How many teams are there in Premier Hockey Federation? Detailed look at women's hockey league names

The Premier Hockey Federation is the top tier women's ice hockey league that sees the participation of a total of seven teams in the competition.

Out of the seven teams in the league, two are from Canada and the remaining five are from the United States. Here are the teams:

• Boston Pride
• Toronto Six
• Connecticut Whale
• Buffalo Beauts
• Montreal Force
• Metropolitan Riveters
• Minnesota Whitecaps

The league came into inception in 2015 and was known by the name National Women's Hockey League (NHWL). By 2020, the league was played under the NHWL name tag and in 2021 the league became known as the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF).

The NHWL had a brief history. Dani Rylan, a former ice hockey player, was the driving force behind establishing a top tier ice hockey tournament to bring out the best women's hockey talent from across North America. During the initial phase of its inception, NHWL was established at an operating budget of $2.5 million.

The salary cap for the first season of the NHWL was $270,000 per team, with a minimum salary of $10,000 per player. The NHWL draft was held in 2015, and each team was allowed to select five collegiate athletes. Initially, there were only four teams in the competition, which grew to seven teams over the next four to five years.

The league has established various tryout camps across the United States and Canada to find the best women's hockey talent in North America. The camps aided the league by attracting top-tier female talent from the CWHL, as well as many international players and NCAA graduates.

Since NHWL's inception, the league has seen numerous changes. These include the addition of salary caps and the provision of health insurance for athletes. NHL teams such as the Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils, Minnesota Wild, and Buffalo Sabres have also partnered with the NHWL to provide practice facilities for their teams.

The commencement of the Premier Hockey Federation

The NHWL league was renamed the Premier Hockey Federation in September 2021. The competition's seven teams will compete for the coveted Isobel Cup title.

The top four teams at the end of the regular season advance to the Isobel Cup playoff round. During the regular season, PHF teams played 82 games this year. The cup semifinals were played in two best-of-three series. The Toronto Six won the 2023 Isobel Cup after defeating the Minnesota Whitecaps 4-3 in overtime.

While Boston Pride is the most successful team in the Premier Hockey Federation, having won the coveted Isobel Cup on three occasions.