Out with old, in with the new. Women’s hockey is back, and it’ll be better than ever.
These are exciting times in the world of women’s hockey. The Mark Walter Group bought the Premier Hockey Federation in an effort to create a new and more competitive league that would attract top players worldwide. There are six new teams to cheer for, which reside in hockey-rich cities, in hopes to drive the new league forward.
The teams will play in: Boston, New York, Minnesota, Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa, all are known to be great hockey towns.
The process of building teams started September 1 with a 10-day free agency period. During that period, each team could sign three free agents before the draft, which was held mid-September.
Free agency brought top players and Olympian names like Hilary Knight, Marie-Philip Poulin, Sarah Nurse, Brianne Jenner, among others. On September 18, the draft commenced going 15 rounds in a snake format. Minnesota got the first pick of draft and drafted Taylor Heise out of Lake City, Minnesota.
The draft saw eight different countries represented, an amazing start to bringing in top talent.
Hilary Knight told reporters, “I’m giddy about it just from a fan’s perspective as you’ve never seen the hockey minds meet from different countries on the women’s side.”
Now that the draft is over, free agency has opened again and teams will host training camp in November. Teams will be allowed to carry 23 players during the season.
There is still a lot of mystery around the league. It is still unknown what mascots will represent each city. It will be interesting to see how the Professional Women’s Hockey League board goes about selecting the mascot names and potentially honoring each city’s traditions.
Recently, the Instagram’s of the teams changed colors, which could be an indicator on team color themes, but it has not been confirmed that those colors will stay.
Puck drop will be in January, however, the schedule has not been set nor has the home rinks been released. There’s a lot to watch for over the next few months.
What we do know is that women’s hockey’s future is bright and we’re about to see some really great hockey.
Photo: Dmytro Aksonov
