When was the PWHL founded?
The PWHL was founded in 2023, but the history of high level women’s hockey leagues dates way back to the late 1990’s.
Mentioning this history is important because although a number of these former leagues (which we’ll mention below) didn’t stick around, they laid early groundwork and set an example that women’s hockey can (and should) have a bigger stage at the pro level.
We’ll start by taking a quick jump back to just before the turn of the century...
Just before N'Sync came out with this music video above (Bye Bye Bye- 2000)....the original National Women's Hockey League was just getting it's toes wet...
National Women's Hockey League (Original)
In 1999, the first NWHL (National Women's Hockey League) was founded and featured primarily Canadian teams. The league ran with various teams until 2007.
CWHL
The CWHL (Canadian Women's Hockey League) picked up where the NWHL left off. The league had a wider range of teams in Canada, the United States, and even two based in China in 2017 for a short period of time.
For the majority of the leagues existence, the league was still considered an amateur league even though it was the top women’s league in all of North America. In all, the league was active for 12 seasons until it finally ceased operations in 2019.
The CWHL started paying players in 2017 with a total team salary cap of $100,000 (minimum $2,000 to maximum $10,000), but this change only took place after the NWHL did this (which we’ll cover below).
NWHL
In 2015, another league joined the party in the National Women's Hockey League (renamed to the Premier Hockey Federation in 2021).
Whereas the CWHL was an amateur/non-profit organization until it started paying players a bit towards the end, the NWHL was the first league to officially pay players set salaries from the get go. This should have happened many years earlier, but this shift alone was an early stepping stone which has helped push the women’s game to where it is today many years later.
Players weren't rolling around in dough enough to pop bottles at the club, but they were getting paid to play the game they loved which wasn’t even possible a number of years prior.
From the NWHL’s formation in 2015 to it’s end in 2023, there were certainly a lot of ups and downs along the way. Based on our conversations with several players in the former league, they fully agreed with this assessment. The first ever NWHL Draft took place before that inaugural first season where a number of the top female collegiate players were selected per each team alongside tryouts for walk on and overseas players.
On the ice, the league ran pretty smoothly in it’s early years.
As with many newly established professional leagues though just starting out, the league struggled on the financial side of things.
They struggled to keep salaries at a nominal level for returning players.
To sort of make up for it, the league aimed to pay players more money based on attendance numbers but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
Luckily, a few major points that helped the league gain some momentum back in those first several years of existence were a few key corporate partnerships (ex: Dunkin Donuts) and direct NHL partnerships.
Starting in 2017, a number of NHL clubs from the Buffalo Sabres to the New Jersey Devils partnered with the NWHL team in their region which added another level of credibility to the league.
When the CWHL (Canadian Women’s Hockey League) which we covered above halted operations in 2019, the NWHL expanded into two of those main Canadian markets which were Toronto and Montreal.
Even with this expansion, the leagues players did not believe they were compensating them fairly enough for their play ranging from salaries to health insurance, equipment, and other perks players on teams receive throughout the season. Because of this, several hundred players in the off season before 2019-2020 signed and released a collective statement to the league that they were all boycotting professional play if nothing was done to improve conditions.
In the weeks following, the PWHLPA (Professional Women's Hockey League Players Association) was born.
Although the PWHL was not able to follow through fully on the financial demands of the players at that time due to lack of league investments, they did agree on a 50/50 revenue split on league sponsorship and media deals which was a step in the right direction.
Premier Hockey Federation
Although the PWHL was not able to follow through fully on the financial demands of the players due to lack of league investments, they did agree on a 50/50 revenue split on league sponsorship and media deals which was a step in the right direction.
In 2021, the league rebranded it’s name to be the Premier Hockey Federation.
This is when the leagues salary cap started to move up.
The Premier Hockey Federation salary cap moved up to $300,000 per team. This salary cap number doubled again the following year to $750,000 (2022).
It was at this time when teams not only paid players salaries across the board, but also fully covered healthcare costs and a number of other perks one would expect at the professional level.
Heading into the 2023-2024 season, the salary cap doubled yet again to $1,500,000. Shortly following this, all was stirred up when the PHF announced in the summer of 2023 that it was being sold to the Mark Walter Group (headed by LA Dodgers owner) and BJK Enterprises (headed by tennis legend Billie Jean King).
The unfolding of this initially shook things up a bit for some players as not all teams stayed intact (ex: players on prior contracts).
Luckily, the new league and ownership has had the right intentions from the start.
PWHL
With the buyout of the Premier Hockey Federation, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is now the new sheriff in town.
The new league took a few months to get rolling, but began play as a six-team league at the start of 2024.
So far, the league is showing a ton of promise and stability in terms of how much the players are making. In Chapter 4, we’ll dive more into league salaries and compensation.
Now that we’ve wrapped up our Women's Hockey History 201 Class, it’s time to throw our backpacks back on, grab a quick snack, and head over to our next non-boring class (aka the next chapter) where we’ll talk about the skill level you need to play in the PWHL today.
Let’s do it (like they do on the Discovery Channel)…
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