PWHL confirms the cities for league’s first six teams

The Professional Women’s Hockey League has confirmed the locations of their first six teams: Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto.

The league was set to announce more details of the new women’s hockey league on Tuesday morning with a virtual press conference, including the locations of their Original Six teams. However, the secret has been unveiled a bit earlier than anticipated, as some people noticed the creation of six new accounts on Twitter with the PWHL brand.

This will be the fifth professional women’s hockey team to be based in Toronto (along with the Aeros, Sting, Furies, and Six) and Montreal (along with the Wingstar/Axion, Jofa Titan, Phénix, and Force). Ottawa (Raiders & Senators) will get their third team while Boston (Pride) and Minnesota (Whitecaps) will get their second. This will be the first time a professional women’s hockey team will be based in New York, although some have been located nearby before in Buffalo, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek also confirmed some dates for the PWHL’s first offseason:

-September 1st will see the beginning of the PWHL’s free agency period.
-September 3rd will be the deadline for draft declaration.
-September 10th will be the end of the initial free agency period.
-September 18th will be the day of the player draft.

The PWHL will see the unification of both the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association and what used to be the National Women’s Hockey League/Premier Hockey Federation. The two parties had struggled to come to an agreement on a unified league since the folding of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League in 2019, with the NWHL/PHF having the financial backing to support a league of teams, while the PWHPA boasted a lot of the biggest names in women’s hockey, including a majority of the players that played for the national teams.