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The Eastern Conference ((フランス語: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 Tampa Bay Lightning, winning in 2014–15. 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., 1927 and 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. ==Divisions== The Wales Conference originally consisted of the Adams Division and the Norris Division. The 1981 realignment moved the Norris Division to the Clarence Campbell Conference and added that Conference's Patrick Division instead. When the names of conferences and divisions were changed in 1993, the Eastern Conference's divisions became the Atlantic and Northeast. Realignment in 1998 added a third division, the Southeast. Another realignment in 2013 reorganized the Eastern Conference into two, eight-team divisions: the Atlantic Division name retained, but was reassigned to what had been the Northeast Division, while the old Atlantic Division was renamed the Metropolitan Division; the Southeast Division was dissolved. With this 2013 realignment, all 16 teams in the Eastern Time Zone are situated within the Eastern Conference. This divisional realignment is set to be revisited and possibly altered following the 2015–16 season.〔http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=660138 The NHLPA has given its consent to play under the new alignment and playoff system for a minimum of three seasons, through the 2015-16 NHL season.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eastern Conference (NHL)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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