PHILADELPHIA, PA – August 18, 2022 – The Professional Women’s Hockey Player Association (PWHPA) today announced plans for the 2022-23 season, which will feature 43 olympians, more than 75 players with national level experience and new top collage graduates. The season will officially begin the weekend of October 14th with the kick off of the most expansive Secret® Dream Gap Tour to date.
The Secret® Dream Gap Tour will see weekend stops in cities across North America, culminating in a championship weekend to determine the winner of the Secret® Cup. The fall schedule is set to include five weekend series, as well as a new special event, and will be released later this month.
“Coming into our fourth season, we continuously look for ways to increase opportunities for our players to compete as we move towards our ultimate goal of a professional league,” says Jayna Hefford, Operations Consultant for the PWHPA. “We also want to continue to provide an exciting product for hockey fans to enjoy, and we’re confident this will be our biggest, most competitive season to date. The depth of talent in women’s hockey increases every year and we’re excited to continue to support our world-class athletes and provide a platform for the best players in the world to perform.”
Four teams will hit the ice for the PWHPA this year— Team adidas, Team Harvey’s, Team Scotiabank and Team Sonnet— each with a roster of 25 players.
In order to boost competition and create never-before-seen teammate combinations, the four PWHPA teams will be region agnostic. Rosters will be created based on a new player ranking format, which was developed and reviewed by an external panel of women’s hockey experts. The panel—which contains individuals with NCAA, USports and international experience and knowledge—will evaluate and distribute the top 100 players, from a pool of more than 150 registrants representing six different countries, evenly across the four teams.
PWHPA athletes will continue to train in groups within one of five regions (Boston, Calgary, Minnesota, Montreal and Toronto), but will compete at events with teammates from across these hubs. Team rosters will be unveiled in September.
The PWHPA continues to work toward the launch of a top tier professional league for the best women in the world. At this time, the PWHPA is under NDA with potential partners and is unable to provide further comment.
About the PWHPA
Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association’s (PWHPA) mission is to promote, advance and support a viable professional women’s ice hockey league in North America that showcases the greatest product of women’s professional ice hockey in the world. The organization aims to provide a united voice to players advocating for the creation of a sustainable professional league. PWHPA is working to accomplish its mission by coordinating training needs and programming opportunities and collaborating with like-minded organizations to make hockey more inclusive for women and future generations. To learn more about PWHPA and the Secret® Dream Gap Tour, visit pwhpa.com.
Media Inquires:
Ashley McLellan
PWHPA Media Consultant
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