Canadian Women's Hockey League

Canadian Women's Hockey League

Current season	2018/19
sport	Women ice hockey
abbreviation	CWHL
League foundation	2007
Teams	7th
Country countries	Canada United States People's Republic of China
Title holder	Calgary Inferno
Record champions	Les Canadiennes de Montréal (4)
TV partner	Rogers Sportsnet
Website	www.thecwhl.com

The Canadian Women's Hockey League ( CWHL ) was one of the top two women's ice hockey leagues in Canada . The league was founded in 2007 and comprised six teams in the 2018/19 season, four of them from Canada, one from Boston in the United States and one from the People's Republic of China .

In contrast to the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) in the USA, the CWHL was a semi-professional league without player salaries until 2017, but had the long-term goal of becoming a professional league. As of 2017, the players of the CWHL received salary payments for the first time. On March 31, 2019, the league announced the cessation of operations.

history

Lisa-Marie Breton was one of the initiators of the CWHL

In Canada, the top division in women's ice hockey, the then National Women's Hockey League , stopped playing after the 2006/07 season. Subsequently, on the initiative of some players such as Jennifer Botterill and Lisa-Marie Breton, a new league was launched, which began playing as the Canadian Women's Hockey League in the following season with seven teams mainly from eastern Canada. All teams were financed by the league itself, which covered travel expenses, renting the ice rinks and jerseys. The funds were initially divided equally between the seven teams.

In 2010, the CWHL held an entry draft for the first time , in which the clubs could select players from their region who had not yet played a full season in the league. After some Canadian teams had given up play in the first few seasons, the CWHL took on their first team from the United States with the Boston Blades in the 2012/13 season . At the same time, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Calgary Flames from the National Hockey League signed partnerships with the CWHL teams from their cities. On December 13, 2014, the league hosted its first All-Star Game at the Air Canada Center in Toronto , which was attended by 6,850 spectators.

As part of the NHL Winter Classic 2016 , a comparison was made between the CWHL club Les Canadiennes de Montréal and the NWHL club Boston Pride . In 2017, the newly founded women's team of the Chinese KHL club Kunlun Red Star and the Vanke Rays , also from China, were accepted. In the course of the league expansion, a salary system was also introduced for the first time for the players, whereby the salary per season is between 2,000 and 10,000 US dollars and the salary cap is 100,000 US dollars per team. In addition, individual players from the Chinese clubs received salaries as so-called ice hockey ambassadors that were significantly above the CWHL salary level.

mode

The six teams play 30 games each in the regular season . In the subsequent play-offs in the Best of Three mode , the team with the highest points meets the fourth-best, and the second-placed team against the third-placed team. The winners of both series play out the master. Until 2011, the best teams of the CWHL play-offs played together with a representative of the Western Women's Hockey League for the Clarkson Cup , the equivalent of the Stanley Cup in women's ice hockey. Since the WWHL has effectively stopped playing, the Clarkson Cup is awarded directly to the winner of the CWHL play-offs.

Attendees

Teams 2018/19

team	place	since	Hall	CWHL title	Clarkson Cups
Worcester Blades	Worcester , Massachusetts	2012	Fidelity Bank Worcester Ice Center	2	2
Markham Thunder	Markham , Ontario	2007	Thornhill Community Center	2	2
Calgary Inferno	Calgary , Alberta	2012	Canadian Winter Sports Institute	-	1
Les Canadiennes de Montréal	Montréal , Québec	2007	Center Étienne Desmarteau	2	4th
Toronto Furies	Toronto , Ontario	2011	MasterCard Center	1	1
Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays	Shenzhen , Guangdong	2017	Shenzhen Dayun Arena	-	-

Former teams

• Burlington Barracudas ( Burlington , Ontario), 2007–2012
• Mississauga Chiefs ( Mississauga , Ontario), 2007-2010
• Ottawa Lady Senators ( Ottawa , Ontario), 2007-2010
• Phénix de Québec ( Québec , Québec), 2007-2008
• Toronto Eros (Toronto, Ontario), 2010-2011
• Vaughan Flames ( Vaughan , Ontario), 2007-2010

master

• 2007/08 : Brampton Thunder - Mississauga Chiefs 4-3 a.d.
• 2008/09 : Montréal Stars
• 2009/10 : no champion ¹
• 2010/11 : Montréal Stars - Toronto Eros 5-0
• 2011/12 : Montréal Stars - Brampton Thunder 4-2
• 2012/13 : Boston Blades - Montréal Stars 5-2
• 2013/14 : Toronto Furies - Boston Blades 1-0 aet
• 2014/15 : Boston Blades - Montréal Stars 3-2 a.d.
• 2015/16 : Calgary Inferno - Les Canadiennes de Montréal 8: 3
• 2016/17 : Les Canadiennes de Montréal - Calgary Inferno 3: 1
• 2017/18 : Markham Thunder - Kunlun Red Star 2-1 n.V.

¹ The Montréal Stars and Mississauga Chiefs entered the tournament for the Clarkson Cup as the best teams of the regular season.

Web links

Commons : Canadian Women's Hockey League  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Dreaming of a league of her own ( Memento from November 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), The Ottawa Citizen, September 30, 2007
2. ↑ https://www.tsn.ca/cwhl-announces-it-will-cease-operations-1.1282718
3. ^ Canadian Women's Hockey League launches. In: cbc.ca. April 11, 2007, accessed April 25, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Olympic gold medalist Tessa Bonhomme picked 1st by Toronto in CWHL draft ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , The Sudbury Star, August 13, 2010 
5. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/cwhl-china-hc-red-star-kunlun-join-1.4147421
6. ↑ KunLun Red Star and Vanke Rays - Two Chinese teams join the CWHL. In: filmbeats.wordpress.com. October 27, 2017, accessed November 17, 2017 . 
7. ↑ CWHL season kicks off with more money and more travel for players. In: thestar.com. October 11, 2017, accessed April 25, 2018 . 
8. ↑ CWHL announces it will pay players in 2017-18. In: sportsnet.ca. March 13, 2016, accessed April 24, 2018 . 
9. ↑ Kristina Rutherford: The Interview: Noora Raty on the CWHL's Chinese expansion. In: sportsnet.ca. June 14, 2017, accessed April 24, 2018 . 
10. ↑ Clarkson Cup ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the CWHL website