The Canadian Women’s Hockey League kicks off its schedule on Saturday, and as is typical for the CWHL, the off-season brought many changes. Moves that would be seismic in a lot of pro leagues happen somewhat routinely in the best women’s hockey league in the world. Looming above all that is the National Hockey League, which commissioner Gary Bettman has already said would be more active in supporting a women’s league if there wasn’t already two competing leagues. Could a combined women’s league be run under the auspices of the NHL? But the fact that they are building toward 2022 is a reminder that the Olympics just finished last winter, which means women’s hockey is entering what is a traditional downtime, from an exposure standpoint.

Source: National Post October 12, 2018 19:30 UTC