After going through its inaugural season with only team colors differentiating its six teams, the Professional Woimen’s Hockey League will shift this season to nicknames and mascots, senior vice president for hockey operations Jayna Hefford said.

Known as Minnesota, Boston, Montreal, New York, Ottawa and Toronto since the PWHL was formed last fall, the league’s six teams will soon have names.

“Excited to let you know that we will have team names and logos that will be coming out very soon,” Hefford said Wednesday during a news conference introducing new Minnesota general manager Melissa Caruso. “That’s something that our team has been working incredibly hard on and I can’t wait to be able to share those with all of our fans.”

When those names will be announced remains to be determined. So, too, does the start date for a second season and team schedules, which Hefford said will include more neutral site games than last season.

The league played two games at neutral NHL arenas last season — at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena and Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena.

“We haven’t identified yet exactly where that will be,” Hefford said. “I would like to think at some point we’ll be able to expand our market reach outside of North America for particular neutral site games, but nothing has been confirmed at this date.”

X marks the spot

Minnesota played 11 home games at Xcel Energy Center last season and is expected to make the X their its in Season 2, as well.

“We don’t expect any changes for the upcoming season,” Hefford said, and Caruso said they also expect to seal a lease deal that would keep the team practicing at TRIA Rink.

Expansion talks

According to the PWHL, the league’s average attendance over 72 regular-season games was 5,448 per game. That rose to an average of 5,562 after the first nine postseason games.
The success has the league discussing expansion, although it doesn’t yet have plans to do so.

“That was one of the most pleasant surprises of Year 1, was how quickly we started talking about expansion, and various groups and markets that want to have teams,” Hefford said. “So, it’s been something talked about for a number of months now.

“We don’t have immediate plans, but we certainly are having discussions about what this league will look like in the next two years, five years, 10 years, and certainly expansion would be a part of those discussions.”

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