New Professional Women’s Hockey League Reveals Boston Team

The Professional Women’s Hockey League revealed Tuesday six franchises, including a team in Boston.

There also will be teams in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Minneapolis-St. Paul and the New York City area. The inaugural PWHL season will begin in January.

However, before puck drops, rosters will start forming starting with an initial 10-day free agency period on Sept. 1. The majority of the league’s founding players will be selected during the 2023 PWHL Draft on Sept. 18.

“On behalf of ownership and our board, I am honored to announce the official name of our new league and to unveil the blueprint for this historic inaugural season. And we are especially proud to be providing this new platform for elite women athletes,” said Los Angeles Dodgers President Stan Kasten, who is one of the financial backers of the league, in a press release. “Our great game has the power to captivate and connect sports fans everywhere, and we are thrilled to plant roots in six of North America’s most passionate hockey markets.”

“(Tuesday), we look ahead to a phenomenal future for the PWHL,” said Jayna Hefford, PWHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations. “We have never seen more excitement and demand for women’s sports, and through the launch of this league, the top women’s players in the world will have the opportunity to reach even greater heights.”

The 2023-24 PWHL regular season will have 24 games on its schedule. The full schedule and team general managers were not announced Tuesday, but the league said there would be an announcement “in the coming months.”

Official team names also were not announced, but the PWHL Boston franchise created social media accounts Tuesday as part of the official announcement.