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PWHPA & PHF look to be merging. https://thehockeynews.com/womens/phf/phf-and-pwhpa-merger-underway?fbclid=IwAR24XyR03hDd3Z0gPEB88GDLhaUi7_dbo2pt-HIwZtyrs7PtinvdbyQh7og

No idea how they'd deal with adding teams or moving players around, but this sounds like a great start.

Edit- PWPHA owners (Mark Walter & Billie Jean King) bought the entire PHF and one of their first orders of business was to void all player contracts! They're using the PHF as a "base" for an entirely new league. I am fine with the idea of a merger, but unless they're going to increase player salaries, etc, I don't like the idea of all contracts being voided. These women have full time jobs, homes, families, kids in schools, etc. If the league essentially holds a full scale player draft and uproots someone from Boston & they suddenly will be playing in Minnesota, while making like $15k, that'll be bullshit.

https://thehockeynews.com/womens/phf/report-all-phf-contracts-voided-in-acquisition#:~:text=According%20to%20reports%2C%20all%20PHF,and%20Billie%20Jean%20King%20Enterprises.&text=The%20rumored%20%22merger%22%20has%20turned,will%20be%20acquiring%20the%20PHF.

Far less important than the players lives, I wonder if they'll keep teams in the same locations. I assume they'll add more after increasing the talent pool. Team names/logos? This will be interesting to watch unfold.

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Read that they're going to increase the salary cap, BUT there will only be 6 teams total! There are 7 in the PHF now, and they're adding the PWHPA players, so there "should" be enough players for like 9 team, but they say 6 teams of 23 players only. That's a huge cut. I guess they could expand after a good season or two, but that's a huge cut.

Also- they will change all the team names, as the new ownership group doesn't like the PHF team names. Franchise locations already planned to be cut- Ct (not surprising, unfortunately), Buffalo (a little surprising) and Boston (very surprising to me). So if you're any sort of collecting geek, this year's PHF jerseys will be the last of their kind.

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Some big updates in here https://thehockeynews.com/womens/pwhl/nhl-support-was-crucial-to-pwhl-success

I thought the plan was to have the phf play out this year and then change over to the new league. Nope! Draft in early Sept, cities are set, some neutral site games… If the NY team plays at the Isles-Rangers outdoor venue, maybe I’ll go.

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Each team allowed to sign 3 players ahead of the draft. Here's who they signed, although NY only has 2 signed as of when this was posted: https://www.sportsnet.ca/women-hockey/article/pwhl-signing-tracker-emily-clark-brianne-jenner-join-ottawa/
Names you'd expect to see go early.
Boston signed Hillary Knight and two others, not mentioned in this article. Initial UFA period ends Sept 10th. Draft is Sept 18th.

The draft will run in a snake format, so they'll draft 1-6, then 6-1, 1-6, 6-1... Each team has to have 28 players in camp, trimming to 23 for the season. With no farm teams, rostering only 23 seems really sketchy, unless they allow non-rostered practice players. The PHF did that.


Team GMs: PWHL team's General Managers
Danielle Marmer (Boston).
Natalie Darwitz (Minnesota).
Danièle Sauvageau (Montreal).
Pascal Daoust (New York).
Michael Hirshfeld (Ottawa).
Gina Kingsbury (Toronto).

Draft order: Minnesota, Toronto, Boston, New York, Ottawa and Montreal. Then Montreal, Ottawa, NY, Boston, TO, MN, back to original order... No trading of draft picks until after the inaugural season. Kinda weird.

Team names/logos still not revealed. They'd better be better than "6".

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Guess we'll see what happens. I honestly didn't mind a couple of the team names--Riveters and Beauts were awesome IMHO, Whitecaps was good but I hated the uniforms they came out with. Never could get on board with "Toronto Six" either, even though the name covered both hockey and municipal terms.

Kinda wish they'd resurrect a couple of the defunct CWHL names.

Full draft list- https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/pwhl-live-draft-tracker

Each team signed 3 UFAs prior to the draft, then drafted 15 players. Final rosters are to be 23 players/team, so there will be a lot of competition at training camps for those on PTOs.

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Training camps are set to start Nov 15th. Games are theoretically going to start shortly after Jan 1. But they say they're frantically working on everything. They don't even have offices yet. Everyone works from home. League is probably being born via Google Docs or Teams. That's kind of crazy, kind of cool.

They still haven't released team names/logos/color schemes. They said they may not even have logos this year due to time crunches. Dude, come on. If this league is going to work, they need to have kick ass uniforms for merch sales. If the uniforms are basic 2 colors + white or black, boring stripes and just a name or worse yet a city name, few people are going to buy them and the league will get little/no bottom-up promotion.

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Ehhhh that's fine. They can Washington Football Team it this year, and take the time to get some proper names and logos/uniforms designed later. Just come up with something better than "Commanders" if you're gonna take your time.

Just get the damned players on the ice and playing, the PWHPA was playing without a real team name anyway, no biggie here IMO.

[quote="Pokecheque"

Just get the damned players on the ice and playing, the PWHPA was playing without a real team name anyway, no biggie here IMO.[/quote]

Except that's what kept them from selling merch. I offered to buy my daughters PWPHA merch for Christmas one year and they looked at it and just said "nahhh". Sure, they shouldn't rush into bad names/logos, but there are tons of people out there with great ideas. The NWHL used to hold fan contests to design uniforms. Some looked amazing, and they made them third uniforms, picking one winner/year. You got a free uniform if you won. Grass roots things like that could work for a young league.

Choosing colors is very important. In an area like the NY team, they will either want something totally unique, or need to find a way to include something to incorporate the Rangers, Devils and Isles. Which would probably look like Walt Disney threw up. but if they go with just red, white and blue, it looks like they're trying to align with just the Rangers, and Isles/Devils fans probably won't be as interested.

Still, I look forward to seeing games. I just hope they can be streamed for free or really cheaply. The PHF priced itself out of my desire to stream games. It was cheaper to go than stream, but I usually couldn't make the games. If home, I'd have streamed half or whatever I could see.

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Admittedly they made things way harder on themselves by starting completely from scratch. But…whatever it ain’t my money.

I wonder also if they’re leaving the names and logo designs open because they’re still trying to come up with some kind of partnership with the NHL.

Good points. Hopefully the NHL gets really involved- for monetary reasons; not how to run a league. If they try to tell the women pride tape us banned they’ll have a revolution.

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The league logo is cool. That's a good sign.

https://news.thepwhl.com/professional-w ... ague-logo/

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Yeah I like that one way better than the PHF.

So the PWHL dropped its year 1 jerseys. 6 teams, 6 colors, all the same stitching, no logos/names. Just the city name written diagonally. I’ve seen far better beer league jerseys.
And wtf did NY do to deserve teal? I really want to like this league and my local team.
I’m hoping this is just to have something out by Black Friday… and they’ll come out with names and logos as the season starts. I hope.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Teal is a interesting choice, it's more like patina green, paying homage to the Statue of Liberty. Both the NY Liberty of the WNBA and Gotham FC of NWSL have that as their main color.

I still prefer Riveters though.

The Whale played much closer to my house so I liked them, having met a bunch of them with my girls, but the Riveters logo was awesome. I don't understand why this group bought an existing league and then doesn't use any of the team names/logos. I guess they want a totally fresh start, but some of the teams had good names/logos. Some were crap... but it's just weird to buy the league and change everything.

I hadn't thought of the statue of liberty. If they do something with that as a logo later on, then maybe it'll win me over. As of now, yuck.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Seems strange to play the first season with plain jerseys and no team names. Wyshynski is blasting the hell outta them, saying you're not going to garner excitement this way. I agree somewhat, but it may be that they want to do it right and not rush things, but finances dictate they start the season on time.

I get that the focus should really be on the hockey, but when they look like they're wearing generic practice jerseys, it's just boring/disappointing before the hockey starts. I was hoping for some cool designs; hoping to get my daughters jerseys for Christmas. I'm not buying these things, or any other merch (if any becomes available) when it's this boring. I mean, can you really buy a Yeti mug with "New York" written on it? No, you can't.

I guess my biggest annoyance is that they had a noticeable social media presence like the jerseys were going to be really special. I saw the Toronto one and said "that's pretty boring. Next. Okay, that one's boring too. Next. Hey, wait a second, they're all the same layout, just different colors/city names."

I know, I'm beating a dead horse now. But so are these jerseys. They started it!

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Seriously? This really is rich people problems. You have a women's hockey league. Be thankful......or better yet, send them your suggestions, although I'm pretty sure they are already aware and have their reasons.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

I get that, but at the same time, it could be so much better! There are already dicks who laugh at everything they post simply because it's a women's league. Make it look better and more respectable/interesting and shut some of those guys up. It's not that hard to design an interesting jersey. Beer leagues are full of cool jerseys. This is doing the bare minimum, and it's not like it's the coaches designing them. It wouldn't be taking away from getting the on-ice product ready.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.