The Skilled Girls’s Hockey League will add a franchise in Seattle forward of subsequent season.
Seattle joins Vancouver because the PWHL’s first two growth groups, bringing the rising league to eight groups now spanning west to east throughout North America. The opposite groups are situated in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, the New York Space and Minnesota.
The long-rumoured growth to Seattle was confirmed on Wednesday morning.
Jayna Hefford, the league’s government vp of hockey operations, pointed to Seattle’s wealthy historical past of supporting ladies’s sports activities, a rising youth hockey group and entry to high amenities as just a few the explanation why town was interesting.
“Seattle has been unbelievable in supporting ladies’s hockey, whether or not that be on the worldwide stage with the Rivalry Collection, after which after all our [Takeover Tour] sport,” Hefford advised CBC Sports activities in an interview.
“I believe Seattle has actually stood up for girls’s sports activities. We will not wait to be a part of that girls’s sports activities group right here.”
Greater than 12,600 individuals attended a PWHL sport between the Montreal Victoire and Boston Fleet inside Local weather Pledge Enviornment, the house of the NHL’s Kraken, on Jan. 5 as a part of the league’s Takeover Tour.
Earlier than that, in November 2022, greater than 14,500 followers watched a Rivalry Collection sport between Canada and the USA on the identical location.
The PWHL group will be a part of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm and NWSL’s Seattle Reign FC as main ladies’s skilled groups primarily based within the metropolis.
“The chance to begin a brand new chapter of ladies’s hockey within the Pacific Northwest, mixed with calling the world-class Local weather Pledge Enviornment house has a lot that means for our league,” Amy Scheer, the league’s government vp of enterprise operations, stated.
“The Kraken have already got been unbelievably supportive, and it is a pleasure to have PWHL Seattle be a part of the WNBA’s Storm and the NWSL’s Reign, who’re skyscrapers within the metropolis’s towering sports activities panorama.”
Group to play in NHL enviornment
Like Vancouver, the Seattle group will initially be known as PWHL Seattle whereas the league develops a brand new identify and brand. The group’s colors will probably be emerald inexperienced and cream.
The group will play at Local weather Pledge Enviornment and prepare on the Kraken Group Iceplex. Local weather Pledge Enviornment can be house to the WNBA’s Storm.
Whereas the Seattle franchise will probably be owned by Mark and Kimbra Walter, together with the opposite seven PWHL groups, the bid for a Seattle franchise was led by the Kraken and the Oak View Group that developed and operates Local weather Pledge Enviornment.
“We frequently need to elevate the bar for our athletes and make sure that the expertise that they’ve on this league is skilled and it is of the best requirements,” Hefford stated.
“When we’ve the flexibility to enter a constructing that has the area they want, that has the capability for our fanbase, that has the flexibility to broadcast in an expert manner, there’s simply so many parts to being in a constructing like Local weather Pledge.”
The league has renovations to do at its amenities in Vancouver. However the nearly-brand new Local weather Pledge Enviornment and Iceplex will not require a lot, other than including PWHL branding within the coaching amenities.
Having two groups on the west coast will definitely make it simpler for the league to pitch that reality to potential U.S. broadcast companions, because the league searches for a nationwide U.S. TV deal.
“I believe that is only one verify within the field that we lined a geographic footprint with this west coast growth,” Hefford stated. “However that could not be the one purpose we did it. It needed to verify the entire different containers.”
Solely a brief drive throughout the border from each other, Seattle and Vancouver ought to have a pure rivalry from day one within the PWHL. Girls’s groups from the 2 cities have performed one another as early as 1921, in keeping with the league, and that is the following chapter.
Growth, entry draft to come back
With the league’s first spherical of growth now introduced, consideration turns to the low season and every part that should occur to get two new franchises up and operating forward of a brand new season subsequent fall.
The league must finalize guidelines for an growth draft that can assist fill out the rosters of each new groups. Hefford stated that is within the “ultimate phases.”
Additionally to come back is an announcement on the place the brand new groups may choose within the entry draft, which is set to be held in Ottawa on June 24. The league has already stated the primary choose will go to the present group that is amassed probably the most Gold Factors, which a group earns by successful video games after being eradicated from playoff rivalry.
Behind the scenes, each groups want hockey operations and enterprise workers, together with basic managers, who will ideally should be in place earlier than the growth and entry drafts.
Playoff format more likely to keep, regardless of growth
The league can be piecing collectively the puzzle of scheduling subsequent season. The collective bargaining settlement requires a 30- to 32-game season for every group, and the PWHL will now should schedule eight groups round worldwide breaks, together with one for the Olympics in February and one for the world championship in April.
“Numerous work to do however the excellent news is we have completed this earlier than,” Hefford stated. “We have completed this with extra groups. I believe we’re properly positioned to make sure these groups are profitable on day one.”
Hefford expects the league to match or surpass the 167 gamers who declared for final 12 months’s entry draft in Minnesota, with not less than 26 extra full-time contracts obtainable through growth.
Prime gamers who’ve declared up to now embrace Wisconsin ahead Casey O’Brien, who gained the Patty Kazmaier Award for the highest feminine NCAA hockey participant this season, Canadian defender Nicole Gosling and Haley Winn, who simply gained a world championship with the Individuals.
A number of high-profile gamers from Europe have additionally declared, together with the Czech Republic’s Natálie Mlýnková and Kristýna Kaltounková, in addition to Finnish veteran Michelle Karvinen. Gamers have till Could 8 to declare.
4 video games stay on the PWHL’s regular-season calendar earlier than the Walter Cup playoffs start subsequent week.
4 groups will make the lower for the playoffs, a format that might proceed into subsequent season, even because the league expands from six to eight.
“At this time limit, we’re not in search of a change in format,” Hefford stated.
“However once more, there’s loads to nonetheless work by as we have a look at constructing availability and scheduling, and the worldwide occasions schedule.”
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