The PWHL was officially introduced on Aug. 29, 2023, and the first game was played on Jan. 1, 2024, at Toronto’s
Mattamy Athletic Centre. The league’s six founding teams include the Montréal Victoire, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres in Canada, and the Boston Fleet, New York Sirens and Minnesota Frost in the United States. PWHL Vancouver was announced as the 7th team on April 23, followed by PWHL Seattle on April 30. Both teams will begin play for the 2025-26 season.

The inaugural PWHL season featured 72 games (24 per team) followed by 90 games in Season 2 (30 per team). The PWHL Playoffs consist of best-of-five semi-finals between the top four teams, with the winners advancing to the best-of-five PWHL Finals for the Walter Cup.

PWHL rosters have a total of 162 players representing nine different countries: Canada (77), United States (62), Czechia (9), Sweden (5), Finland (3), Austria (2), Germany (2), France (1), Switzerland (1).

A total of 57 PWHL players competed in the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship and 58 of the league’s current players are Olympians.

The PWHL is a single entity ownership structure supported by Mark and Kimbra Walter. The Walter Group is also behind
the LA Dodgers and Chelsea FC.

The PWHL Board of Directors includes sports icon Billie Jean King, CEO of Billie Jean King Enterprises Ilana Kloss, LA Dodgers President Stan Kasten, and Dodgers SVP of Business Strategy Royce Cohen.

Business and Hockey Operations are led by Amy Scheer (EVP of Business Operations) and Jayna Hefford (EVP of Hockey Operations).

Standings – The PWHL uses a three-point standings system: three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, and one point for an overtime or shootout loss.

Jailbreak Rule – If a team scores a short-handed goal during a minor penalty, the penalty against them is immediately terminated, freeing their penalized player from the box.

No Escape Rule – Requires players on a team that take a penalty, which leads to penalty time on the clock, to remain on the ice until after the face-off that resumes action. This requirement, similar to the current No-Player-Change Rule that governs icing the puck, could lead to situations such as teams opening a penalty kill with three forwards and one defender on the ice until an opportunity for substitution arises.

Shootouts – In the regular season, if upon completion of the overtime the teams are still tied, the teams take part in a five-player shootout. There is no limit to how many times an individual player can shoot.

Pick Your Opponent – After the completion of the regular season, the number one seed may choose their first-round playoff opponent between the third and fourth seeds.