed the Prince of Wales Trophy. The NHL was transformed forever. If they weren’t already, the beckoning bright lights of Broadway and dollar signs of Wall Street would forever be part of pro hockey.
From 1927 to 1938, the Prince of Wales Trophy was given to the winner of the American Division. From 1938 to 1967, it was presented to the NHL’s regular-season champion. Since expansion in 1967, the trophy has been awarded to a division or conference champion for the regular season or playoffs. Most recently, since 1993-94, it’s served as the title trophy for the Eastern Conference playoff champ.
This article appeared in our 2025 Playoff Special issue. Our cover story focuses on Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl, who looks primed for another deep playoff run. We also include features on other Cup contenders, including the Dallas Stars, Washington Capitals, Florida Panthers and more. In addition, we give our power ranking of the top playoff teams heading into the 2025 post-season.
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