PHF Announces Montreal Expansion Team After COVID-19 Delay

The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) announced Tuesday that Montreal is finally getting its own professional women’s hockey team. The announcement comes after 18 months of the league working to create the team.

This is the third time the league has expanded since its establishment in 2015. The unnamed squad makes for the seventh team in the PHF overall, heading into the league’s eighth season.

The team will be based in Montreal, Quebec and becomes the second PHF franchise based in Canada, aside from the Toronto Six who were established in 2020. The new team will train at Centre 21.02, a 2,500-seat arena in Verdun, Quebec.

This is the first time women’s hockey makes its return to Montreal since the Les Canadiennes, a squad of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. The CWHL folded after the 2019 season.

“This is a very exciting time for the PHF and the growth of professional women’s hockey. The city of Montreal and province of Quebec have a rich hockey history that the PHF is proud to officially be a part of,” Reagan Carey, PHF commissioner hired back in May, said in an article on the PHF’s website.

“The introduction of one new PHF team in 2022-23 will help us build a solid and sustainable future, one step at a time. We will continue to evaluate additional expansion opportunities across North America beyond next season.”

The new team will be led by President Kevin Raphaël and Vice President Emmanuel Anderson. Raphaël is no stranger to women’s hockey, and the two have been business partners for over 10 years in all different fields.

“Professional women’s hockey is back in Montreal, and Emmanuel and I are very excited to work with the PHF to help grow the women’s game across the entire province of Quebec,” Raphaël said. 

The squad has some ground to cover, as they will need to field a roster two months after PHF free agency opened.

The new franchise’s team name and logo will be released in the coming weeks. The 2022-2023 PHF regular season schedule has yet to be announced.