There is plenty to look forward to ahead of the 2024-25 PWHL season.
The 2024-25 Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) regular season is right around the corner, and there are plenty of new additions to look forward to. From the announcement of team names to a former Concordia Stinger set to make her professional debut, the second season in PWHL history has the potential to bring some major excitement to the ice.
New stars
With every new PWHL season comes new players and new stars — and the Concordia Stingers will be represented when New York hits the ice this season.
The Sirens used their sixth-round draft pick to select former Stingers women’s hockey team captain Emmy Fecteau. The star forward built a lengthy resume during her time at Concordia. She led the Stingers in scoring during the 2022-23 season, became a USports Top 8 Academic All-Canadian in 2024, and won the USports National Championship twice. She was the only former USports player drafted in 2024.
The Sirens drafted Canadian National Team and three-time world champion, Sarah Fillier, with their first overall pick. The team signed Fillier to a one-year contract, meaning the 24-year-old phenom will join some of the top scorers in the league, such as the defender Ella Shelton and forward Alex Carpenter.
Team names
Perhaps the biggest headline of the offseason for the PWHL was the six new team names. In its inaugural season, the PWHL decided it was best to give extended time to name the original six teams. With that, the league announced the official team names on Sept. 9. Along with the naming of the teams, they unveiled new logos and jerseys, completely changing the marketing landscape for the league.
Locally, PWHL Montreal changed its team name to the Montreal Victoire and paid homage to the city by adding iconic Montreal details to the logo. The other Canadian teams include the Toronto Sceptres and Ottawa Charge. The Minnesota Frost, the Boston Fleet, and the New York Sirens round out the rest of the league.
Bigger venues, more fans
The first season of the PWHL saw teams play out multiple venues throughout the year. After the league’s immediate success at the beginning of the year, select games were relocated to larger arenas. This upcoming season, those experiments are here to stay.
The Victoire played out of their primary venue, the Verdun Auditorium, for six out of their 12 home games last season. The other venues included Place Bell, the Bell Centre, and PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This season, the Victoire will play at least 13 of its 15 home games at Place Bell, which holds a capacity of 10,000 fans compared to just over 4,000 at the Verdun Auditorium.
Elsewhere around the league, the New York Sirens are expected to play at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey — the home to the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL), which holds around 16,500 spectators. Last season, the team played out of Bridgeport, Connecticut’s Total Mortgage Arena, which holds around 10,000 fans.
A new season
The 2024-25 PWHL regular season kicks off on Nov. 30. Each team will play 30 regular season games, six more than last year.
With new rosters, team names, and venues, the upcoming season for the PWHL has the ingredients of an exciting one.
