Blades of glory

The rise of the Professional Women's Hockey League and how they are changing the game.

Written by Miranda Wyse

In August 2023, the world was given the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). After the highest level of women’s hockey, the Canadian Women’s Hockey League – a nonprofit that offered bonuses and incentives but not salaries – ceased to exist in 2019, there was a hole left for women. The talented women have always been here, but there hasn’t always been a stage for them to stand on.

The PWHL uses a 3-2-1-0 point system for their teams. Each win is 3 points, each overtime or shootout win is 2 points, each overtime loss is 1 point and every loss is zero points. The NHL uses a 2-1-0 point system for their teams. The NHL does not incentivize winning in regulation and only offers 2 points for a win of any kind and 1 point for an overtime or shoot-out loss. A team earns zero points for a loss in the NHL as well. 

Major, minor and misconduct penalties are the same across leagues as set by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The PWHL, however, has implemented a “jailbreak rule” that allows for a team to terminate a minor penalty if they score a shorthanded goal during that time. The NHL holds no such rule for their players and forces them to sit the full two (or five) minutes in the penalty box. The PWHL also has a “no escape” rule in which the team that took the penalty must stay on the ice until after a faceoff resumes play. 

Instead of the Stanley Cup, the PWHL holds the Walter Cup, which was named after Mark Walter, owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the league’s main financial backer. The PWHL playoffs are held in May and are best of five matches. The NHL holds playoffs in the four weeks after the regular season ends in mid-April and are best of seven matches. 

The PWHL has even put its spin on the teddy bear toss, a historic minor league hockey tradition, and brought it to a place where a toss like that has never been before the pros. 

In October 2024, Erica Howe, former Toronto Sceptres goalie, announced that she would have to retire after one season in the PWHL due to her diagnosis of breast cancer. 

In honor of Howe and for the league’s Cancer Awareness Night on Dec. 24, 2024, fans in attendance threw $60,000 worth of unopened bras onto the ice. The team also raised $20,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. The bras were donated to local women’s shelters. It is the only high-level professional hockey team to have a toss of some sort that is charity-based like the teddy bear toss in the minors. 

As of right now, the PWHL consists of six teams: the Montréal Victorie, the Ottawa Charge, the Toronto Sceptres, the Boston Fleet, the Minnesota Frost and the New York Sirens. With their fast-paced games and growing fanbase (including selling out NHL arenas for their games), the league is looking to expand into bigger markets. 

The PWHL wants to add two teams in the 2025-2026 season. Which cities will be added to the inaugural six have yet to be announced. Still, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Chicago are all United States candidates as well as Quebec City and Calgary in Canada. All of these cities already have strong NHL presences and places to hold the growing PWHL. 

Cleveland Heights native, Laila Edwards, is on track to joining the PWHL. She plays for the University of Wisconsin and was the first Black woman to play for USA Hockey. Edwards – like many other women – grew up in a time when a professional women’s league that rivaled the NHL was nonexistent. The highest she could go was community leagues. Now, women like her have a league that they can look up to. A league that they can push themselves to just like the men they played with once upon a time. An opportunity that their male counterparts have had since 1917. 

The appreciation of the PWHL shouldn’t be extended to just women. To continue to grow the sport and make sure women like Edwards continue to have a professional league to look forward to, everyone should watch the PWHL and support the teams. Their season runs until May and their games are streamed free on their YouTube channel. If you miss a live stream, their games are also archived on the same YouTube channel.