In a historic announcement from the NWHL, the league announced it is expanding to Toronto, who becomes the sixth franchise and the first team in Canada to join the NWHL. The team’s owner will be Johanna Neilson Boynton, who is the CEO and Co-Founder of Boynton Brennan Builders. Tyler Tumminia will be the club’s Chairman, and Digit Murphy will be President.
Allow us to introduce ourselves… Hey @NWHL 👋 How’s it going? pic.twitter.com/0WboVjcdVv — Toronto NWHL (@TorontoNWHL) April 22, 2020
As you may recall, the NWHL attempted to place a team in Toronto along with Montreal last year shortly after the CWHL folded. Due to ongoing issues and no additional investors, the league canceled expansion plans.
That wasn’t all as Toronto also announced it’s first five signings as they prepare for the 2020-21 season. The players are defenseman Kristen Barbara, a member of the 2019 Clarkson Cup champion Markham Thunder, goaltender Elaine Chuli, a member of the 2012 Gold Medal Team Canada U-18 World Championship, forward Shiann Darkangelo, who was part of the 2016 Canada gold medal team in the IIHF World Championships, defenseman Emma Greco, who spent last year with the Connecticut Whale and forward Taylor Woods, who was a member of the 2019 Clarkson Cup champion Markham Thunder.
We are happy to announce that @TorontoNWHL has signed their first 5 players for the upcoming season 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/odzpSJm216 — NWHL (@NWHL) April 22, 2020
The team name, venue, and additional staff will be named at a later date. You can help submit the team’s name and logo at http://toronto.nwhl.zone/name-your-team. The NWHL will begin its sixth season with all teams playing twenty games starting in November and concluded with the Isobel Cup playoffs in mid-March shortly before the kickoff of the 2021 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Halifax.
Adding Toronto to the fold will help the NWHL balance out the season schedule along with Connecticut, Metropolitan, Minnesota, Boston, and Buffalo. All of the NWHL games are on their official Twitch channel.
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