The National Women’s Hockey League announced via press release, this morning, that Toronto has become the newest member of the league. Toronto is the first Canadian team to play in the NWHL.
BREAKING: The NWHL is officially coming to Canada at the start of Season 6 🇨🇦
📰: https://t.co/BnHaylRTDh pic.twitter.com/OFp0EsRU5c
— PHF (@PHF) April 22, 2020
Toronto announced as the first Canadian team in the NWHL
The City of Toronto has been without a professional women’s hockey team for almost a year. The Toronto Furies were the last professional women’s team to play in Canada’s Sports Capital. The Furies competed in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) before it disbanded at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season. This left the NWHL as the only professional women’s league in North America.
Since then, there has been a concerning level of unrest within the women’s game. After the CWHL folded due to financial issues, over 200 hockey players declared a boycott on the NWHL for the 2019-20 season. US Olympians, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hilary Knight were among the protesters.
The demands from the player-protesters are to form one viable, professional league. Currently, there is a strained relationship between players and the NWHL. After the league became the first women’s hockey league to professionalize in 2015, player salaries were slashed by almost 40% in its second season.
Unlike the relationship between the WNBA and the NBA, the NWHL has no financial backing from the National Hockey League. However, the NHL did compensate the Canadian Women’s Hockey League after its dissolution to ensure coaches, players and staff were paid. Despite this, Commissioner Gary Bettman has distanced himself from the prospect of funding a women’s league.
“I don’t think we have a responsibility to fund the business of other leagues. They have investors, they have a business plan,” he said a 2019 interview. “I’ve told [NWHL Commissioner Dani Rylan] that if she is successful, we will not interfere.”
NWHL Toronto in 2020-21
Toronto has currently signed five players. They include the US 2016 World Champion, forward, Shiann Darkangelo and 2019 CWHL winners, Taylor Woods and Kristen Barbara. All five players boycotted the 2019-20 season as part of the protests.
NWHL Toronto becomes the sixth franchise and will join the Buffalo Beauts, Boston Pride, Connecticut Whale, the Metropolitan Riveters and the Minnesota Whitecaps at the start of the 2020-21 season.
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