Professional Women's Hockey League

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Professional Women's Hockey League
Ligue professionnelle de hockey féminin (French)
Upcoming season or competition:
Current sports event 2024 PWHL season
190px
Sport Ice hockey
Founded August 29, 2023 (2023-08-29)
Commissioner Jayna Hefford (as SVP of Hockey Operations)
No. of teams 6
Countries Canada (3 teams)
United States (3 teams)
TV partner(s)
Official website thepwhl.com

The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL; French: Ligue professionnelle de hockey féminin—LPHF) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising three teams in Canada and three teams in the United States.

The PWHL replaced the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF; formerly the National Women's Hockey League), which was bought out and dissolved in July 2023 to make way for the creation of the new league.

On November 28, 2023, the League announced that its inaugural game would be held on January 1, 2024, with New York at Toronto for an afternoon game.[2]

Organizational structure

The PWHL and all six of its teams are owned by the Mark Walter Group. League management includes Jayna Hefford, announced as the senior vice-president of hockey operations.[3] Brian Burke acts as the executive director of the players' union.[4]

The new league has the participation of the members of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), a group of top American and Canadian players—including many national team players—who had refused to play in the PHF following the collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League in 2019.[5] The PWHPA organized a formal union in early 2023 and, upon creation of the PWHL, became the players' union representing all PWHL players.[6] Unique to professional women's hockey, the PWHL established an eight-year collective bargaining agreement with the players' union.[7]

Teams began constructing their rosters in the summer of 2023. All six teams were allowed to sign three players during an initial 10-day free agency period.[8] Emily Clark, Brianne Jenner, and Emerance Maschmeyer became the first three players signed to PWHL contracts when they signed with the Ottawa team on September 5.[9] Following the free agency period, the 2023 PWHL Draft was held in Toronto on September 18. The 15-round draft saw 90 players selected from a pool of 286 eligible players. Taylor Heise was the first player drafted to the PWHL, selected first overall by the Minnesota team.[10]

On October 26, 2023, the PWHL submitted the following six team names to the United States Patent and Trademark Office: Boston Wicked, Minnesota Superior, Montreal Echo, New York Sound, Ottawa Alert, and Toronto Torch.[11] The names were widely criticized by those in the hockey community.[12][13]

On November 14, 2023 the PWHL revealed the inaugural jerseys for each of the six teams. They all featured the teams city name in a diagonal wordmark without any additional logos. They were met with mixed reception, with many fans saying the "cookie-cutter" design was too basic. Boston and New York were praised for their colour choice.[14] It was discussed that the PWHL may only have the jerseys for one season, and come up with more team centric designs after the inaugural season.[15]

The inaugural season will have 24 regular season games scheduled to begin in January and run through late May or early June, with a break for the Women's World Championship and is planned to include neutral-site games. Later seasons are expected to run from November through May.[16]

Teams

Overview of PWHL teams
Team City Arena Capacity Founded Joined General manager Head coach Captain
Boston Lowell, Massachusetts Tsongas Center 6,003 2023 Danielle Marmer Courtney Kessel Vacant
Minnesota Saint Paul, Minnesota Xcel Energy Center 17,954 2023 Natalie Darwitz Ken Klee Vacant
Montreal Laval, Quebec Place Bell 10,062 2023 Daniele Sauvageau Kori Cheverie Marie-Philip Poulin
Montreal, Quebec Verdun Auditorium 4,114
New York Bridgeport, Connecticut Total Mortgage Arena 8,412 2023 Pascal Daoust Howie Draper Micah Zandee-Hart
Elmont, New York UBS Arena 17,255
Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario TD Place Arena 6,500 2023 Michael Hirshfeld Carla MacLeod Brianne Jenner
Toronto Toronto, Ontario Mattamy Athletic Centre 3,850 2023 Gina Kingsbury Troy Ryan Blayre Turnbull

References

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External links

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