{"id":29171,"date":"2018-05-16T00:18:22","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T04:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=29171"},"modified":"2018-05-16T00:24:17","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T04:24:17","slug":"minnesota-whitecaps-join-nwhl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/05\/16\/minnesota-whitecaps-join-nwhl\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Whitecaps join NWHL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NWHL has announced that they are expanding for the 2018-19 season. The Minnesota Whitecaps will become the fifth team in the league. Like the other four NWHL teams, they will be owned by the league upon entering the league. This structure has been in place since the NWHL was formed in 2015. The Boston Pride,\u00a0Metropolitan Riveters and Connecticut Whale are currently still owned by the league, while the Buffalo Beauts have been sold to Pegula Sports and Entertainment (the same owners as the Buffalo Sabres<\/a>\u00a0and Buffalo Bills).<\/p>\n

\n

IT\u2019S OFFICIAL: The NWHL Expands to Minnesota \u2014 Welcome, the Minnesota Whitecaps!
\n?:https:\/\/t.co\/cTvHLcu9ca<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/CiH9Z8vMEX<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NWHL (@NWHL) May 15, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI am thrilled to welcome the National Women\u2019s Hockey League to the State of Hockey,\u201d\u00a0said Minnesota state Governor Mark Dayton <\/strong>in a press release<\/a>.\u00a0The State of Hockey becomes the fourth state to join have both an NHL team and NWHL team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are ecstatic to welcome Minnesota to the NWHL,\u201d said league founder and commissioner\u00a0Dani Rylan<\/strong>. \u201cMinnesota is an essential part of women\u2019s hockey in North America.”<\/p>\n

Minnesota Whitecaps: Already a Presence in the Community<\/h2>\n

The Whitecaps were originally founded in 2004. The team was part of the Western Women’s Hockey League from its founding, until the 2010-11 season when the league dissolved. However, the Whitecaps remained in operation, playing exhibition games over the last seven years. The NWHL purchased the team from their current ownership.<\/p>\n

The Whitecaps roster has included some notable names over the years like Julie\u00a0Chu<\/strong>, Angela Ruggiero<\/strong>,\u00a0Natalie\u00a0Darwitz,\u00a0<\/strong>Hannah Brandt<\/strong>, Kendall Coyne<\/strong>, Jocelyn Lamoureux-Davidson<\/strong>, Monique Lamoureux-Morando<\/strong> and Alex Rigby<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The league tested out the waters in Minnesota by hosting last years all-star game there. This proved to be a success with the Whitecaps joining the league. It will be interesting to see how they do in their first season in the league.<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Riveters won the 2018 Isobel Cup, and now have one more team to face if they hope to defend their championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NWHL has announced that they are expanding for the 2018-19 season. The Minnesota Whitecaps will become the fifth team in the league. Like the other four NWHL teams, they will be owned by the league upon entering the league. This structure has been in place since the NWHL was formed in 2015. The Boston […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2360,"featured_media":29184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1394,34],"tags":[3311,1373],"class_list":["post-29171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cwhlnwhl","category-news","tag-minnesota-whitecaps","tag-nwhl"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}