The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) has taken leaps and bounds gaining recognition amongst young inspired female athletes, and the rapidly growing fanbase in the United States and Canada especially. Originally the PWHL’s inaugural season started in 2023-24 with 6 teams in New York City, Minneapolis-St Paul, Boston, Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal.
After witnessing the miraculous amount of success that the PWHL has had during the inaugural season, the league has received several inquiries about expanding more new professional hockey clubs in other states, including Canada. In April earlier this year, within weeks apart the PWHL announced exhilarating news of having two expansion teams (Seattle and Vancouver) added to the league for the upcoming 2025-26 season.
Exposure during the 2024 NHL All-Star game in Toronto was a monumental moment for the PWHL All-Stars. Even though the PWHL had already made an appearance in the NHL All Star game years prior to 2024, the collaboration with both leagues shed light on how the immense amount of talent that this select group of professional female athletes have on ice and in full gear is unreal. To mention a few fan favorites, Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne-Schofield, Sarah Nurse, Emily Clark, Alina Muller, Erin Ambrose, and Nicole Hensley made sure to show up and show out during the NHL All-Star Game.
One of the all-time fan favorite moments was witnessing the PWHL “3 on 3 Showcase”, which gave the world a glimpse of exactly how situational positional hockey is played at the highest level with some of the world’s greatest female athletes. They’ve always known how to give the fans what they want, especially back in 2019 when Kendall Coyne shot out of the gate like an angry bull and showed the world her blazing speed during the NHL All-Star Skills Competition.
Earlier this year the PWHL also kicked off the “2025 Takeover Tour” that was intended to gain interest in new cities that have yet to land a professional women’s hockey team. Arguably, one of the finest achievements by the PWHL during this tour was at that time, setting the attendance record in Denver, Colorado at Ball Arena. The “Minnesota Frost vs Montreal Victoire” game brought in 14,018 fans that at one point were all chanting, “We want a team”.
Most players, fans, and club executives would agree that the “Takeover Tour” was a huge success, increasing the number of new viewers and fans that would contribute to making it a possibility for Denver, CO to have a chance at eventually adding a PWHL franchise in the Mile High city. Professional women’s hockey is only growing and isn’t going anywhere but up!
Dante Robinson | Senior PWHL Analyst for The NSR Network
