The CWHL is back for a second season, this time without the Quebec franchise. The Ottawa Capital Canucks have returned as the Ottawa Senators Women's Hockey Club, wearing the same regalia as the NHL Senators, after having merged with the old Ottawa Raiders' NCCP program and entered into an affiliation with the men's team. They'll play mainly out of the Bell Sensplex in Kanata. Judging by the roster the Ottawa franchise is still the employer of choice for ex hockey Gee Gees.
Coincidentally, both the CWHL and Sweden's Dam Riksserien are in their
second year with six clubs. But the Swedish league is the opposite of
the CWHL in that five of the six clubs (AIK, Brynäs, Leksand, Linköping
and MODO) are associated with senior men's teams and only
Segeltorp is not. If the WNBA is your guide, then affiliations between
men's and women's clubs would be the way to go toward a pro women's
hockey league.
The WWHL is back with five clubs, but no Hayley Wickenheiser who has a goal and two assists in ten games with Eskilstuna Linden of Sweden's Division 1C.
In Switzerland, Lugano sit atop a seven team league ahead of ZSC Lions, Reinach, last year's playoff winners Langenthal, Küssnacht, Bomo Thun, and Visp.
Female hockey players suffer, or report, twice as many concussions as their male counterparts.