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44-734: The Chimos were founded in 1973 following ads looking for women in the Edmonton area who wanted to play hockey. By the 1980s, they had become the dominant women's team in Alberta, capturing every Alberta provincial championship, except for one, from 1982 to 1997. Representing Alberta at the Esso Canadian national championships 16 times in their history, the Chimos have captured the National title four times: 1984, 1985, 1992 and 1997. In 2001,

88-718: A "Dream Gap" tour to showcase top-level women's hockey. In 2022, the PWHPA entered a partnership with Mark Walter and Billie Jean King , whose business enterprises went on to purchase the PHF in 2023. The PWHPA then organized a formal union and negotiated a collective bargaining agreement as part of the establishment of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL), which began play in January 2024 with six teams in Canada and

132-545: A format overhaul in 2008, in which the top two teams from the WWHL (representing British Columbia , Alberta , and Saskatchewan ) and the top two teams from the CWHL (representing Ontario and Quebec ) automatically qualified for the event. Teams representing the provinces without teams in either league filled out the remainder of the field, due to Hockey Canada requirements that every province be represented. The Abby Hoffman Cup

176-490: A group of volunteer business people to form the CWHL. The league, which would operate as a non-profit business, would be responsible for all travel, ice rentals, uniforms, and some equipment costs, but would not pay salaries. Unlike the NWHL, in which teams were independently owned and operated, the CWHL was to be centrally run, and teams formed affiliations with local youth hockey associations. In addition to top Canadian players,

220-672: A local host team. The winners won the Abby Hoffman Cup with gold medals, the runners up won the Fran Rider Cup with silver medals, and the third-place team won the Maureen McTeer Trophy with bronze medals. The Abby Hoffman Cup was donated by the Ontario Women's Hockey Association. From 1982 to 2003, the teams were split into two somewhat even groups for round-robin play before the knockout games and

264-731: A new Toronto team; and expansion into the United States with a team in Boston. This left the league with five teams: Montreal, Brampton, and the Burlington Barracudas , along with the Boston Blades and the Toronto Furies (who were referred to simply as Toronto CWHL during their inaugural season). The league also held its first draft in 2010 , although it was limited the three Greater Toronto Area teams as

308-699: The Calgary Inferno . Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points. The following roster is from . and These are the top-ten point, goal, and assist scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed WWHL regular season. Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; G/G = Goals per game; A/G = Assists per game; * = current Chimos player Note: Statistics kept since 2004. Esso Women%27s Nationals Hockey Canada's Women's National Championship for

352-569: The Manitoba Maple Leafs —as independent teams without a league to play in. The new CWHL team was initially called Team Alberta; it adopted the unofficial Alberta Honeybadgers moniker for its second season, before settling on becoming the Calgary Inferno in 2013. These developments also led to the Clarkson Cup becoming the playoff championship trophy solely for the CWHL. Changes continued in 2012 with Burlington folding and

396-704: The Mississauga Chiefs in the final. In 2008–09 , the Montreal Stars won 25 of 30 games and the CWHL Championship before going on to win the first Clarkson Cup over the Minnesota Whitecaps . The Stars would take a third straight regular season championship the following season . The CWHL did not have an individual playoff champion in 2010 but instead had a Clarkson Cup qualifying playoff. The Stars and Chiefs qualified for

440-633: The National Canadian Women's Hockey Championship , was created for the professional teams, under the same format. However, this was not without cost as Hockey Canada elected to discontinue the Esso Women's Nationals in favour of the Esso Cup , a new national female midget 'AAA' championship. Canadian Women%27s Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League ( CWHL ; French : Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF )

484-443: The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to the professionalization of women's hockey. The CWHL was an initiative spearheaded by players including Jennifer Botterill , Lisa-Marie Breton , Allyson Fox, Kathleen Kauth , Kim McCullough, and Sami Jo Small , all of whom played in the original National Women's Hockey League , which disbanded in 2007. The players worked with

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528-683: The Vanke Rays , both based in Shenzhen . The expansion plan was designed to help Chinese hockey development in preparation for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics , while bringing significant partnership revenue to the CWHL. In order to minimize travel, each North American team made one trip to China to play a four-game series, while the Chinese teams likewise had road games in North America grouped into sets. Kunlun Red Star's debut season

572-621: The Abby Hoffman Cup, sometimes known as the Esso Women's Nationals for sponsorship reasons, was a senior ice hockey championship from 1982 to 2008. The first edition was hosted in Brantford , Ontario from 1-4 April 1982 (originally known as the Shoppers Drug Mart Women's Nationals). The competition typically featured nine or ten teams, mostly the provincial champions but also sometimes provincial all-star teams or

616-484: The CWHL also announced a partnership with You Can Play , an LGTBQ organization, to promote inclusiveness—it was the first league to partner with the organization. In early 2015, the CWHL began working with entrepreneur Dani Rylan to establish an expansion team in New York. However, Rylan ultimately changed plans and instead announced the establishment of a new National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) with four teams in

660-399: The CWHL and NWHL, noting that the Chinese partnership had kept the league operating during the previous two seasons. The board of directors stated that it owed its players more than the league could continue to provide, suggested that there may only be room for one women's league, and encouraged the players to push any successor leagues to pay a livable wage. Players were not consulted prior to

704-629: The Chimos were approached to join the National Women's Hockey League, along with their provincial rival, the Calgary Oval X-Treme . They joined the league in 2002 with the Calgary Oval X-Treme and the Vancouver Griffins to form the NWHL's Western Division. The Griffins folded after only one season, leaving just the two Alberta teams. Consistently overmatched by their Calgary rivals, and lacking true competition in

748-614: The Cup tournament from their regular season records and the Thunder qualified through the playoff. The Thunder then played into the Clarkson Cup final but lost to the Whitecaps. Prior to the 2010–11 season , the league underwent a structural reorganization, which it considered a relaunch. Changes included the Chiefs, Ottawa Senators , and Vaughan Flames ceasing operations; the addition of

792-641: The GTA team that they left. Players who wished to leave one GTA team to go to the other GTA team could only be moved upon a trade between the teams. In November 2012, the CWHL announced partnerships between the Furies and Inferno with their local National Hockey League (NHL) counterparts, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames . The announcement marked a reversal from the position that sponsorships could not be directed to particular teams but only to

836-454: The NWHL as the West division did not fly east, the Alberta clubs broke away from the NWHL to help form the five team Western Women's Hockey League in 2004 before the two leagues were once again united under the NWHL banner in 2006. However, this was short lived as the NWHL and WWHL could not reach an agreement upon a playoff schedule. As a result, the merger was not consummated. With the collapse of

880-655: The NWHL in the summer of 2007, the Western Women's Hockey League was once again a completely independent league. The goal of the new league is to promote women’s hockey in the west. For 2011–12 season, The Edmonton Chimos and Strathmore Rockies combined to form Team Alberta the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). The new team played in different locations in Alberta. The team became based out of both Calgary and Edmonton to accommodate all of western Canada's elite female players. Team Alberta would later become

924-479: The NWHL. The CWHL's move came shortly after the NWHL cut player salaries in half. Alongside the introduction of stipends, the CWHL also boosted prize money and salaries for coaches and managers. Despite the move to pay stipends, the CWHL remained registered as an amateur league with the Canada Revenue Agency . In January 2018, the Furies' Jessica Platt came out as a transgender woman, making her

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968-610: The Nationals alongside an interlocking playoff format prevented the merger from taking place - the Nationals eventually would take place mere days after the WWHL playoffs and before the NWHL playoffs. With the collapse of the NWHL soon after and the establishment of the Canadian Women's Hockey League in Eastern Canada, the Esso Nationals, which will also serve as a playoff of sorts between the WWHL and CWHL, received

1012-604: The Northeastern United States. The new league claimed to be the first true professional women's hockey league, offering player salaries ranging from $ 10,000 to $ 26,000 per year. However, in 2017 the NWHL cut salaries in half, calling its stability into question. The CWHL announced on June 5, 2017, that it would expand to China , adding Kunlun Red Star WIH , a team controlled by the Kontinental Hockey League 's Kunlun Red Star , and

1056-489: The Russian Zhenskaya Hockey League . Relations between the CWHL and the NWHL remained strained in the years after the latter was established. While the NWHL offered salaries, the league was persistently criticized for a lack of professionalism and its approach to growing the women's game. Over the years there were talks about merging the entities, with some women's hockey leaders emphasizing

1100-699: The US. Numbers in parentheses denotes number of titles won to that point. In 2009 and 2010, the Clarkson Cup was awarded in a playoff between teams from the CWHL and the WWHL ; Minnesota was the 2010 WWHL champion and defeated Brampton in the 2010 Clarkson Cup finals. The first league draft was held on August 12, 2010, at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto ; Olympic gold medalist Tessa Bonhomme

1144-408: The club pool. The format was the same for both the club and team tournaments: after the four teams played a single round robin pool, the four teams were seeded based on their standings and played a single-elimination tournament for the championship. This arrangement had lasted for only one year; in 2009, the dispute between Clarkson and the Clarkson Cup 's artists was settled, and a new championship,

1188-454: The decision, and tended to express shock and anger at the abrupt closure of the league. The Furies, Les Canadiennes, and the Inferno all released statements that their organizations intended to continue supporting women's hockey and pursuing professional opportunities. However, The Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays proved to be the only former CWHL team to participate in a 2019–20 season by joining

1232-563: The establishment of a unified, financially stable women's professional league. The PWHPA itself had a tumultuous relationship with the NWHL—which was rebranded as the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) in 2021—rejecting overtures at merging and holding out for the construction of a new league with greater financial backing. For several years, players with the PWHPA courted corporate, media, and NHL partnerships, and organized

1276-522: The first transgender woman to come out in North American professional hockey, and second transgender professional player after Harrison Browne came out as a transgender man in the NWHL in 2016. On July 19, 2018, league commissioner Brenda Andress announced she would be stepping down, and Jayna Hefford was named interim commissioner. The league consolidated its Chinese teams ahead of the 2018–19 season by merging Vanke and Kunlun, rebranding

1320-472: The four all-star teams (and thus two championships were awarded at the Esso Nationals), with the intent that the club pool (with the Clarkson Cup as its championship) would be splintered off into its own tournament at some point in the future. The 2008 tournament also saw the first American team to qualify, with the Minnesota Whitecaps joining the Calgary Oval X-Treme in representing the WWHL in

1364-502: The league creating a new draft system whereby players in Boston, Alberta, and Montreal could choose which team they would play on, while players in the GTA could be drafted to play for either of the two GTA teams—Brampton or Toronto. A player's pre-draft declaration of the regional area in which they wished to play could be altered after the draft. As a result of these rules, players wishing to leave GTA teams to play in Boston, Alberta, or Montreal could do so as desired, without compensation to

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1408-417: The league decided that without paying salaries, it was infeasible to force players to relocate. The league announced on April 19, 2011, that it would expand to Alberta ahead of the 2011–12 season , welcoming a single team combining the former Edmonton Chimos and Strathmore Rockies of the WWHL. The move effectively marked the end of the WWHL, and controversially left its remaining teams—the Whitecaps and

1452-567: The league ultimately attracted American and international players. In 2007, Hockey Canada announced that it would revamp the Esso Women's Nationals , with the Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL) finalists meeting the CWHL finalists in a playoff. Beginning in 2009, teams from the two leagues competed for the Clarkson Cup at the end of the season. The Brampton Thunder won the first CWHL championship in 2008, winning 4–3 over

1496-546: The league, the NWHL announced plans to expand into Canada with franchises in Toronto and Montreal. The Toronto Six became the league's first Canadian franchise in 2020, and the Montreal Force were added in 2022. After the collapse of the CWHL, more than 200 prominent women's players launched a boycott of North American leagues and founded the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) to work towards

1540-622: The league, with the partnerships providing funding for coaches, equipment, and travel expenses, and greater opportunities for marketing and promotion. The Leafs partnership also led to the first CWHL All-Star Game in 2014, hosted by the Leafs at Air Canada Centre . In 2015, the league announced a similar arrangement between the Stars and the Montreal Canadiens , which led to the Stars re-branding as Les Canadiennes de Montréal . In 2012,

1584-484: The need for a unified league and others stating that two or more could coexist. The relationship was further strained by a refusal by the NHL to fully back either entity, and suggesting that it had interest in starting its own women's league from scratch. As late as January 2019, NWHL commissioner Dani Rylan was pursuing the CWHL about a merger. On April 2, 2019, just days after the CWHL board announced its decision to dissolve

1628-468: The ranking or medal games. From 2004 to 2007, the teams were split into two distinct groups from which all five Pool A teams advanced to the knockout phase with only the Pool B winners. In 2008, the last year for the competition, the teams were again slit into two distinct groups, but only the four Pool A teams played for medals ( CWHL and WWHL teams) while the four Pool B teams played for a B title. Since

1672-495: The split between the National Women's Hockey League and the Western Women's Hockey League in 2004, this was the only event in the professional women's hockey calendar that saw teams from the two leagues play against each other. Although an agreement between the NWHL and the WWHL was reached in 2006 to merge the two leagues (wherein the latter would be absorbed as a separate division of the former), difficulty in setting up

1716-418: The team as Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays . Before the end of the year, the league also restructured its board after losing its largest financial backer amid alleged economic challenges. On March 31, 2019, it was announced by the CWHL board of directors that the league would discontinue operations effective May 1. The league cited financial instability due in part to the fragmentation of corporate sponsors between

1760-570: Was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area , Montreal , and Ottawa , the league expanded into Alberta (2011) and internationally in the United States (2010) and China (2017) throughout its tenure. The league discontinued operations on May 1, 2019 , after 12 seasons. For most of its existence, the CWHL was registered as an amateur association but

1804-431: Was a success, with the team advancing to the Clarkson Cup final, losing 2–1 in overtime to the Thunder. Alongside the expansion, the league announced it would also begin paying its players for the first time. Player stipends were set to a minimum of $ 2,000 per season and a maximum of $ 10,000, with a $ 100,000 salary cap for teams. This made the CWHL the second North American women's hockey league to pay its players after

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1848-553: Was awarded to both the club pool and the team pool champions. Similarly, the Fran Rider Cup and the Maureen McTeer Trophy (the trophies awarded for the silver and bronze medalists at the Esso Nationals) were awarded in both the club and team pool tournaments. To level the playing field (which in recent years had been dominated by club teams) for 2008, the four club teams played in a separate tournament from

1892-402: Was considered the top women's hockey league in North America. The National Women's Hockey League, later re-branded the Premier Hockey Federation , launched in the US in 2015 and was the first women's league to pay salaries. The CWHL began paying players a stipend during its last two seasons before it folded, citing financial difficulties. The collapse of the league resulted in the establishment of

1936-486: Was the first overall selection. The annual CWHL scoring champion was awarded the Angela James Bowl . In 2011–12 , rookie Meghan Agosta set a CWHL single-season record with 80 points. Kim St-Pierre (2008–09) and Sami Jo Small (2009–10) hold the single-season record with five shutouts. Sportsnet aired the CWHL playoffs and the league's All-Star Game from 2014–15 through 2018–19. The most watched game

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