Before the PWHL, there were other professional women’s hockey leagues. Now that the PWHL has claimed the title of the top league, we have a new landscape and, potentially, new positions and roles for other leagues around the globe.
When looking at models for how a womenโs hockey pro league structure should work the go-to examples are in North American menโs sports. Thereโs the MLB with its AAA, AA, and A minor leagues where players go either once theyโve been drafted or after leaving another league to begin the journey up the MLB ladder. Thereโs the NBA with its G League where players can play while waiting for an opportunity to make an NBA roster. Of course, the biggest example, because of the hockey connection, is the NHL with the AHL and ECHL as its affiliated pro leagues.ย
This has been an issue in womenโs hockey since the first attempts at pro leagues being created. If you couldnโt make an NWHL, CWHL, PHF, and now a PWHL roster your future in high-level hockey was grim.
The chances of playing beer/rec league hockey and making it onto a pro roster down the road are minimal. With the amount of talent the PWHL is drawing in from all corners of the world, itโs going to go from minimal to next to zero for players to make a PWHL roster if they miss out on playing high-level hockey for a year.
The NCAA will continue to be where most future PWHL players come from. As the players graduate any time between when theyโre 22-24 years old usually making them PWHL ready the potential for PWHL roster turnover being moderately high is likely. Being just one season into the creation of this league itโs hard to tell what league will be the second biggest feeder into the PWHL. Out of the 42 picks made in the 2024 PWHL Draft, the NCAA blew everyone away with 66.7% (28 players) of the players drafted. However, in second was the SDHL at 21.4% (nine players) of the players picked which can be attributed to the SDHL being the premier European pro womenโs hockey league, which hosts some of the best European players in the world.
Since 2019/20, the SDHL has provided a significant opportunity for North American players to continue their careers. This influx is probably due to the collapse of the CWHL in the spring of 2019 but since that happened, even with the introduction of the PWHPA and continuation of the PHF until summer 2023, the amount of import players in the SDHL has stayed steady at ~40% since 2019. While the SDHL has provided opportunities for players in the past to give them a bit longer of a hockey career at a high level of hockey still, it purely just existed as Europeโs best womenโs hockey league. Just like how the SHL, Liiga, KHL, etc. have all come together realizing that a relationship with the NHL was inevitable, itโll be interesting to watch what kind of relationship the SDHL and PWHL form.
As mentioned above the SDHL lost nine (10 if you include Lina Ljungblom as well as possibly Klara Peslarova) players in the PWHL 2024 draft. They were big names in Daniela Pejลกovรก, Ronja Savolainen, and Noora Tulus to name a few. The SDHL isnโt devoid of talent now but how many more players make the jump to play in North America is the next question. What isnโt a question is that the SDHL will continue to be the league that European players aim for to play hockey and challenge themselves just like in menโs hockey where players will aim for the KHL, Liiga, NLA, and SHL. What we might see is the SDHL go from being a European league that moves European players into the PWHL to being the PWHLโs NHL equivalent to the AHL.
There are multiple appealing aspects to the SDHL. Itโs the second-best pro league in womenโs hockey featuring one of the best teams in womenโs hockey: Luleรฅ HF. If a player doesnโt end up on Luleรฅ then theyโll have a good idea of where they stand talent-wise when playing one of the most dominant teams in modern womenโs hockey history. Then there are the national team players from all over the world ranging from Akane Shiga to Tereza Plosovรก to Elisa Holopainen. Another appealing aspect of the SDHL is teams are starting to see more funding given to them. Itโs not a rich league by any means and odds are Luleรฅ still has the highest payroll in the league however weโve seen teams such as Skellefteรฅ AIK and Frรถlunda HC make significant strides in being competitive due to the funding theyโve gotten to bring in some absolute elite players.
Whatโs been a point of contention with the PWHL is they only have six teams whereas the SDHL runs with 10 teams which of course means more roster spots available. What players will be considering is the translation play factor. The SDHL plays on Olympic ice which means a lot of play takes place on the perimeter which does happen in the PWHL except thereโs a big difference which is you have more time on the perimeter in the SDHL compared to the PWHL. The counterpoint to that is the SDHL provides hitting in the same fashion the PWHL does. With how new the PWHL is with the hitting added to the game, players will find it appealing to go to the SDHL and work on physical contact there. That is of course unless they played for the University of Wisconsin or Ohio State University.
As I mentioned above the PWHL is still in its infancy so its effect on other leagues, such as the SDHL, will be unseen for now. This coming season wonโt be the answer to our question of whether the SDHL is going to be a big feeder/development league for the PWHL. What it can show is the start of a trend or at least the start of a journey in that direction. There are going to be two main questions to keep an eye on this coming season.
The first is how the SDHL players drafted in 2024 translate their games into the PWHL. In other words, how well did the SDHL prepare them for the PWHL? The other question is will the undrafted players who joined the SDHL for this coming season going to show the improvement PWHL teams are looking for to receive contracts for next season? Sixteen undrafted North American players have made their SDHL debuts this season. How much improvement are we going to see from them? Can they find the improvement they need to bridge the gap to the PWHL?
When it comes to any sports league teams are always looking for any advantages. In the case of the PWHL, itโs like Christmas for all the hockey nerds that fill these front offices in that there are so many possibilities to explore to find an advantage over other teams. You can expect most if not all PWHL teams to at least be keeping an eye on the SDHL to see what hidden European talents might be lurking there and will the SDHL help NCAA/USports players who might be close to the PWHL but not quite there yet actually reach the level of a productive PWHL player. If youโre also a nerd watching how the SDHL and the PWHL react to each others’ existence itโs something youโll want to keep an eye on.