The Professional Women's Hockey League already had a successful initial season. At the end of the playoffs, it will have the chance to win the inaugural Walter Cup championship trophy.
The Bell Centre in Montreal, a historic venue for ice hockey, recently made history again by hosting a record-breaking 21,105 spectators for a professional women's ice hockey game. This milestone underscores the sport's growing popularity and signals a new era for women's ice hockey.
This past April, the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) culminated with a game between Montreal and Toronto, two of the league's founding teams.
Prior efforts to create a professional women's league stalled and eventually collapsed owing to poor attendance and financial difficulties; the league's early success in the United States and Canada coincided with the soaring interest in women's sports.
According to sports betting picks experts, the league's regular season games drew just under 393,000 spectators in five cities: Boston, New York, Minnesota, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.
In her Hall of Fame induction speech, five-time Olympian and former professional player Jayna Hefford said that the league's early success was largely due to the league's inclusive and enthusiastic fan base, many of whom had never heard of women's hockey before.
Treena Grevatt, an Englishwoman who relocated to Canada in 2000, found a new passion in the PWHL. The league has given her a new appreciation for the sport of hockey and served as a platform for her to connect with her new home and community.