Toronto's Brittany Howard drives Minnesota's Maggie Flaherty into the boards during second period PWHL action in Toronto on May 1.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The Professional Women’s Hockey League has drawn applause for its fast, physical style of play, prompting conversation about physicality in other levels of women’s and girls hockey.
Fans find it entertaining. The PWHL’s players enjoy the leeway for more bodychecking than had been allowed in international play. But there were growing pains during the debut season as teams and referees learned to discern what would be penalized in this new league. Players had varying levels of experience with bodychecking. Some had learned to deliver or absorb hits while playing on boys teams when they were young. Some, who came up in girls hockey, say they were learning on the fly.
“I remember when I absolutely laid out Jaime Bourbonnais in the first-ever PWHL game and I expected to get a penalty but I didn’t, and I was like, ‘Oh, we can do this?’” recalled Toronto forward Emma Maltais. “It was an adjustment for the refs, and the players and coaches. But after a year, we should be to the point where we are used to it now.”
New York’s Bourbonnais says that hit in the first game caught her unaware. She and Maltais are Canadian Olympic teammates and have played in lots of physical games, but bodychecking is typically penalized in women’s international hockey, so that had been instinctual for them. But the PWHL allows bodychecking, within limits, when there is clear intention of playing the puck.
“I wasn’t expecting it, because we hadn’t had that in our game before,” Bourbonnais recalls of that first hit. “A lot of us played boys hockey, so some of us hit when we were younger, but I hadn’t done it since I was 13 years old. To be honest, I don’t think it’s still that clear. I think we’re learning as we’re going.”
Readying to drop the puck Nov. 30 on Season 2, the PWHL has announced rule clarifications to Rule 52.1 regarding bodychecking, which should help the on-ice officials. Also, the PWHL will now assess a major penalty and game misconduct for illegal checks to the head.
“I think what the league’s trying to get away from is when you’re skating in different directions, and you’re making contact,” said Toronto’s Renata Fast, one of the PWHL’s most frequent hitters last year. “But if you’re skating in the same direction as a player, you have that green light.”
Some players did some extra things in the off-season to prep themselves for physical hockey. Toronto Sceptres rookie forward Julia Gosling, who was just drafted out of St. Lawrence University, added boxing workouts “just to help with balance and centre of gravity before the hitting comes around,” because she’s fresh off the NCAA game in which she wasn’t exposed to bodychecking.
Toronto Forward Emma Maltais comes off worse in a collision with Ottawa Forward Emily Clark during PWHL action between Toronto and Ottawa on March 23 at TD Place Arena, in Ottawa.Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
Sceptres second-year forward Victoria Bach joined an MMA gym to do sparring workouts, hoping to build more confidence with physicality. She also attended body-contact sessions with a hockey-skills coach and learned how to absorb a hit.
“I played girls hockey growing up, so wasn’t really exposed to that much hitting,” Bach said. “Working on those areas, I think, will really help me this season.”
It’s been a learning curve to figure out how to help players with bodychecking. Last year, Ottawa’s team invited former NHL player Marc Methot to run a session on it.
“The upside is, it’s a fun, fast game. The downside is there were probably more injuries in Year 1 than we wanted,” said Ottawa Charge coach Carla MacLeod, herself a Canadian Olympic gold medalist. “It put a smile on the players’ faces to go play the game that they’ve physically trained for, and as we settled into last season, there was lot of value added [with the bodychecking]. But we’re learning. We don’t have a history of this being part of our game, or a history of knowing how to coach it.”
Daryl Watts, who played in Ottawa last season and Toronto this season, thanks her days playing with boys for the awareness she has on the ice.
“I’ve always said that girls who played boys hockey have greater vision on the ice,” Watts said. “Because when there’s hitting, you have to be more aware and have your head up. I believe that hitting makes the game better.”
Minnesota’s coach, Ken Klee, recalls showing films to player, in which they were leaving themselves vulnerable to getting hit.
“There was a steep learning curve with it,” Klee said. “But by the time playoffs rolled around, our team was very comfortable with the physicality, giving it as well as receiving it.”
Minnesota’s Walter Cup MVP Taylor Heise, last year’s first overall draft pick, went into the PWHL with the same mentality she’d had as the Patty Kazmaier Award winner out of the University of Minnesota. She believed she was bigger, faster and stronger than others and could just skate around them. In the NCAA players would get penalized for bodychecking her, so it didn’t happen as often. Not the case in the PWHL, though. Heise recalls seeing a online video of huge hits in the PWHL “and I was getting rocked in four of them.
“Our league sparked a lot of conversations, and it was exciting to see our fans excited, and it was great to be part of it, but it also took a lot of getting used to,” Heise said. “I’d say we were all learning together, and we’re all going to understand it more this year. Sometimes in practice, we were like ‘that’s not legal. But wait, is it? I’m not sure.’”
The new coach of the New York Sirens, Greg Fargo, coached the women’s hockey team at Colgate University last year and says there has been lots of conversation about whether there should be more body contact permitted in women’s NCAA hockey. It is the main feeder of talent to the PWHL.
Toronto's Emma Maltais sends Ottawa's Ashton Bell into the boards during a PWHL game in Ottawa on March 2.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
“Much like how men’s college hockey is preparing their players to play in the NHL, a lot more of those conversations are happening on the women’s college side now, because they want their players to move on in this league,” Fargo said. “Last year, we started to see it trickle down into the college game a little bit more. And I think in due time, it will become the standard in the women’s game.”
Physicality has been a prevalent topic of conversation within the NCAA in recent years as the female players have grown faster, fitter and more skilled. It was on the agenda at the American Hockey Coaches Association annual convention in Naples this past May.
“We want to prepare them right for that next phase so that they’re protected,” said Nadine Muzerall, the women’s hockey coach at Ohio State University, which had eight players selected in the 2024 PWHL draft. “It’s also a safety issue to prepare these women for success at the next level. I don’t want to throw a player in the water and hope she swims. I want to prepare her for that.”
There are a couple of U Sports players in PWHL training camps looking to land roster spots. And nine players were just drafted to the PWHL out of the Swedish Women’s Hockey League, which does have bodychecking.
Players such as Bach, who are back for a second PWHL season, reflect on what it could be like for females to learn bodychecking skills earlier in their playing careers.
“Maybe starting earlier in their grassroots, so by time they get to pro, they are really familiar with how to use their body,” Bach said. “From a safety perspective, too, it’s super important. You don’t want to see people get injured.”