We are getting very close to the beginning of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, which will start on January 1 when Toronto hosts New York in the first game in the league’s history.
The league has been a work in progress going from announcement to first game in six months. The work towards one sustainable women’s hockey league in North America has gone on much longer than that, though.
Where is the money coming from?
The league is financed by a group led by Mark and Kimbra Walter, but also involves Stan Kasten, Billie Jean King, and Ilana Kloss. The five of them are all part of the ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers, where Walter is the controlling owner. Walter also is a co-owner of Chelsea FC and the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA. The group will own and run all six teams. Between Walter’s money and King’s determination and commitment to growing women’s sports, it is the most powerful leadership and support North American women’s hockey has had at a pro level.
What makes this league different?
The ownership group is working directly with the PWHLPA. For the first time in North American women’s hockey, the PA is a separate and official union led by former NHL general manager Brian Burke. They are also the first major league in North American sports to launch with a ratified CBA.
The CBA is eight-years and outlines the compensation and benefits guaranteed to players as well as their rights. It is publicly available here.
How can we watch the games?
Details are still sketchy, especially outside of Canada, but the ones we know are promising. CBC, TSN, RDS, and Sportsnet are all showing games on TV, in fact the league’s first six games (so far) are all on television. Having the games on TV in Canada, even those in the United States, shows that there will be a quality broadcast available and distributed.
The league has committed to having every game available via streaming worldwide, but there are reports of regional deals with US networks as well as the Canadian networks involved. There are other reports of the league producing the broadcasts in house, and merely distributing to the networks.
CBC has announced that they will broadcast and stream the league’s first game on January 1 at 12:30 p.m. Eastern with a pre-game show starting at 12. Montreal’s first game on January 2 at 7:00 p.m. appears to be broadcast on RDS2 and TSN. The league’s first five games all appear to be broadcast either on CBC, TSN, or Sportsnet in Canada, via TV listings available.
Nothing has been confirmed by the league.
What is the league format?
There are six teams: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, New York, Boston, and Minnesota. Each team has 23 active players and three reserve players. At any time, teams must have 23 players on the active roster so players can be signed should there be injuries. Teams can have 22 or 24 players on the active roster for a maximum of 24 hours while they replace players.
Teams will play 24 games for the inaugural season. Future seasons will be 32 games, and the season will start earlier than this season’s January launch. Teams will play four teams five times (three home, two away against two, and three away, two home against two) and two home and two away against the final team.
In Montreal’s case, they play Boston four times. Their home advantage is against Toronto and Ottawa and their home disadvantage against Minnesota and New York.
For the inaugural season, the top four teams will make the playoffs. The top team will play the fourth-place team and the middle two teams will play each other. All playoff matchups are reported to be a best-of-five series.
How were the teams formed?
Teams all had three “foundational” signings prior to the draft. All three players signed in this period were required to have three-year contracts at a minimum of $80,000 per season. Then, teams had a 15-round draft to fill the majority of their lineups. The remaining spots were filled with training camp invites from the player pool. Teams needed to sign three additional players to three-year contracts at a minimum of $80,000. The league salary cap is based on average salary. All teams must have an average salary of $55,000 plus or minus 10 percent.
The league minimum contract is $35,000 and only a maximum of nine players can make this amount. The players’ base salary does not include any bonuses or benefits, including a monthly housing stipend.
What kind of flexibility do teams have?
All players who signed multi-year deals for this season have their contracts guaranteed when it comes to on-ice performance, which means that teams cannot just cut a player for poor performance. Players on one-year contracts have their contracts guaranteed for this season as they are on the roster after the freeze date, which was when rosters were confirmed around the league.
Teams are able to trade players, and there will be a draft after the season for a very talented group of college seniors and European players who did not choose to come over for the first season. Draft picks can be traded, but pick trades were prohibited for the 2023 PWHL Draft.
Multi-year contracts signed after the inaugural season will not be guaranteed for on-ice performance, according to the CBA.
How good does Montreal look?
We will go much more in depth in the coming days, but Montreal’s roster is veteran-heavy. Of the 10 players to either be top-five in scoring last year in the PHF or PWHPA, Montreal has five of them which is the most of any team (Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, and Kristin O’Neill in the PWHPA and Kennedy Marchment and Jillian Dempsey in the PHF). They also have four players who have been named MVP of a North American professional league: Poulin and Ann-Sophie Bettez in the CWHL and Marchment and Dempsey in the NWHL/PHF.
The Montreal team also has the top scorer in PHF history (Dempsey) and the second and fifth scorers in CWHL history (Bettez, Poulin). In addition, Montreal has the third and 10th scorers in CWHL history on their staff, assistant coach Noémie Marin and strength coach Emmanuelle Blais.
It’s not all about veterans. They also have two of the top-10 scorers from the NCAA last year, Maureen Murphy and Gabrielle David.
They also have Erin Ambrose and Kati Tabin on defence, Tabin led all PHF defenders in scoring last year and Ambrose has been one of the best defenders on Team Canada.
In goal, they have Ann-Renée Desbiens and Elaine Chuli, the two goaltenders to win a championship last year: Desbiens with the PWHPA and Chuli in the PHF.
What about the other teams?
Name a team, and they have someone who is instantly recognizable. The six teams are essentially all-star teams and it’s almost impossible to judge who will clearly be best. As we know through the NHL, teams with the best players don’t always end up being the most successful. It will come down to coaching, how the team gels, and injuries.
Full team rosters can be found here.
The teams played three games each in Utica where all six teams held a pre-season evaluation camp. Montreal went 1-2 in three games against New York, Boston, and Minnesota. They won the game against Boston. The games had different rules for penalty killing and played with the long change in the first and third periods as they are evaluating whether the changes increased scoring opportunities. The league hasn’t confirmed what rule changes will stick for the 2024 season, but it will be decided before the opening game.
Montreal was missing their projected top defence pair of Ambrose and Tabin for all three games, so it will be hard to evaluate them fully. Not only are they expected to play big minutes, but are two of the players who will be relied on in the transition game. Montreal’s defensive depth on paper doesn’t have the names that some of the other teams do, but they have intriguing experience and upside. We will go through the entire group leading up to the first game on January 2.
What about the team names and logos?
Yes, to start the season teams have basic jerseys, no team names, nor logos. This is partly because of the six month turnaround between the announcement and the league opening play. Everyone involved in the league admits waiting until Fall 2024 would have ensured a smoother start but they made a commitment to the players that there would be hockey this season.
It may look disorganized, and I understand the frustration of fans, but long-term having hockey starting in January and a more full launch of season two next fall is much better than having a lost season. The best way to get people excited and invest into the product is not team names, colours, or logos but the action on the ice. The rest will fall into place and years from now, no one will remember how this first season started as long as the league gives fans reasons to forget.
Where will the teams play?
Montreal will play seven home games at the Verdun Auditorium and four games at Place Bell. One game will be at a yet-to-be-confirmed location, and may be outside of Montreal at a neutral site. The home opener is already sold out, and the third home game (second at the Verdun Auditorium) is also very close to a sell out. The Verdun Auditorium holds around 4,100 people, but exact capacity will be confirmed once TV camera locations are confirmed. Place Bell is currently selling tickets in the lower bowl.
Ottawa will play all home games at TD Place Arena, the home of the Ottawa 67s and the former Ottawa Civic Centre. The home opener against Montreal has sold over 8,000 tickets and will set a North American regular season attendance record for women’s professional hockey. Toronto will play at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, on the site of the old Maple Leaf Gardens. Every home game has been sold out.
Minnesota will play at the Xcel Energy Center, the home of the Minnesota Wild. Boston will play at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts, while the New York team will split games between the UBS Center, where the New York Islanders play, and Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Tickets can be found here for games in Montreal.
