New Professional Women's Hockey League reveals six franchises - ESPN

The new Professional Women's Hockey League was officially revealed Tuesday with six inaugural franchises and a 24-game regular season that begins in January 2024.

The PWHL will feature three teams in the U.S. and three teams in Canada. The American franchises are located in Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and the New York City area. The Canadian franchises are located in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. Details on home arenas, team names and logos are forthcoming.

The 2024 season schedule will be announced in the coming months. It's expected to include a break for the IIHF women's world championships in April.

Rosters for the inaugural season will start forming during an initial free agency signing period commencing Sept. 1. The majority of the league's founding players will then be selected during the 2023 PWHL Draft on Sept. 18.

The PWHL says it is in the «final stages» of securing six general managers for the franchises, all of whom are owned and operated by the league.

The PWHL is funded by Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter and wife Kimbra. The Mark Walter Group purchased assets of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) in June to effectively dissolve that league in order to launch the PWHL as the only pro women's hockey league in North America.

The PHF was founded in March 2015 as the National Women's Hockey League, which at the time was the first women's professional hockey league to pay its players. It was rebranded in Sept. 2021. Five of the six PWHL franchises are in cities that had PHF teams during the 2022-23 season, save for Ottawa.

The demise of the PHF ended a multiyear feud between that organization and the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association, which was comprised of stars from the U.S. and