The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL; ) is a professional women's ice hockey league in North America composed of twelve teams, seven in the United States and five in Canada. Launched in 2023, the PWHL is the only professional women's hockey league in North America. The teams play a regular season to earn one of eight places in the playoffs, and the winner of the playoffs is awarded the Walter Cup.
In 2019, after the collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League, the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) formed to advocate for the formation of a "single, viable professional women's ice hockey league in North America." PWHPA members boycotted existing leagues while organizing exhibition games to showcase women's hockey talent and fundraise for their cause, while working to secure new partnerships. In 2022, the PWHPA entered into an agreement with the Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises to establish a new professional women's hockey league. Following the Premier Hockey Federation's (PHF) 2022–23 season, the Mark Walter Group acquired the assets of the PHF and announced that a new women's hockey league would be launched in 2024. The PWHL's first draft took place in September 2023, and its first season began in January 2024. The PWHL continues to be wholly owned and operated by the Mark Walter Group.
PWHL rules are modelled off of National Hockey League rules, with significant innovations. The PWHL uses a 3-2-1-0 points system during the regular season, with three points awarded for a regulation win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, one point for an overtime or shootout loss, and zero points for a regulation loss. Once teams are eliminated from playoff contention, their regular season points go towards the "Gold plan" for choosing the top pick in the following entry draft. A short-handed goal leads to a termination of a penalty, or "jailbreak". Unlike most other women's hockey leagues and IIHF games, the PWHL allows bodychecking, albeit with more restrictions than the NHL.
The league's games are streamed on YouTube internationally, excluding Canada. In Canada, they are broadcast by CBC/Radio-Canada, TSN and its French-language affiliate RDS, Amazon Prime Video, and Sportsnet. In the United States, they are broadcast by regional sports networks based in each U.S. city with a team. Nova Sport broadcasts select PWHL games in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
History
Antecedents and the PWHPA
Top-level and professional women's hockey in North America has developed in starts and stops since the late twentieth century. The National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) launched in 1999, featuring teams mainly in Ontario and Quebec. Some teams from Western Canada competed intermittently, but those teams congregated in the Western Women's Hockey League when it formed in 2004. The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) effectively replaced the NWHL and absorbed the western league, ultimately running for twelve seasons, from 2007 to 2019, with teams competing for the Clarkson Cup. The CWHL, which operated on a non-profit basis, did not pay player salaries, but it did at times offer stipends and bonuses as it aspired to become a professional league. However, the league lacked financial stability and it abruptly folded in 2019. A new National Women's Hockey League—later renamed the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF)—which did offer player salaries, was established in the United States in 2015, before expanding into Canada in 2020. However, after the dissolution of the CWHL, hundreds of prominent women's players, including Canadian and American Olympians, founded the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association (PWHPA) and opted to boycott existing leagues in pursuit of a unified, financially stable professional league. In the meantime, the PWHPA attracted partnerships with corporate sponsors and National Hockey League teams, organizing exhibition tournaments to generate support for their goal.
In 2022, the PWHPA entered a partnership with the Mark Walter Group and BJK Enterprises—led by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and Billie Jean King, respectively—with the intent to launch a new professional league. In 2023, the two business partners purchased the assets of the PHF, which ceased operations. The PWHPA negotiated a collective bargaining agreement ahead of the launch of the new professional league the union had been working towards.
Founding and inaugural season
The establishment of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) was announced by the Mark Walter Group in August 2023, along with the location of its six charter teams: Boston, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Montreal, New York City, Ottawa, and Toronto. Teams began constructing their rosters that summer, with an initial ten-day free agency period to sign three players. Emily Clark, Brianne Jenner, and Emerance Maschmeyer became the league's first players when they signed with Ottawa. The inaugural draft took place in September at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto, where Minnesota chose Taylor Heise as the first pick in a fifteen-round, ninety-player draft from a pool of 286 eligible players. The league announced that, due to time constraints, the teams would not be given nicknames until after the inaugural season, and would wear jerseys featuring the name of the teams' locales in a diagonal wordmark.
Prior to the start of the inaugural season, all six teams congregated at the Utica University Nexus Center in early December for a five-day evaluation camp, including scrimmages used to experiment with new rules. The first game took place on January 1, 2024, when Toronto hosted New York at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. New York's Ella Shelton scored the league's first goal en route to a 4–0 win. The game's Canadian television audience of 2.9 million viewers was the largest for a sports or entertainment broadcast that day, beating the 2024 NHL Winter Classic. The attendance record for a professional women's ice hockey match would be set multiple times during the ensuing season: 8,318 at Ottawa's first home game at TD Place Arena on January 2; 13,316 at Minnesota's first home game at the Xcel Energy Center on January 6; 19,285 at the inaugural Battle on Bay Street at Scotiabank Arena on February 16; and 21,105 at the Duel at the Top at the Bell Centre on April 20. The latter two drew the largest ever crowds for women's ice hockey, surpassing the 18,013 that watched Canada play Finland at the 2013 Women's World Championship.
Toronto finished atop the standings at the end of the inaugural season—they chose to play fourth place Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs, leaving Montreal and Boston to play the other series. Minnesota defeated Toronto in a five-game series, while Boston defeated Montreal in three straight games, with every decision coming in overtime. In the final, Minnesota defeated Boston in a five-game series to capture the first Walter Cup championship. Natalie Spooner was the league's first scoring champion and the inaugural winner of the league's Billie Jean King Most Valuable Player award, while Taylor Heise led the playoffs in scoring and was given postseason MVP honours.
Growth and expansion
Prior to the start of the 2024–25 season, the league announced that it was exploring expansion, opening up a process for proposals and stating that it would ultimately look to add two new teams when possible; by November 2024, the league had received more than two dozen expansion proposals. On April 18, 2025, reports suggested that the first new expansion team would be in Vancouver, with Seattle reportedly a top choice for the second. On April 23, 2025, the league announced that Vancouver would receive the first expansion team in league history, with the team playing home games at the Pacific Coliseum beginning in the 2025–26 season. One week later, on April 30, the league announced that Seattle would receive the second expansion team for the 2025–26 season, with the team playing home games at Climate Pledge Arena, home of the NHL's Seattle Kraken, who will have a supporting role with the team after supporting its expansion bid. On May 26 2025, the Minnesota Frost defended their title, becoming the first team in league history to win the Walter Cup twice.
The PWHL saw historic growth during the 2025–26 season, with attendance increasing by 35% over the previous season. Global News reported that the league saw over 100% growth in both sales and YouTube views, citing the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics as a driver. On May 6, 2026, the PWHL announced they would be expanding to include a team in Detroit for the 2026–27 season. A week later, on May 13, two additional teams in Hamilton and Las Vegas were announced. On May 19, another team in San Jose was announced, bringing the total number of teams in the league up to 12. On May 20, the Montréal Victoire became the first Canadian team to win the Walter Cup.
In June 2026, the PWHL announced its first outside investors, Ilitch Holdings and Kilmer Sports Ventures, with the latter reportedly investing $100 million and both taking on advisory roles.
Organization The PWHL and all of its teams are owned by the Mark Walter Group. The advisory board of the PWHL is formed by Billie Jean King, Ilana Kloss, Stan Kasten, and Royce Cohen. Jayna Hefford is the Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations and Amy Scheer is the Senior Vice President of Business Operations. Former hockey player and broadcaster Cassie Campbell-Pascall is an advisor to the Board. The league hired over 100 staff members to support league operations, distinguishing it from past women's hockey leagues that have lacked such operational support.
The PWHPA organized a formal players' union in early 2023—the PWHL Players Association (PWHLPA)—that became the players' union representing all PWHL players. Unique to professional women's hockey, the PWHL established an eight-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the players' union. The CBA establishes that each team must sign at least six players to a minimum salary of $80,000, with a specific requirement that no more than nine players may be paid the league minimum salary of $35,000. Teams are also instructed to achieve an average salary of $55,000. The CBA was negotiated in United States Dollars (USD), with the average salary of $55,000 being above the US Living Wage. The base and average salaries are slated to increase 3% per season through the end of the agreement in 2031. The CBA further outlines performance and team bonuses, including a $63,250 bonus for the championship-winning team, and other financial incentives, including housing stipends. Brian Burke acts as the executive director of the players' union.
Format and rules
Team 1 A 0 1 2 0 4 2 B 1 0 0 2 3 Example of the 3-2-1-0 system: A leads B, as A earned points for their overtime losses (green), while B earned no points for their regulation losses (red).
The inaugural PWHL season consisted of a 24-game schedule lasting from January to May. For the 2024–25 season, the schedule comprised 30 games played from November to May, with each team facing the other five teams six times each. The schedule included a mid-season break during the annual IIHF World Women's Championship in April. For the 2025–26 season, the schedule again comprised 30 games played, with each team facing the other seven teams a minimum of four times. The schedule included a mid-season break for the Winter Olympics.