The new Professional Women's Hockey League was officially revealed Tuesday with six inaugural franchises and a 24-game regular season that begins in January 2024.
The PWHL will feature three teams in the U.S. and three teams in Canada. The American franchises are located in Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul and the New York City area, which could include Connecticut and New Jersey. The Canadian franchises are located in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario.
Details on home arenas, team names and logos are forthcoming. The PWHL will play its games in a variety of facilities, from NHL-sized rinks to minor and junior league arenas. The league plans to stream each game digitally, but also hopes for linear television coverage.
The 2024 season schedule will be announced in the coming months. It's expected to run from early January through late May or early June. It will include a break for the IIHF Women's World Championship in April. Subsequent seasons are expected to start in November and run through the following May. Stan Kasten, president of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a PWHL Board member, said that teams may not play all 12 home games in the same venue. The 2024 season will feature a number of neutral-site games scheduled in collaboration with the NHL.
"That means games in other cities that are not cities in our 'Original Six,' both NHL cities and possibly even non-NHL cities," Kasten said. "In some of our markets where we are not playing [home games] in the bigger NHL venues, we will probably have events in those venues. We'll be promoting those as special events."
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