Many people know about the men’s professional National Hockey League, known as the NHL, but what about women’s hockey? In 2015, The Premier Federation was established to allow women hockey players to continue their careers after college. This league was not comparable to the NHL and did not receive much recognition. 

As of August 2023, women’s hockey players started signing for the Professional Women’s Hockey League, which began on January 1st, 2024. The first female players to sign were Emily Clark, Brianne Jenner, and Emerance Maschmeyer for Ottawa, on September 5th. 

With the PWHL being in full swing with the new year, this league has gained attention from hockey fans all over. The league consists of Montreal, Minnesota, Boston, Toronto, Ottawa, and New York. Each of the six teams has a variety of talented female athletes, who are eager to play at the professional level. 

Some of the females have played in high-level hockey at the Olympics, and are looking forward to representing this new league. Known players such as Hilary Knight.representing Boston, Jince Dunne representing Ottawa, Dominique Kramer representing Minnesota, as well as Kendall Coyne on Minnesota. Players have promoted the league to hockey fans by using social media, especially towards female players who look up to these athletes. 

The PWHL recently broke a record for attendance in Minnesota during the Montreal versus Minnesota game, acquiring 13,316 fans to watch Grace Zumwinkle score a hat-trickfor the first time in the PWHL history. With this new league, many had doubts about the PWHL, thought it would be a buzzkill, and fade out quickly. With the numerous fans and social media promotion, the league is just getting started. 

With this league, women hockey players are finally getting the recognition they deserve, and a chance to inspire other young players. The PWHL has a full season ahead of them and is expected to gain more attention in their first-ever season.