It’s that time of year again. As October brings the start of the National Hockey League (NHL) season, hockey fans across the United States and Canada are gearing up. 

The 2024-2025 season officially started on Oct. 4, when the Buffalo Sabres faced off against the New Jersey Devils in Prague. Then, on Oct. 8, the Florida Panthers (last year’s Stanley Cup victors) faced off against the Boston Bruins, successfully starting their title defense in their home opener.

Hockey lovers everywhere return to the NHL year after year for many reasons; there’s the camaraderie that comes from supporting a team, the excitement that comes from following to see who will ultimately win the Stanley Cup and of course, the action that’s innate to the sport of hockey. This year, however, there’s another league in play –the PWHL. 

Unless you’re already invested in the world of hockey or women’s sports, you probably aren’t even aware of the PWHL. For those unfamiliar, the PWHL – or Professional Women’s Hockey League – is a newly established elite-level commercial women’s ice hockey league. The league consists of six teams across the U.S. and Canada: the Minnesota Frost, the Boston Fleet, the New York Sirens, the Montreal Victoire, the Ottowa Charge and the Toronto Sceptres. 

The PWHL had its inaugural season last year, and its second season will begin on Nov. 30. The league first came into existence after the Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises acquired the Premier Hockey Federation in 2022. The league sets itself apart from its less successful predecessors due to its collective bargaining agreement with the Professional Women’s Hockey Player’s Association (PWHPA) that guarantees players fair compensation. 

Since the league is so new, now is a great time to start getting invested. Paying attention this early means you’ll get to watch as your favorite team forms its fanbase and watch today’s standouts become tomorrow’s stars. I’d recommend keeping an eye on 24-year-old Taylor Heise of the Minnesota Frost. She was last year’s MVP and for good reason. Her skill with the puck and agility on the ice have demonstrated her potential for a legendary career.  

Despite its status as the current top-level women’s hockey league, it is essential that we understand that the PWHL is not just a female version of the NHL. Sure, the leagues are affiliated, and existing teams are located in cities that also have NHL teams, but the names and venues are completely different. There are also some key rule changes and structure differences between the two leagues. One notable difference is the point system — three points for a win as opposed to two in the NHL. The three-point-win system is more common in the world of professional sports, which makes standings easier to follow for viewers who may be new to hockey and might not be acquainted with how NHL standings work. A notable new rule is the jailbreak rule, which allows a player to be freed from the penalty box if their team scores a shorthand goal. There’s also a rule that diverges from standard women’s ice hockey conventions by allowing body checking. 

An important aspect of these rule changes is that they don’t make the game less aggressive. Women are already saddled with the social expectation to be polite and agreeable. Sports are one of the few contexts in which they are not expected to perform that role. The league shouldn’t punish players for demonstrating a fraction of the aggression that men display regularly. This is not to say that the PWHL needs to have the brawls that the NHL is known for, but young girls deserve a chance to see women breaking stereotypes on the ice.  

Whether you’re a lifelong NHL fan or you haven’t gotten into hockey yet, you should watch the PWHL. Supporting women’s professional sports furthers the goal of gender equality on a social level, which is something we all should want to get behind. Plus, with the rule changes implemented, you could see the game of hockey drastically change if these decisions are well-perceived in the hockey world. The starting games of the second season are less than a month away, and I, for one, can’t wait for the puck to drop.