Apartment hunting and house swapping: How PWHLers are prepping for life in a new league

When the calendar turns to November, Dominika Lásková will find herself in at least four different countries over two weeks.

The versatile defender, who can also play forward, is playing with Luleå in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) before travelling to Montreal, where she'll compete for a spot in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) when training camp opens on Nov. 15. Montreal drafted her in the 4th round (19th overall) in the PWHL's inaugural draft last month.

In between, there will also be a stop in Germany to play a handful of games with the Czechia national team, and home to Prague to pack up a few things.

Lásková will be staying in a hotel during Montreal's training camp, but where she'll be living after that remains a mystery — a question she's trying to answer from several time zones away.

"It's kind of hard to get housing for just six months and find it from Europe," Lásková said in an interview earlier this week from northern Sweden.

"Some websites don't even let you to reach out because it kind of gets that you're in Europe and you're looking for six months. It's kind of odd timing … we still haven't found anything, but I'm sure something's going to work out eventually."

As the PWHL aims to launch a six-team league that's ready to begin play in January, teams and players are navigating all the logistics involved with starting a league from scratch.

At last month's draft, players found themselves in a position where they could be selected by any team. It was a change from drafts in previous women's hockey leagues, where it wasn't uncommon for players to stay in cities where they already had ties and second jobs.

It means the league has an influx of players who are all looking for a new