Clarkson Cup The Clarkson Cup is an ice hockey trophy , which since 2009 has been awarded to the winner of the National Canadian Women ' s Hockey Championship . Like the Stanley Cup , it was created by and named for a Governor General of Canada , in this case , Adrienne Clarkson . Though initially awarded in 2006 to the Canadian national women ' s hockey team , it was intended to be awarded to the top women ' s club in Canada . From 2006 to 2008 , it was not awarded , owing to a number of rights issues between Clarkson , Hockey Canada , and the artists responsible for making the trophy . Beginning in 2009 , the Clarkson Cup has been awarded , as intended , to top women ' s club team . History . Origins . When the 2004 – 05 NHL season was cancelled because of lockout , the Stanley Cup was not awarded for the first time since the 1918 - 19 Spanish Flu pandemic . In February 2005 , Clarkson proposed that , since the Stanley Cup was to be awarded to the best professional hockey team of the year , it should be awarded to the best women ' s hockey team because they were still playing . That idea was brought to Susan Fennell , the Commissioner of the National Women ' s Hockey League ( and also Mayor of Brampton ) . In a media interview , Fennell commented that while the women had great respect for the Stanley Cup , it belonged to men ' s hockey , and that the women actually did have a cup of their own , but simply one with no name . Fennell then came up with the idea that the Governor General should consider lending her name to the women ' s hockey championship cup , as Lord Stanley had done years before for the men ' s hockey championship . Clarkson was thrilled with the idea and later met with Fennell at Rideau Hall , where it was agreed that the women ' s hockey championship trophy would be named the Clarkson Cup . Originally , the NWHL Championship Cup was to have a new name placed on it . However , On September 14 , 2005 , Clarkson announced the creation of a new trophy for women ' s hockey . The Clarkson Cup is made of silver and was designed by Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit . Canadian silversmith Beth M . Biggs was commissioned to make the Clarkson Cup . She designed and built the sterling trophy and collaborated with three Inuit artists : Okpik Pitseolak , Therese Ukaliannuk , and Pootoogook Qiatsuk . The Inuit artists designed some of the decoration on the trophy . There are images of Sedna , Arctic animals , ancient masks , and the flowers of the provinces and territories of Canada . The actual cup portion of the trophy is not much bigger than a large coffee mug . Early problems . The trophy was awarded to the Canadian national women ' s hockey team on July 10 , 2006 , with the expectation that Hockey Canada would take over the trophy and how it was to be awarded . However , complications arising due to the rights to the trophy ( Clarkson wanting full rights to the trophy from the artists in order to turn the trophy over to Hockey Canada , while the artists wanting Hockey Canada to instead license the Cup in order to collect royalties from its use ) and the splintered top level of women ' s club hockey at the time resulted in the trophy not being awarded for three years . At the time of the creation of the Clarkson Cup , there were two top professional women ' s hockey leagues in Canada : the National Women ' s Hockey League in Eastern Canada and the Western Women ' s Hockey League in Western Canada ( with one team from Minnesota ) — the latter being formed from two former NWHL teams ( the Calgary Oval X - Treme and Edmonton Chimos ) due to travel costs , with no interleague championships to determine a true national champion . Though the two leagues were expected to merge in 2007 ( with the five - team WWHL being absorbed into the 11 - team NWHL as a new " western division " ) , logistics differences ( due to playoff scheduling ) made the merger impossible — the WWHL playoffs were finished before the Esso Women ' s Nationals , while the NWHL playoffs had yet to begin ( and would not conclude until after the Nationals and the world championships ) . The NWHL folded at the conclusion of the 2006 - 07 season , with the Canadian Women ' s Hockey League taking its place . Though the CWHL and WWHL agreed on a format that would determine a national champion ( to be decided with each league sending its two best teams to the Esso Women ' s Nationals , with the intent that it would be split off as a separate tournament from the senior women ' s tournament in the future ) , the Clarkson Cup remained unavailable — the Abby Hoffman Cup would be awarded in its place until the Clarkson Cup can be awarded . 2009 to present . In March 2009 , Clarkson and the artists behind the Clarkson Cup settled their licensing dispute , allowing the trophy to be presented . The inaugural Canadian National Women ' s Hockey Championship was held later that month , at the K - Rock Centre in Kingston , Ontario , featuring an identical format to that used for the Esso Women ' s Nationals the previous year for club teams . The Montreal Stars , champions from the East , prevailed over the Minnesota Whitecaps in the finals of the championship , which also saw the Brampton Canadettes - Thunder and the Calgary Oval X - Treme participate . Clarkson was on hand to present the trophy to the Stars upon their victory .