On Wednesday April 22nd, the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) announced that they would be expanding to Toronto, Canada, adding a sixth team to the five team league and extending the league further into North America.
It wasn’t long after the CWHL ceased operations in May of 2019 that the NWHL announced it’s plans to expand to two Canadian markets, setting their sights on seven teams by their sixth year of operation.
The confidence in the NWHLs expansion is helped by the league’s partnership with, and success on, the streaming platform Twitch, “resulting in games and a weekly talk show generating 8 million views – a 93 percent increase from the previous season.” – NWHL Toronto.
The announcement came at a time where there is little to no sports news for fans to get excited for and quickly sent the NWHL social media into an excited frenzy. Players, coaches, fans and league officials all shared their excitement through retweeting and sharing posts from the NWHL social media accounts and quickly warmed to the Toronto social media accounts.
On Twitter, the new Toronto team was welcomed excitedly by fans. Their online presence has already found an audience, thought about a rivalry with Boston and made a splash at the NWHL 2020 Draft.
Toronto’s new team also added five established players to their roster before the draft took place. Defenders, and Ontario natives, Kristen Barbara and Emma Greco, Forwards Taylor Woods and Shiann Darkangelo, and Goaltender Elaine Chuli.
“We welcome Kristen, Elaine, Shiann, Emma and Taylor – five talented and highly driven players who will help our team contend for the Isobel Cup while advancing women’s professional hockey in the inclusive and incredible city of Toronto,” said Digit Murphy, President of the unnamed Toronto team. “I’m very proud that these five outstanding leaders, who all are connected to the Toronto community, have joined our roster.”
Digit Murphy is part of the Tronto expansion team’s new leadership group that includes former Harvard ice-hockey player and business owner Johanna Neilson Boynton, and Tyler Tumminia who has been named one of Top 25 Female Executives by Bleacher Report. Murphy will serve as the team’s President after “more than three decades of experience leading teams at Brown University and in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League“.
NWHL commissioner Dani Rylan also took to Twitter to express her proud moment.
The Toronto mayor, John Tory, added about the expansion, “Toronto is without questions the sports capital of Canada. The addition of a Toronto team for the National Women’s Hockey League is most welcome by our city and one that I know many Torontonians will embrace.”
The expansion team is unnamed right now, but is asking fans to visit http://toronto.nwhl.zone/name-your-team where they can submit potential names and even teir own logo design ideas.
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