After a record-breaking inaugural season, the Skilled Girls’s Hockey League is again.
The 2024-25 PWHL season could have an entire new look: The league lastly launched group names and logos this offseason, together with correct jerseys. There shall be loads of new gamers from high faculty groups throughout the U.S., and from skilled leagues in Europe. Plus, larger venues, new guidelines and regular-season video games hosted in a number of NHL buildings.
12 months 2 formally begins on Saturday afternoon.
Right here’s all the pieces you might want to know in The Athletic’s complete information to the PWHL.
What’s the PWHL?
The PWHL, which began play on Jan. 1, 2024, is the latest ladies’s skilled hockey league in North America. It’s the third league that has launched since 2007 with the hope of making a sustainable business model around women’s hockey.
This league is backed by Mark Walter, the billionaire proprietor of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and consists of six franchises in Canada (Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa) and america (Boston, Minnesota and New York). Walter and his spouse, Kimbra, personal the league and its six groups beneath a single-entity possession mannequin; there aren’t any particular person group house owners.
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The PWHL’s advisory board consists of Stan Kasten, the president of the LA Dodgers, tennis legend Billie Jean King and her companion Ilana Kloss.
What’s new this 12 months?
The PWHL could have a brand new look this season after the league unveiled its extremely anticipated names, logos and jerseys.
Groups have been named: the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montreal Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Cost and Toronto Sceptres.
Final season, all six groups have been recognized by geographic location — PWHL Toronto, for instance — and gamers wore temporary jerseys with a fundamental boilerplate design. Now, groups will put on jerseys made in partnership with Bauer Hockey, the league’s official jersey partner.
The PWHL lastly revealed group names and logos — and new jersey designs — within the offseason. (Courtesy of PWHL)
Groups will play 30 regular-season video games every this season, up from the 24 performed within the inaugural 12 months. A number of groups have additionally moved into new venues this season.
After bouncing between three recreation rinks and struggling to attract a crowd, New York has moved right into a single main venue — the Prudential Middle in Newark, N.J., the place the group performed in entrance of its largest crowd (5,132) final season.
Whereas Toronto and Montreal have moved into larger venues full-time. Toronto will play on the Coca-Cola Coliseum, which holds round 8,000 followers — a major improve from final season’s 2,600-seat Mattamy Athletic Centre. Montreal has moved into Place Bell after splitting time at Verdun Auditorium final season.
The PWHL will even play 9 neutral-site video games this season as a part of the “PWHL Takeover Tour,” up from the 2 video games performed in Detroit and Pittsburgh final 12 months.
The tour will carry groups throughout america and Canada with stops in Buffalo, Detroit, Raleigh, St. Louis, Denver, Seattle, Vancouver, Quebec Metropolis and Edmonton.
“It’s a reinforcement of what we understand as widespread and rising curiosity round our sport,” Kasten informed The Athletic. “I can’t say it sufficient instances, these ladies, these world-class athletes who’ve been missed for therefore lengthy, are lastly seeing the popularity they need to have been receiving for years and years.”
PWHL guidelines
The PWHL has a number of guidelines which can be distinctive if we evaluate them to the NHL.
The PWHL opted for a 3-2-1 factors system over the usual 2-1-0 that the NHL has used. Within the PWHL, regulation wins are value probably the most at three factors, whereas extra time and shootout wins earn two factors. A loss in extra time or the shootout leads to one level, and a regulation loss is value nothing.
The league additionally launched a “jailbreak” rule final season meaning if a group scores short-handed, they get to free their participant from the penalty field. 13 short-handed objectives have been scored final season led by Toronto’s Emma Maltais (2) and Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle (2).
The 2024 draft order was additionally determined utilizing “the Gold Plan.” As a substitute of a lottery system that encourages shedding by awarding one of the best odds to the worst groups, the PWHL determines its draft order based mostly on the variety of factors every group earns after being eradicated from the playoffs. New York received the lottery final season after accumulating probably the most factors, post-elimination.
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Video games final season have been surprisingly bodily, but it surely wasn’t because of a serious rule change as many thought. Each the PWHL and IIHF permit physique checking in ladies’s hockey when there’s a clear intention of taking part in the puck or trying to achieve possession. The distinction largely got here all the way down to how video games have been referred to as by league officers.
The league — and gamers — have welcomed the extra bodily play, however a brand new rule this season will crack down on extra harmful hits. In accordance with the rulebook, an unlawful hit to the top will mechanically lead to a serious penalty and recreation misconduct.
There will even be a “no escape rule” this season, which implies that when a group takes a penalty, gamers on the ice should keep out for the primary penalty-kill faceoff, slightly than letting coaches instantly put out their high penalty killers. The rule might additionally imply preliminary penalty kill models with three forwards and one defender, if a blueliner takes the penalty.
Storylines to observe
Can the Minnesota Frost win back-to-back championships?
The PWHL’s sophomore season goes to be aggressive with each roster bettering through the draft and free company. However Minnesota, the defending champion, would possibly nonetheless be the group to beat.
Sixteen gamers from the Walter Cup champion group are returning in 2024-25, together with rookie of the 12 months Grace Zumwinkle, playoff MVP Taylor Heise, captain Kendall Coyne Schofield, defenders Sophie Jaques and Lee Stecklein, in addition to one of the best goalie tandem within the league, Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley.
Minnesota shall be even deeper this season with Canadian defender Claire Thompson — the Olympic report holder for factors by a defender — and forwards Britta Curl, Dominique Petrie, Klára Hymlárová, Katy Knoll and Brooke McQuigge.
How will Natalie Spooner’s damage affect the Toronto Sceptres?
League MVP Natalie Spooner will miss the beginning of Toronto’s season as she recovers from season-ending ACL surgical procedure in Might. The facility ahead led the PWHL in objectives (20) and factors (27) and was named MVP, Ahead of the 12 months and IIHF Participant of the 12 months.
Spooner was a vital driver of Toronto’s offense final season, scoring 29 p.c of the objectives and factoring into 39 p.c. No one within the league scored extra game-winning objectives (5), first objectives (5) or insurance coverage objectives to place a recreation out of attain (4) than Spooner.
After Spooner’s knee damage in Recreation 3, Toronto was knocked out of the primary spherical of the playoffs by Minnesota.
Toronto goes to wish to determine the right way to rating with out Spooner and they need to have sufficient new and returning gamers to take action.
The group nonetheless has Sarah Nurse, who completed second in league scoring, and Emma Maltais, who had a top-10 scoring marketing campaign of her personal. The Sceptres did properly on the draft, including ahead Julia Gosling and 2024 Patty Kazmaier winner Izzy Daniel. Toronto additionally signed the summer season’s high free agent, Daryl Watts, who led Ottawa in objectives (10) and completed third in factors (17) final season.
Can Sarah Fillier assist the New York Sirens take the subsequent step?
New York completed on the backside of the PWHL standings in its inaugural season, however in successful the draft lottery, received the appropriate to pick out Sarah Fillier with the No. 1 decide.
The 24-year-old ahead has broadly been considered as a generational expertise and one of the best of the incoming class of expertise to the PWHL this season. Fillier is a gifted middle with high-end offensive instruments, able to making an instantaneous affect in New York.
Throughout the preseason, Fillier has been on New York’s high line on the wing beside Alex Carpenter, who led the Sirens in scoring final season and was a finalist for league MVP. Carpenter and Fillier are two elite offensive gamers — with excessive IQ, goal-scoring skill and imaginative and prescient of the ice — who can take turns discovering each other within the slot all season in the event that they stick collectively.
“It’s much more enjoyable to be on the identical line than in opposition to her,” Carpenter said. “I feel from the primary day we had camp, we have been firing on all cylinders. And I feel that’s one thing that we needed final 12 months.”
Final season, New York relied closely on Carpenter and defender Ella Shelton to supply offense, however Fillier will add one other dynamic scoring choice to the highest of the lineup and take among the load off Carpenter — though they may possible be productive collectively on that high line.
Fillier is only one piece of a contemporary begin for the Sirens franchise with a brand new coach in Greg Fargo, the previous Colgate ladies’s hockey coach; a brand new full-time residence on the Prudential Middle in Newark, N.J.; and different elite newcomers like defender Maja Nylén Persson.
When will the PWHL be prepared for growth?
Maybe the largest growth of the offseason is that the PWHL is already wanting so as to add up to two teams as quickly as 2025-26.
The league has despatched out over 20 requests for proposals to potential growth companions, in accordance with Amy Scheer, the PWHL’s senior vice chairman of enterprise operations. That features markets the league has focused, in addition to teams which have approached the league expressing curiosity in having a PWHL group.
The timeline will largely rely upon the proposals — which the league hopes to complete gathering by the tip of the calendar 12 months — and the readiness and professionalism of potential markets.
“We (don’t) need to make any rash choices,” stated Scheer. “And so we’ll take our time to have the correct conversations, do the correct analysis, after which decide based mostly on what we realized. It might be subsequent 12 months. It might be two years. We’ll see.”
The league will have a look at all the pieces from the financial alternative in potential growth markets, inhabitants, youth hockey participation, ladies’s hockey historical past and current infrastructure.
The right way to watch
In Canada, broadcast rights for all 90 video games are break up between TSN, RDS, CBC/Radio-Canada and Prime Video.
CBC will broadcast 17 video games on Saturday afternoons, beginning with the primary recreation of the season on Nov. 30 at 2 p.m. ET between Toronto and Boston. Prime Video will air all 16 Tuesday night time video games. TSN will carry 57 video games all through the season. And there shall be French-language protection of all 30 Montreal Victoire video games. Sportsnet, which broadcast some video games final season, shouldn’t be among the many streaming companions this season.
Final season, each recreation was broadcast on the league’s YouTube channel. This season, nevertheless, every Canadian broadcast companion holds unique streaming rights to PWHL video games this season, which implies video games will not be accessible on YouTube in Canada.
“The change is optimistic for the league as a result of it helps us develop when it comes to stability,” Scheer informed The Athletic. “It helps us develop to make sure that the league is on the trail to long-term well being and that ladies’s hockey shall be right here for good.”
Video games will nonetheless be produced by the PWHL and accessible on YouTube in america and internationally.
All 30 regular-season Boston Fleet video games shall be accessible on NESN and NESN+. The regional community will even air 30 further PWHL video games this season. MSG Community will even return as a regional broadcast companion and can air all 30 New York Sirens video games. The Minnesota Frost season opener on Dec. 1 shall be accessible on the native Fox affiliate (Fox 9+). A full-time Frost broadcast companion has but to be introduced.
As of Saturday, the league has not introduced a U.S. nationwide broadcast rights holder for the 2024-25 season.
Key dates
Nov. 30: PWHL opening day
Dec. 9-16: Worldwide break for the Girls’s European Hockey Tour in Finland
Feb. 3-10: Worldwide break for Rivalry Collection
March 2: Commerce deadline (12 p.m. ET)
March 3: Roster freeze date (12 p.m. ET)
March 1: 2025 Draft declaration window opens
April 3-25: Worldwide Break for IIHF Girls’s World Championship
Might 3: PWHL common season ends
Might 6: Playoffs start
View the total PWHL 2024-25 schedule here.
Season previews
Try The Athletic’s 2024-25 PWHL season preview for a complete have a look at every group’s rosters and outlook for the approaching season.
PWHL Draft evaluation
2024 PWHL Draft: Best picks and biggest surprises
(Prime picture courtesy of the PWHL)
