Less scrambling and more planning has gone into the Professional Women's Hockey League's second season that starts Saturday.
The PWHL embarks on another campaign with more elements of a pro league in place than a year ago. Teams and staff organized on the fly to get the basic building blocks in place for opening day Jan. 1, just six months after the league was greenlit by primary financial backer and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter.
"For many of us that have been in the game for so long, it's emotional to think about where the game's come from, where we've come to," said PWHL senior vice-president of hockey operations and Hockey Hall of Famer Jayna Hefford in a media conference call Tuesday.
The Toronto Sceptres host the Boston Fleet and the Ottawa Charge visit the Montreal Victoire on Saturday followed by the defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost at home Sunday to the New York Sirens.
Each team will play six more games this season for a 30-game schedule. Playoffs start May 6.
The six-team league includes the majority of Canadian and U.S. national team players, plus several international stars.
Newcomers to watch this season include Canadian forwards Sarah Fillier (New York) and Danielle Serdachny (Ottawa), American defender Cayla Barnes (Montreal) and Finnish defender Ronja Savolainen (Ottawa).
Team identities with names and logos finally unveiled in September, moves to larger home arenas for some teams and changes to broadcasting and streaming were the most visible off-season developments for fans.
The league averaged 5,500 fans over 72 regular-season games in its inaugural campaign and set a women's pro hockey attendance record of 21,105 at Montreal's Bell Centre on April 20.
The PWHL has reached ground where it can consider future expansion and is under pressure to do so as the world produces more players for a league that currently offers 138 full-time jobs and 18 reserve contracts.
A total of 167 players declared for the league's second draft in June, and 42 were selected.
The league looks to expand by up to two teams in 2025-26, although senior vice-president of business operations Amy Scheer reserved the option to postpone expansion.
"We may add two teams. We may add zero," she cautioned Tuesday. "The goal is to expand at a rate in which the talent of hockey can support. I don't think we'd go from six teams to 12 teams in a year.
"The most important thing is to never compromise the quality of the play on the ice."
Any expansion team or teams in 2025-26 would continue to be operated by the league as the original six are, but Scheer didn't close the door on local ownership in the future.
"As of today, we will be remaining single entity," she said.
This season's neutral-site games in Edmonton, Seattle, Vancouver, Denver, Quebec City, Buffalo, Raleigh, N.C., Detroit and St. Louis may be indicators of potential future teams, although Scheer said the league has invited proposals from more than 20 markets.
Broadcast and streaming agreements with TSN/RDS, CBC/Radio-Canada and Amazon Prime mean games in Canada will no longer be available on YouTube, although games remain on that streaming service in the United States and internationally.
"We've got three wonderful partners with TSN and Amazon and CBC and the nature of the relationship with those parties has changed this year in that, yes, we are receiving media rights, and as part of that, streaming does become exclusive," Scheer said.
"It's a really hard decision to make because accessibility is really important for us. You hope, on the flip side, that the fans understand that this is really a very important next step for the sustainability and growth of our league.
"As you grow, there are trade-offs that you have to make and tough decisions that you have to make, and this was certainly one of them."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2024.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
