Donated by Senator O'Brien to the NHA in 1910 , it represented the trophy of the NHA championship, and later, the NHL championship. The winner of this trophy would move on to face the winners of other leagues for the Stanley Cup . From 1924 to 1927 , the O'Brien Trophy was retired in favour of the Prince Of Wales Trophy , but was reintroduced in the 1927-28 NHL Season as the equivalent to the Prince Of Wales Trophy for the Canadian Division. The 1938-39 NHL Season saw the NHL move back to a single division, and from that point to its second and final retirement after the 1949-50 it was awarded to the Stanley Cup runner-up.
