Breaking News: PWHL officially announces their existence

It has been two months since it was announced that the PHF was ceasing operations after being acquired by BJK Enterprises and the Mark Walter Group. The time has been relatively quiet for women’s hockey but today we finally got news. The first news is the league will officially be called the PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League).

The six new cities were leaked last night across X (Twitter) but were confirmed to day headlined for us by Boston followed by Minnesota, and New York for the American cities while Toronto Montreal and Ottawa will be the Canadian homes for the inaugural season of the PWHL.

The season will be a 24 game slate, 12 road and 12 home, starting in January of 2024 running until May or June followed by at least two rounds of playoffs. The league does not have a firm schedule as they do not have locations and facilities locked down. In the announcement they stated will be playing across the markets being served for some games as well as neutral sites in conjunction with the NHL and others. Future seasons should be at 32 games and start in November, with the same scheduled end date and playoff format. We should know this years schedule around October per Stan Kasten.

The league confirmed their commitment to allowing players to leave for international windows.

At this time no general managers were announced but the league states they are in the final stages of hiring and will provide more information very soon.

Players who are eligible for the Draft are being asked to fill out a declaration to enter the Draft which will take place in Toronto in September 18th, players will have until September 3 to declare. From September 1 to September 10 teams will be able to sign three free agents and have those players avoid the draft process. There will be 15 rounds in the draft on the 18th, meaning there will be 18 roster spots filled. The remainder of the roster and the players required to fill out minimum training camp rosters of 28 players will be players who sign as free agents either via direct contracts or a tryout, rosters will then be reduced back to 23 for the season.