What we all know in regards to the new Skilled Girls’s Hockey League staff in Boston

Sports activities Information

“We’re enthusiastic about being in Boston. We’ve had nice reactions from the individuals we’ve spoken to.”

Boston Pride players cheer as coach Paul Mara hoists the NWHL Isobel Cup trophy after the team's win over the Minnesota Whitecaps in the championship hockey game in Boston, Saturday, March 27, 2021. Organizers announced plans Friday, June 30, 2023, to launch a new women’s professional hockey league in January that they hope will provide a stable, economically sustainable home for the sport's top players for years to come. The agreement ends a long standoff between the seven-team Professional Hockey Federation (PHF) and the PWHPA.
The Boston Satisfaction gained three Isobel Cups through the PHF/NWHL’s tenure. AP Picture/Mary Schwalm

There can be a brand new skilled ladies’s hockey staff in Boston beginning in 2024.

The brand new Skilled Girls’s Hockey League (PWHL) was formally revealed Tuesday, with Boston introduced as one of many six franchises to start play in January 2024.

Together with Boston, the PWHL will discipline groups in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the New York Metropolis space (together with New Jersey and Connecticut), Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal.

“Boston is an apparent marketplace for us,” Stan Kasten, president of the Los Angeles Dodgers and member of the PWHL Board of Administrators, informed reporters throughout a video convention Tuesday. “Boston offered a number of completely different options for venues, some massive and a few small, and locations to coach. So, by way of that, it actually was an excellent match for us.  

“We’re enthusiastic about being in Boston. We’ve had nice reactions from the individuals we’ve spoken to, we’ve had nice media reactions by way of broadcasts and issues like that. So we count on it to be a really profitable marketplace for us.”

Right here’s what you should know in regards to the new PWHL, Boston’s newest hockey membership and its influence throughout ladies’s hockey.

What’s the PWHL? 

The PWHL is predicted to carry courtroom because the lone skilled ladies’s hockey league in North America this winter.

The PWHL is owned by the Mark Walter Group, which incorporates Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter, his spouse, Kimbra Walter, tennis legend Billie Jean King, and Dodgers president Stan Kasten. Longtime NHL government Brian Burke will run the PWHL Gamers Affiliation.

As of now, the league will personal and function all six groups.

For years, skilled ladies’s hockey has been fractured between two completely different teams within the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) and the Skilled Girls’s Hockey Gamers Affiliation (PWHPA), particularly after the Canadian Girls’s Hockey League folded again in 2019.

In an effort to unify the 2 teams and set up one professional ladies’s hockey league, Billie Jean King Enterprises and the Mark Walter Group — who partnered with the PWHPA again in Could 2022 — purchased out the PHF again in June 2023, paving the best way for the PWHL. 

“We’ve got an possession group that gives the capital, the sources, the expertise to do that in knowledgeable and a first-class means,” Jayna Hefford, senior vice chairman of PWHL hockey operations stated on Tuesday. “Finishing a CBA that each helps the long-term view of the possession group but additionally permits the gamers the understanding and the comforts and that hits their stage of professionalism because it pertains to a day-to-day expertise as a feminine hockey participant. This league could have the perfect gamers on this planet.

“We’re witnessing a time limit the place ladies’s sports activities is definitely thriving. The demand is there, the joy is there, the willingness for individuals to essentially embrace what we’re doing. I don’t assume there’s ever been a greater time. So I believe with the individuals we’ve got concerned, we’re extremely assured for the way forward for this league.”

What in regards to the Boston Satisfaction? 

Earlier than the PWHL’s arrival, Boston nonetheless had ladies’s hockey in place inside the market within the type of the the PHF/NWHL’s Boston Satisfaction, who’ve operated since 2015. The Satisfaction have been one of the crucial profitable groups within the space, taking residence three Isobel Cup championships in 2016, 2021 and 2022.

Nonetheless, the Mark Walter Group and BJK Enterprises’ buy-out of the PHF earlier this summer time primarily folded the league and the entire groups that have been below its umbrella, together with the Boston Satisfaction.

In keeping with Sportsnet, the PHF buy-out additionally voided the contracts of all gamers inside the league. 

The PHF’s shutdown falls according to the PWHPA’s hopes of cultivating a unified ladies’s hockey league with a sustainable monetary basis.

Relatively than be a part of the NWHL in 2019 after the Canadian Girls’s Hockey League folded, many PWHPA gamers selected to not play in any North American league till they felt that it was on a sustainable path from a enterprise perspective — opting as an alternative to play in exhibition excursions throughout North America in preparation for worldwide tournaments.

Granted, the PHF seemed to be on the upswing this previous season, with a brand new $25 million funding from the league’s Board of Governors opening the door for groups to dole out six-figure contracts to its high stars.

”I believe that the following six months goes to be rocky, however once more, that’s inevitable when you could have two sides which were bitter rivals and people two sides come collectively,” John Boynton, former PHF chair and former co-owner of 4 of the league’s seven groups, together with the Boston Satisfaction, informed Michael Silverman of The Boston Globe final month. “It doesn’t occur instantly. However, I believe that if everybody proceeds in good religion and places within the effort and the time, there’s enormous potential.

“There’s no cause that the brand new league shouldn’t be talked about proper alongside the WNBA and the NWSL — these three logos ought to be aspect by aspect, each time.”

Who will play for the brand new PWHL staff? 

With the expertise on each the PWHPA and PHF now unified, it’s anticipated that the highest gamers in ladies’s hockey will now lace up their skates for the PWHL, together with former gamers with the Boston Satisfaction.

Beginning on Friday, there can be a 10-day free company interval for the PWHL, with every of the six new franchises allowed to signal three gamers to a “Normal Participant Settlement” throughout that point.

The 2023 PWHL draft will then be set for Sept. 18, with a draft lottery anticipated to find out the order. Gamers might want to declare for the draft by Sept. 3.

As famous by Silverman, gamers who go unsigned in free company and declare for the draft will enter into the 15-round draft, leaving groups with 18 roster spots. Gamers who should not chosen on Sept. 18 will develop into free brokers and might nonetheless negotiate tryouts.

The place will they play?

As of now, plenty of key particulars for Boston’s new hockey membership stay below wraps, together with the venue, schedule, tickets and, in fact, the staff title.

Residence ice for the brand new staff has but to be introduced, however a current report from The Hockey Information famous that Boston College’s Walter Brown Enviornment is being thought-about. The Satisfaction performed their first season at Harvard’s Shiny-Landry Hockey Middle earlier than transferring to Warrior Ice Enviornment. 

Whereas some key info stays scarce in regards to the PWHL’s new Boston staff, Kasten famous the PWHL’s inaugural 24-game common season may additionally characteristic video games at impartial websites and in NHL cities. The PWHL expects to have a presence at different NHL occasions, such because the All-Star Recreation and Winter Basic.

As for subsequent steps, a full schedule is predicted to be launched in October, whereas coaching camps will begin on Nov. 18.