What Effect is the PWHL Going to Have on the SDHL?
The SDHL is forever changed by the emergence of the PWHL.
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 women’s hockey pro league structure should work the go-to examples are in North American men’s sports. There’s the MLB with its AAA, AA, and A minor leagues where players go either once they’ve been drafted or after leaving another league to begin the journey up the MLB ladder. There’s 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.
This has been an issue in women’s hockey since the first attempts at pro leagues being created. If you couldn’t 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, it’s 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 they’re 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 it’s 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 women’s hockey league, which hosts some of the best European players in the world.
