The European Women's Hockey League, abbreviated EWHL, is an international ice hockey league. Created as the Elite Women's Hockey League in 2004 by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the EWHL comprises clubs from several countries in Central Europe and one team from Kazakhstan, and is played in parallel to national championships.

History

The EWHL was created in 2004 on the same principle as the men's ice hockey Interliga. For its first season, the EWHL featured teams from Austria, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia. Teams from additional countries joined the league during the following seasons, including HC Slovan Bratislava from Slovakia in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

KHL Grič Zagreb The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...

from Croatia in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, and HC Slavia Praha from the Czech Republic in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. In the 2008–09 season, the Italian and Hungarian teams gave way to two clubs from Germany, OSC Berlin and

ESC Planegg ESC may refer to: Education * Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, a type of French business school * Edison State College, now Florida SouthWestern State College * Empire State College of the State University of New York * English Subject Centre, ...

. During the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

and 2011–12 seasons, the Netherlands national team participated in the EWHL. Before the 2019–20 season, the Elite Women's Hockey League was renamed, becoming the European Women's Hockey League to reflect its unique position within European women's ice hockey. Also, the Polish women's national team joined the league in 2019, playing as the Silesia Brackens and later under the name Silesian Metropolis Katowice. The Hungarian team

KMH Budapest Kanadai Magyar Hokiklub SE is a men's ice hockey team playing in the Slovak 2. Liga, and formed in 2006. They play in the city of Budapest, Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of th ...

rejoined the league, and

MAC Budapest MAC HKB Újbuda is a Hungarian ice hockey team that currently plays in the Erste Liga. They play their home games at Tüskecsarnok, located in Budapest. In their first year of competition they would finish second in the regular season, and wou ...

was added. The EWHL is mostly played in a championship format with home and away matches, with the exception of the 2005–06 season where the teams were distributed in two regional divisions followed by qualifying rounds. For the 2010–11 season, the regular season was followed by a play-off between the four teams at the top of the league table. Though they joined the league in the 2015–16 season, Kazakh team

Aisulu Almaty Aisulu Almaty ( kk, Айсұлу Алматы, Aısulý Almaty; russian: Айсулу Алма-Ата) are an ice hockey team in the European Women's Hockey League (EWHL). They play in Almaty, Kazakhstan, at the Baluan Sholak Sports Palace Th ...

has played only two EWHL games from their home arena,

Baluan Sholak Sports Palace The Baluan Sholak Sports Palace ( kk, Балуан Шолақ атындағы спорт сарайы, translit=Balýan Sholaq atyndaǵy sport saraıy) or Bolyan Sholak Sports Palace is a Palace of Sports in Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhst ...

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

, due to the significant travel distance. The 2019–20 season provided the first opportunity for Aisulu to play EWHL matches in front of a home crowd, when they hosted the

EHV Sabres EHV may refer to: *Equine herpesvirus, a group of viruses that affect horses *Extra high voltage, a type of power supply *Evangelical Heritage Version The Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV) is a translation of the Bible into the English language. ...

for a two game series during 19–20 October 2019. Since the 2019–20 season, the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation has overseen the league. The league president is Martin Kogler.

Teams

2022–23 season

Former teams

Austria * DEC Dragons Klagenfurt *

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* Southern Stars * SPG Sabres/Flyers United * WE-V Flyers Belarus *

HK Pantera Minsk HK Pantera Minsk was a women's ice hockey club from Belarus. Founded in 2010, it was the first professional women's ice hockey team in the country. HK Pantera Minsk played in the international Elite Women's Hockey League, which it won in the 201 ...

Croatia *

Czech Republic * HC Slavia Praha Denmark * Hvidovre IK Germany * ESC Planegg-Würmtal *

OSC Eisladies Berlin OSC may refer to: Organizations * ''Odborové sdružení československé,'' the Czechoslovak Trade Union Association * Office of Special Counsel (in the United States of America) * Ohio Supercomputer Center, a computing research facility in Col ...

Hungary *

Budapest Stars Budapest Stars is a Hungarian ice hockey team that currently plays in the OB I bajnokság and in the MOL Liga. They play their home games at Budapest Icecenter, located in Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city ...

* MAC Marilyn Budapest Italy * HC Agordo * HC Eagles Bolzano Netherlands * Netherlands women's national team Slovakia * HC Slovan Bratislava * HK Spišská Nová Ves *

MHK Martin MHK can refer to: * Manhattan Regional Airport, Kansas, USA, IATA code * Member of the House of Keys, the Lower House of Tynwald, the Isle of Man Parliament {{Disambig ...

* ŽHK Poprad (Popradské Líšky) Slovenia * HDK Maribor * HK Gorenjska * HK Olimpija Ljubljana *

HK Terme Maribor Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

HK Triglav Kranj Hokejski klub Triglav Kranj ( en, Triglav Kranj Hockey Club), commonly referred to as HK Triglav or simply Triglav, is an ice hockey club from Kranj, Slovenia. The club was founded in 1968. Honours *Slovenian Championship The Slovenian Hock ...

Championship

Medal table by club

Notes:

References

''This article incorporates information from the existing French Wikipedia article at :fr:Ligue élite féminine de hockey and the existing German Wikipedia article at :de:European Women’s Hockey League; see their histories for attribution.''

External links

EWHL News

EWHL Website

European Women's Hockey Journal
(in German) {{European sport club competitions * 1 Sports leagues established in 2004 2004 establishments in Europe Multi-national ice hockey leagues in Europe Multi-national professional sports leagues