When it was announced that a new league was rising out of the ashes of the Premier Hockey Federation, it seemed like there was way too much to do and very little time to do it before the first match of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). Yet, the league was put on the rails fast enough to depart on time even though not everything was perfect. Here’s my wrap-up of the PWHL inaugural chapter.
False Start on the Team Names and Logos
In the run-up to the season, the league was under plenty of scrutiny and it’s no surprise that the proposed names for each team were leaked online after the PWHL put in a trademark request for the Montreal Echo, Toronto Torch, Ottawa Alert, Boston Wicked, Minnesota Superior and New York Sound.
As soon as those names hit the public domain, fans from everywhere started to sound off and comment on what felt like rubbish names that would be a nightmare to create a good logo for. In the face of such backlash, the PWHL reversed its course of action and announced the teams would have no logo or nicknames for their inaugural season. They would simply be referred to as the city or state they represented. While that didn’t thrill fans who also criticized the quality of the teams’ jerseys when they were introduced, by the end of the season, each market was playing in front of big crowds in which people wore their team’s jersey proudly.
The team names and logos will be revealed this summer according to the PWHL Walter Cup Final broadcast and so far, no other trademark requests have been made. It looks like the PWHL won’t fall into the same trap again.
Free Agency Period
While it was exciting to wait and hear about the player signings, it would have been much more interesting to hear about the signings as they happened rather than on a certain day for each team. Hopefully, this is not the way things are done this season, especially since the best players available receive a three-year contract and the best rookies will be taken in the upcoming draft.
I dare say it could be a fight to the death to find a roster spot for depth players this season. The fresh influx of talent from the draft might push yet more players out of the PWHL. This league is not set up like the NHL. When a player is drafted by a team, they either make the jump right to the PWHL or end up in the reserve players. Otherwise, there’s no farm team to be sent to and no other professional league on this side of the pond.
The Inaugural Draft
In a 15-round draft, each team acquired the rights to 15 players and it was very interesting to see what each team focused on. Looking back at the selections, it’s great to see how each team relied on their depth players. For instance, Michella Cava (12th round pick) and Elizabeth Schepers (13th round pick) played huge parts in Minnesota’s Walter Cup win.
Meanwhile, Toronto picked up season-scoring leader Natalie Spooner in the fourth round (Spooner had used the compassionate circumstances waiver to ensure she could stay in Toronto as she had childcare issues). As for the finalist for the Rookie of the Year award, Emma Maltais was picked in the second round.
Boston picked Sophie Jacques in the second round and gave up on her during the season, trading her to Minnesota. She played a major part in their championship win against Boston out of all teams. As for New York, they hadn’t signed a goalie in the early free agency and picked the first goaltender in the sixth round. Goaltending was not the reason why they didn’t make the playoffs, however.
The other team excluded from the playoffs, Ottawa picked another Rookie of the Year candidate, Darryl Watts, in the 6th round and was able to flip its 13th-round pick Amanda Boulier to Montreal in return for Daniele Sauvageau’s seventh-round pick Tereza Vanisova.
As for Montreal, their draft highlights included up-rooting Jillian Dempsey from Boston to sign her to a one-year deal and then barely using her in the semi-finals of the playoffs. Their other big move was using their last pick on Lina Ljungblom, a very talented Swedish forward even though she was already committed to a Swedish team last season. She should be in Montreal when the new season starts and could be part of the answer to their depth issues up front.
Record Crowds
The PWHL set numerous crowd records this season with the Battle on Bay Street in Toronto when 19,825 fans saw Toronto beat Montreal and two months later in the Battle at the Top when 21,105 fans witnessed another Toronto victory over Montreal.
More than the attendance records though, what was brilliant in those two events was seeing those players’ lifelong dreams come true. Not only playing in a real professional women’s league but also doing it on the biggest stages. Completely selling out NHL arenas and being acclaimed by such huge crowds. That’s something which wasn’t even experienced when the national teams of USA and Canada were competing in the rivalry series.
Seeing Marie-Philip Poulin fight back tears when she received a well-deserved ovation from the Bell Centre crowd was simply priceless. You could hear all the love and respect fans of both teams have for Canada’s “Captain Clutch”.
The League’s Willingness to Innovate
Before a single game had even been played, the PWHL surprised a lot of people by introducing some rules that were different from NHL hockey rules. The “Jailbreak Goal” made the power plays even more interesting and the added physicality to the women’s game were grand slams for the PWHL.
Fans liked the five-round shootout procedure but weren’t overly keen on a single player taking multiple shots.
The Gold Plan to determine who would get the first pick at the next draft was a good idea on paper, but the league’s parity made it useless since New York was the only team ruled out of the playoffs before the last day of the regular season.
The Awards
The release of the awards’ finalists on successive nights during the playoffs was an interesting format, but a good opportunity was missed in not having two awards for blueliners. There are two kinds of defensemen and both are equally important. The fact highest-scoring defensemen are always finalists (in men’s hockey as well) is quite unfair to the stay-at-home defenders who make the opponent’s life difficult all season long.
Related: Who Should Win the PWHL’s Forward of the Year Award?
The introduction of a Ted Lindsey-like award would also be interesting, the league’s best player as voted by the PWHL players. It’s one thing to be given an award by a committee, but it’s quite another to receive one as voted for by your peers. One of the better stories of the playoffs was seeing Minnesota’s Taylor Heise go from first overall draft pick to first playoffs’ MVP. Although one could argue (like this writer) that Aerin Frankle, Boston’s goaltender, should have received that award.
The Playoffs
In a six-team league, you can’t have more than four teams and two rounds, but I believe the PWHL could handle both the semifinals and the final being a best-of-seven series. Of course, it might depend on what the TV ratings were like this year, and unfortunately, I believe the final numbers won’t be very good. No disrespect to Minnesota and Boston, but losing all Canadian markets before the final must have hurt the numbers, especially in Canada.
Still, the playoffs were a great show, with exciting action from start to finish. The fact the third and fourth-place teams eliminated both of the teams that finished at the top of the standings goes to show how much parity there is in the PWHL.
Minnesota’s win in the Walter Cup Final and their celebrations were perfect on Wednesday night. Fate has a way of making the right things happen as it was Kendall Coyne-Schofield in 2019 who took the initiative of calling tennis legend and gender equality advocate Billie Jean King; that’s the call that eventually led to the PWHL’s inception. Who was more deserving of raising the Walter Cup first? That’s a modern-day fairytale story if you ask me. Seeing her put her son Drew in the Cup during the team picture with the Walter Cup must have made plenty of fans get emotional just like I did. Drew will forever be the first baby to sit in the Cup, but the title of the first baby to smile in it is still up for grabs as he wouldn’t stop crying wondering what all the excitement and noise was about.
“If Kendall Coyne hadn’t come to us … that was the beginning,” King said on the PWHL’s first game broadcast, from Toronto on New Year’s Day. “She said, ‘We need help. The top players want a place to play, and this is it. This is their opportunity.’ I know what that’s like. I’ve been there with tennis.”
Source – “Kendall Coyne Schofield, seeking a league of her own, made the call that led to the PWHL”, Star Tribune, Jan. 16, 2024
From start to finish, the first season of the PWHL made the fans go on quite a rollercoaster ride. From reminding the women in the stands of the time when they used to play hockey and lamenting the fact they could never be professional hockey players to making them cheer loudly as their favorite team scored or won, there were a lot of emotional moments. The inaugural game in each building will forever be something the players cherish, and the fans can say “I was there for that”.
The Way Forward
What’s next? Well, it’s now full speed ahead to the second season. Starting on June 1, PWHL teams will be able to negotiate with their pending free agents to try and keep them rather than seeing them offer up their services to the five other teams. Then, on June 10, the draft will be held in downtown Saint Paul Minnesota, and on the 11th, the PWHL Awards will also be held in town. Free agents who were not selected in the draft can negotiate and sign contracts with teams starting on June 21. If a player is selected by a team in the draft but is not signed, their rights belong to the drafting team for two years. After that, they’ll be eligible to be drafted again, but no player can go through the draft process more than two times.
Each team will need depth players and will look towards free agency to fill their needs. There were a lot of players who were on a one-year contract, meaning each team’s face could change dramatically. It will be interesting to follow the free agency signings. Hopefully, the information will be released as it happens.
Improvements in Year 2
Are there things that could be improved in season two? Sure, the reserve system for one has proven insufficient to answer teams’ needs throughout the season because of injuries. There were not enough players to go around, probably because the new physicality level of the league was not thought to cause as many injuries as it did. The schedules also need to be built better. The PWHL would do well to avoid going against bigger and more established leagues. Making Boston play when the Boston Bruins are playing is not the best idea in the world, if there’s a way to avoid it, it should be used.
Making the playoffs’ final two rounds best-of-seven affairs would also be a positive change. Finding more suitable venues for certain teams would also be ideal, Toronto needs to play in a larger building they can sell out every night, and Montreal needs to dump the Verdun Auditorium, while it has a nice retro look, it’s just not practical. There were no permanent food counters, only toilets at one end of the building, nowhere near enough for 3,000 to 4,000 people, and there was no proper press gallery.
For the collectors out there, it would be brilliant to be able to buy game-used and/or autographed items of their favorite players. Equipment could be auctioned off and fans would be more than happy to bid on those auctions, you’ve only got to look at the Montreal Canadiens’ auctions to know so. It could also be worth auctioning off goal pucks, those make for great collectibles and it’s easy for the athletes to sign them.
Finally, there’s definitively room for improvement when it comes to the way the rules are enforced by the referees. Get them all to summer school and find a way to make sure rules on physicality are enforced in a consistent manner. Players, coaches and refs alike seemed to be confused about that throughout the season and the playoffs, a clear sign that some work is needed in that field of hockey operations.
What were your top moments of the season? What would you change? Express it, because this is probably the only professional league willing to have an open mind when receiving criticism and suggestions alike.
