The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL; French: Ligue professionnelle de hockey féminin, LPHF) is a professional women's ice hockey league in North America, wholly owned and operated by the Mark Walter Group. It consists of six franchises, three each from Canada and the United States, who play a regular season to earn one of four places in a postseason tournament that determines the winner of the Walter Cup.
Differences between the PWHL and other North American professional hockey leagues include a 3-2-1-0 points system, terminations of penalties following a short-handed goal, best-of-five shootouts, and greater restrictions on body checking. The league's matches are broadcast nationally in Canada by the CBC and TSN, their French-language affiliates Radio-Canada and RDS, and Sportsnet. In the United States, it is broadcast in syndication, while worldwide it is streamed on YouTube.
The collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League in 2019 led to the establishment of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), a non-profit organization that advocated for greater professionalism in women's ice hockey. PWHPA members boycotted existing leagues, including the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), with the goal of establishing a stable, unified professional league, and worked to build a collective bargaining agreement with Mark Walter and Billie Jean King Enterprises. The Mark Walter Group acquired the assets of the PHF following its 2022–23 season. Subsequently, the PWHPA worked with the Mark Walter Group to establish a unified league with new ownership and management. The league's first draft took place in September 2023, and its first season began in January 2024.
History
Antecedents and the PWHPA
Top-level and professional women's hockey in North America has developed in starts and stops since the late twentieth century.[1] The National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) launched in 1999, featuring teams mainly in Ontario and Quebec. Some teams from Western Canada competed intermittently, but a Western Women's Hockey League was formed in 2004. The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) effectively replaced the NWHL and ran for twelve seasons, from 2007 to 2019, with teams competing for the Clarkson Cup.[2] The CWHL, which operated on a non-profit basis, did not pay player salaries, but it did at times offer stipends and bonuses as it aspired to become a professional league.[3] However, the league lacked financial stability and it abruptly folded in 2019.[4] A new National Women's Hockey League—later re-named the Premier Hockey Federation—which did offer player salaries, was established in the United States in 2015, before expanding into Canada in 2020.[5] However, after the dissolution of the CWHL, hundreds of prominent women's players, including Canadian and American Olympians, founded the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association (PWHPA) and opted to boycott existing leagues in pursuit of a unified, financially stable professional league.[6] In the meantime, the PWHPA attracted partnerships with corporate sponsors and National Hockey League teams, organizing exhibition tournaments to generate support for their goal.[7]
In 2022, the PWHPA entered a partnership with the Mark Walter Group and BJK Enterprises—led by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and Billie Jean King, respectively—with the intent to launch a new professional league.[8] In 2023, the two business partners purchased the assets of the Premier Hockey Federation, and the PHF ceased operations.[9][10] The PWHPA negotiated a collective bargaining agreement ahead of the launch of the new professional league the union had been working towards.[11]
The establishment of the Professional Women's Hockey League was announced by Mark Walter Group in August 2023, along with the location of its six charter franchises: Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Montreal, New York City, Ottawa, and Toronto.[12][13] Teams began constructing their rosters that summer, with an initial ten-day free agency period to sign three players.[14]Emily Clark, Brianne Jenner, and Emerance Maschmeyer became the league's first players when they signed with Ottawa.[15] The inaugural draft took place in September at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto, where Minnesota chose Taylor Heise as the first pick in a fifteen-round, ninety-player draft from a pool of 286 eligible players.[16] The league announced that, due to time constraints, the teams would not be given nicknames until after the inaugural season, and would wear jerseys featuring the name of the teams' locales in a diagonal wordmark.[17]
Minnesota's first home game was one of four during the first season that would set professional women's ice hockey attendance records.
Prior to the start of the inaugural season, all six teams congregated at the Utica University Nexus Center in early December for a five day evaluation camp, including scrimmages used to experiment with new rules.[18][19] The first game took place on January 1, 2024, when Toronto hosted New York at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.[20] New York's Ella Shelton scored the league's first goal en route to a 4–0 win.[21] The game's Canadian television audience of 2.9 million viewers was the largest for a sports or entertainment broadcast that day, beating the 2024 NHL Winter Classic.[22][23] The attendance record for a professional women's ice hockey match would be set multiple times during the ensuing season: 8,318 at Ottawa's first home game at TD Place Arena on January 2;[24] 13,316 at Minnesota's first home game at the Xcel Energy Center on January 6;[25] 19,285 at the inaugural "Battle on Bay Street" match at Scotiabank Arena on February 16;[26] and 21,105 at the "Duel at the Top" match at the Bell Centre on April 20.[27][28] The latter two drew the largest ever crowds for women's ice hockey, surpassing the 18,013 that watched Canada play Finland at the 2013 Women's World Championship.[26][28]
Toronto finished atop the standings at the end of the inaugural season—they chose to play fourth place Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs, leaving Montréal and Boston to play the other series.[29] Minnesota defeated Toronto in a five-game series, while Boston defeated Montréal in three straight games, with every decision coming in overtime.[30][31] In the final, Minnesota defeated Boston in a five game series to capture the first Walter Cup championship.[32]Natalie Spooner was the league's first scoring champion and the inaugural winner of the league's Bill Jean King Most Valuable Player award, while Taylor Heise led the playoffs in scoring and was given postseason MVP honours.[33][34]
Organization
The PWHL and all six of its teams are owned by the Mark Walter Group. The Advisory Board of the PWHL is formed by Billie Jean King, Ilana Kloss, Stan Kasten, and Royce Cohen.[35]Jayna Hefford is the Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations and Amy Scheer is the Senior Vice President of Business Operations.[36] Former hockey player and broadcaster Cassie Campbell-Pascall is an advisor to the Board.[37][38] The league hired over 100 staff members to support league operations, distinguishing it from past women's hockey leagues that have lacked such operational support.[1]
The PWHPA organized a formal players' union in early 2023—the PWHL Players Association (PWHLPA)—that became the players' union representing all PWHL players.[39] Unique to professional women's hockey, the PWHL established an eight-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the players' union.[40][41] The CBA establishes that each team must sign at least six players to a minimum salary of $80,000, and no more than nine players to a league minimum salary of $35,000, with teams instructed to achieve an average salary of $55,000. The base and average salaries are slated to increase 3% per season through the end of the agreement in 2031.[42] The CBA further outlines performance and team bonuses, including a $63,250 bonus for the championship-winning team, and other financial incentives, including housing stipends.[42]Brian Burke acts as the executive director of the players' union.[43]
An example of the 3-2-1-0 points system; Montréal has 18 points for 6 wins, while Toronto has 9 points for 3 wins, 4 points for 2 overtime wins and 1 point for an overtime loss, adding up to a sum of 14 points.
The inaugural PWHL season consisted of a 24-game schedule lasting from January to May.[44][45] From the 2024–25 season, the schedule comprises 30 games played from November to May, with each team facing their opponents six times.[46] The schedule includes a mid-season break during the annual IIHF World Women's Championship in April.[44][46] A 3-2-1-0 points system is used for classification, whereby a team is awarded 3 points for a regulation win, 2 for an overtime or shootout win, and 1 for an overtime or shootout loss.[47] At the end of the regular season, the best four teams qualify for a postseason tournament that determines the champion, comprising two semi-finals and a final played as best-of-five series.[48][49] The teams compete for the Walter Cup, a trophy named after the league's financial backers, the Walter family.[50]
PWHL rules closely follow National Hockey League and International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) standards, with some notable innovations.[51] A "jailbreak" rule allows a team to terminate a minor penalty against by scoring a short-handed goal.[47] During best-of-five shootouts, any player is eligible to shoot at any time, including taking multiple attempts.[51] Like the Swedish Women's Hockey League, the PWHL breaks women's ice hockey and IIHF conventions and allows body checking, with the rule-book outlining that checking is permissible "when there is a clear intention of playing the puck or attempting to 'gain possession' of the puck", allowed principally along the boards.[52][53] League executive Jayna Hefford has stated that body checking was included at the behest of the players.[52] There are two main factors which determine the legality of a body check. The first is being able to determine whether or not gaining possession of the puck is the sole purpose of the player initiating the body check—a blatant example of an illegal body check would be if a player is across the ice from the puck, and they initiate a body check against another player. The second factor is the movement of players. Under rule 52.1, "a player who is stationary is entitled to that area of the ice. It is up to the opponent to avoid body contact with such a player." If a player were to initiate a body check on a player who is stationary and without the puck, there would be grounds for a referee to assess a penalty.
Teams
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Locations of teams competing in the 2024–25 PWHL season in eastern Canada and the United States
Potential franchise nicknames were registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in October 2023: Boston Wicked, Minnesota Superior, Montreal Echo, New York Sound, Ottawa Alert, and Toronto Torch.[59] However, the league ultimately opted to forgo unique club identities for the inaugural season, emphasizing league branding instead.[60] This meant that teams lacked nicknames, crests, and stylized jerseys, and were identified by their city.[61][62] On September 9, 2024, ahead of the league's second season, team names and logos were announced, with none of them matching the trademarked names from 2023: the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montréal Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge, and Toronto Sceptres.[63]
For its inaugural season, the PWHL announced that it would collaborate with the National Hockey League on its All-Star festivities, intending to host its own All-Star game in future seasons.[74][75] PWHL All-Stars participated in the "PWHL 3-on-3 Showcase" on February 1 during the 2024 NHL All-Star weekend in Toronto where it featured 24 PWHL players divided between Team King and Team Kloss—named after Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss, respectively—coached by Cassie Campbell-Pascall and Meghan Duggan.[75]
^ abSalvian, Hailey (February 16, 2024). "PWHL breaks women's hockey all-time attendance record with 'Battle on Bay Street' in Toronto". The Athletic. Archived from the original on February 17, 2024. Retrieved February 17, 2024. But Friday night's draw of 19,285 fans at Scotiabank Arena is the largest crowd to watch women's hockey ever [...] The previous women's hockey attendance record was 18,013 fans at a preliminary round game between Canada and Finland at the 2013 Women's World Championship in Ottawa.
^ abRainbird, Daniel (April 20, 2024). "Toronto beats Montreal 3-2 in OT before record crowd in PWHL". Global News. Archived from the original on April 20, 2024. Retrieved April 21, 2024. The 21,105 attendance set a high-water mark for a women's hockey game [...] The previous record of 18,013 at the 2013 world championship in Ottawa stood for a decade before the PWHL started this year.
^Morhardt, Meghann (December 14, 2023). "PWHL Playoffs To Feature Top Four Teams, Best-of-Five Series". TheMessenger.com. The Messenger. Archived from the original on December 14, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2024. The PWHL playoffs are set to take place in May and will follow a typical bracket format with two semifinal series setting up a championship series
^ abMather, Victor (August 29, 2023). "With Feud Over, New Women's Ice Hockey League Is Set to Begin". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 18, 2024. Retrieved January 18, 2024. The six teams in the new Professional Women's Hockey League will be evenly divided between the United States and Canada, with teams in Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, the New York metropolitan area, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. With the start of the new league, Buffalo and Connecticut are losing their teams, while Ottawa is gaining one.
^Morhardt, Meghann (December 21, 2023). "PWHL Toronto GM Says Nailing Down Team Name and Logo Are 'Low on Priority List'". The Messenger. Archived from the original on January 18, 2024. Retrieved January 18, 2024. When the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) starts its inaugural season on Jan. 1, the league's six teams won't have names and logos. For now, the players will be wearing simple jerseys that have the city name across the front.
^Ibrahim, Abdulhamid (January 2, 2024). "PWHL sorting out missing pieces like team names and logos as it goes along". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on January 18, 2024. Retrieved January 18, 2024. However there are some missing pieces, such as names and logos for the six teams. "I don't, I don't," PWHL advisory board member Stan Kasten said Monday on whether he has a timeline for those key elements to be included.
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