2020–21 NWHL Season
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The 2020–21 NWHL season was the sixth season of the
National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) was a women's professional ice hockey league in the United States and Canada that operated from March 2015 until June 2023. The league was established in 2015 as the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), com ...
in North America. Due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, the season was held in a bubble in
Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, Essex County, New York (state), New York, United States. In 2020, its population was 2,205. The village of Lake Placid ...
, from January to February 2021, with all five teams returning from the previous season, along with the
Toronto Six The Toronto Six were a professional women's ice hockey team in Toronto, Ontario, playing out of Canlan Ice Sports – York. They were one of two Canadian teams in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) along with the Montreal Force, and the first ...
expansion team as the first Canada-based team to play in the league. The season was suspended again due to positive cases of
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
within the bubble. On March 8, 2021, the league announced that the Isobel Cup playoffs would re-commence on March 26 and 27 at Warrior Ice Arena in
Brighton, Massachusetts Brighton is a former town and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located in the northwestern corner of the city. It is named after the English city of Brighton. Initially Brighton was part of Cambridge, and known as " ...
.


League business

At the end of April 2020, the NWHL announced the expansion of league with the addition of a new team in Toronto called the
Toronto Six The Toronto Six were a professional women's ice hockey team in Toronto, Ontario, playing out of Canlan Ice Sports – York. They were one of two Canadian teams in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) along with the Montreal Force, and the first ...
. As part of the expansion announcement, the league stated it planned to have a delayed start to the 2020–21 regular season due to the on-going
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, beginning in mid-November 2020 and the Isobel Cup playoffs to begin in March 2021, with each team playing 20 games. Players in the
Professional Women's Hockey Players Association The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for the promotion of professional women's ice hockey. It was founded in May 2019 following the dissolution of the Canadian Women's Ho ...
(PWHPA), formed after the 2019 collapse of the
Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; ) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's Senior ice hockey, senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the league expanded into Alberta (2011) and ...
, continued to hold out from all North American hockey leagues for planned 2021 Dream Gap Tour. In July 2020, the planned start date was pushed back again to January 2021 with each team still set to play 20 games. In October 2020, the league reorganized its governance structure in the aim of prioritizing independent ownership of teams as the expansion into Toronto added another independently owned team. As part of the reorganization, Dani Rylan stepped down as league commissioner to lead the search for independent ownership of the four league-owned teams, while Tyler Tumminia became the interim commissioner. A six-member board of governors was created with the intent of each team having single representative. At the end of November, the
Minnesota Whitecaps The Minnesota Whitecaps were a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). They played in Richfield, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, at the Richfield Ice Arena. Established in 2004, the ...
 revealed their jersey designs for the season, the last team in the league to do so. The jerseys for most teams were designed in-house, led by Ksenia Selemon, the director of marketing for the four league-owned teams. In early December 2020, the league announced a partnership with analytics company Stathletes, led by Meghan Chayka, to provide data and statistics for the season. The league also announced a partnership with InStat Hockey to provide video analysis services. Before the start of the season, the league announced that all jerseys worn during the season would carry a patch stating "End Racism" and would support any players kneeling for the anthem in protest against racism. The league, however, did not announce any further details on how it planned to combat racism in the sport. On January 26, the league released a statement condemning
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after Barstool CEO Erika Nardini targeted several women's hockey reporters and league staff with harassment on social media. Barstool had previously faced criticism following repeated misogynistic and racist incidents, with
Metropolitan Riveters The Metropolitan Riveters (originally the New York Riveters) were a professional women's ice hockey team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with home games at the American Dream Meadowlands ice rink. They were one of the four charter franc ...
rookie
Saroya Tinker Saroya Tinker (born February 17, 1998) is a Canadian retired ice hockey Defenceman, defenseman. She last played for the Toronto Six of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), with whom she won the 2023 Isobel Cup championship. Playing career Tinker ...
notably being the first NWHL player to publicly condemn the company. The league's statement further clarified that it would not accept club ownership bids from companies that did not share the league's values. In mid-January 2021, Boston Pride general manager Hayley Moore announced that she would be leaving the league at the end of the bubble season to start a new role as vice president of hockey operations with the
American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...
, becoming one of the highest-ranking female executives in men's ice hockey leagues in the world. During the season, the league announced it had secured a sponsorship with
Discover Card Discover is a credit card brand issued primarily in the United States. It was introduced by Sears in 1985 and currently issued by Capital One. Discover was the first credit card that did not charge an annual fee and offered a higher-than-norm ...
, the NWHL's largest sponsorship to date. Discover is also a major sponsor of the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
. As part of the deal, Discover became the presenting sponsor of the Isobel Cup playoffs. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Before the playoffs began, the league added
Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized in all caps as DICK'S Sporting Goods) is an American chain of sporting goods stores founded in 1948 by Richard "Dick" Stack. It is the largest sporting goods retailer in the United States and is listed ...
as the presenting sponsor of the Isobel Cup trophy and playoff most valuable player award.


COVID-19 bubble

The league had originally planned to play a full season under a "sprint to the Cup" model, with the full 20 game season playing out over 10 weeks, but by October 2020, with the pandemic worsening and leagues such as the
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...
failing to keep their players safe, the NWHL leadership decided that they would need to change formats. On November 25, 2020, the league announced the entire season would be held in a bubble with all games at
Herb Brooks Arena Herb Brooks Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Lake Placid, New York. This surface, along with the USA Rink, was built for the 1980 Winter Olympics. About The arena hosted various events during the 1980 Winter Olympics, most famously the ice ho ...
in
Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, Essex County, New York (state), New York, United States. In 2020, its population was 2,205. The village of Lake Placid ...
, from January 23 to February 5, 2021. In the announced schedule, each of the six teams would play five games, one against each other team, before a
round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...
for final seeding of the Isobel Cup playoffs. The playoffs were to be single game semifinals with the championship game taking place on February 5. The plan was to follow similar bubble models that had been used successfully at the
2020 NWSL Challenge Cup The 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup was a tournament during the 2020 National Women's Soccer League season to mark the league's return to action from the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first professional team sports event to return to play in United States ...
 and the 2020 WNBA Playoffs. One of the main concerns with the bubble format was the part-time professional status of the league. Since the maximum league salary is US$15,000, almost all players hold full-time jobs outside of hockey, including several who work in healthcare. After negotiations with the Premier Hockey Federation Players' Association, the league guaranteed that players would be paid the same salary as they would have received for a full season of play. Players were also given the option to opt out of the tournament without losing their salary. The league partnered with the
Yale School of Public Health The Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) was founded in 1915 by Charles-Edward Amory Winslow and is one of the oldest public health masters programs in the United States. YSPH is both a department (established in 1915) within the school of medic ...
to provide
COVID-19 testing COVID-19 testing involves analyzing samples to assess the current or past presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that cases COVID-19 and is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The two main types of tests detect either the presence of the viru ...
to players and staff inside the bubble. The tests were the SalivaDirect developed at Yale, an RNA
polymerase chain reaction The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used to make millions to billions of copies of a specific DNA sample rapidly, allowing scientists to amplify a very small sample of DNA (or a part of it) sufficiently to enable detailed st ...
(PCR) test, the same as used by the 2020 NBA Bubble. The university was to run a quality improvement study during the season, using paired saliva and nasal samples, which can provide two concurrent results. On December 2, 2020, the league released its logo for the bubble tournament featuring six snowflakes around its edges to represent the league's six teams. The logo was painted on the center ice of Herb Brooks Arena, marking the first time in league history that games were played on an ice surface specifically marked for the league. While the stands were empty of live spectators during games due to the nature of a COVID-19 bubble, the league followed other leagues in offering fans the chance to appear in the arena during games in the form of fan cutouts. A number of teams from other leagues, such as the NWSL, the WNBA, the NHL, and the
National Premier Soccer League The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is an American men's association football, soccer league. The league is officially affiliated to the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA) and has automatic qualification for the U.S. Open Cup. ...
, purchased cutouts of their players. Some teams plan to have their athletes autograph the cutouts after the end of the bubble season in order to auction them to raise funds for youth girls' hockey. In January 2021, former
Buffalo Beauts The Buffalo Beauts were a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). They played in Amherst, New York, a suburb of Buffalo, at the Northtown Center. The Beauts were established in 2015 as one of the four founding f ...
' goaltender Mariah Fujimagari was named as the emergency back-up goaltender for all teams in the event that no goaltenders were available due to injury or positive COVID-19 tests. On January 28, the Metropolitan Riveters were forced to withdraw from the bubble after three games played after at least ten members of the organization testing positive for COVID-19. The league then postponed any games scheduled for January 28 and reorganized the schedule for the rest of the regular season games. The Connecticut Whale forfeited their final game on February 1 and withdrew from the playoffs citing the need to protect the health and safety of their players. On February 3, as a result of more positive cases of COVID-19 across the league within the bubble, the season was suspended before the playoffs. It was not announced if the league would try to have the playoffs at a later date. Following the suspension of the season, commissioner Tumminia called the bubble a "restricted access zone" in that it was modified from bubbles utilized by other leagues. All personnel within the zone had been required to provide a negative test 72 hours before arriving in Lake Placid and another test when they arrived. The league did utilize a
taxi squad In gridiron football, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scout ...
for teams to sign players when they had to fill a roster spot due to a positive test or injury, utilized by Buffalo, Connecticut, and Minnesota; the taxi squad players were also subject to the same testing requirements before the season started and when they arrived. The league does not know where first case of the virus occurred within the bubble, but by the time the season was suspended all teams had multiple positive tests including Boston head coach Paul Mara and Minnesota head coach Jack Brodt. On March 8, 2021, the league announced that the Isobel Cup playoffs would be held on March 26–27 at Warrior Ice Arena in
Brighton, Massachusetts Brighton is a former town and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located in the northwestern corner of the city. It is named after the English city of Brighton. Initially Brighton was part of Cambridge, and known as " ...
.


Broadcasting

The league entered its second season of its broadcasting deal with
Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...
for regular season games. In December 2020, the league announced an additional broadcasting deal with the
NBC Sports Network NBCSN (also known as NBC Sports Network) was an American sports television channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), w ...
for the Isobel Cup final and semifinals, the first time that professional women's hockey isto be aired live on a major TV network in the United States. The broadcast team for the season was located remotely in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County, Florida, Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the ...
, in the same studio used by the
National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...
during their 2020 bubble season. It consisted of Erica Ayala, Alexis Pearson, and Katie Gaus as analysts and Steve Goldstein, Josh Appel, and Josh Eastern as play-by-play announcers.


Officiating

In December 2020, the league announced that all ten
officials An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of the ...
used during the season would be women, selected in collaboration with
USA Hockey USA Hockey is a national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United S ...
. Of the ten USA Hockey officials, seven had been assigned roles by the
International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey to ...
(IIHF) at the 2020 senior or junior women's world championships, notably
Kendall Hanley Kendall Hanley (born ) is an American ice hockey official, currently serving as a Linesman (ice hockey), linesman in the American Hockey League (AHL). She was the recipient of USA Hockey’s 2020–21 Ben Allison Award in recognition of her dedic ...
, who had served as a linesman at the 2020 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship, and Jackie Spresser, who had been due to serve as a linesman at the
2020 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2020 IIHF Women's World Championship was scheduled to be an international ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was scheduled to be contested in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax and Truro, Nova Scotia, Truro, Ca ...
before it was cancelled due to the pandemic. Of the other officials with international experience in 2020, Jamie Huntley-Park and Mackenzie Welter had served at the 2020 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship Division I, Sarah Buckner and Erika Greenen at 2020 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship Division II, Laura White at the 2020 IIHF Women's World Championship Division III. The other three officials are Alicia Hanrahan, Jacqueline Howard, and Amanda Tassoni.


Team partnerships

In January 2021, the
Toronto Six The Toronto Six were a professional women's ice hockey team in Toronto, Ontario, playing out of Canlan Ice Sports – York. They were one of two Canadian teams in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) along with the Montreal Force, and the first ...
announced a partnership with the
ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...
's Brampton Beast with the expectation of holding joint camps, practices, fan events, and double headers together, with Beast general manager Cary Kaplan stating that "We feel that we have a lot in common, as many people have still not appreciated or experienced both the exceptional level of hockey in the ECHL, or the equally strong fan experience that the Beast provide." The Beast were one of many teams to opt out of the
2020–21 ECHL season The 2020–21 ECHL season was the 33rd season of the ECHL. Due to the ongoing restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of the regular season was pushed back to December 11, 2020. The Fort Wayne Komets were the Kelly Cup champions, de ...
and the Beast head coach, Spiro Anastas, joined the Six as an assistant in Lake Placid. One month later, the Beast ceased operations entirely. The Boston Pride and the
Minnesota Whitecaps The Minnesota Whitecaps were a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). They played in Richfield, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, at the Richfield Ice Arena. Established in 2004, the ...
remained partnered with the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
's
Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...
 and
Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Confer ...
, respectively.


Front office changes

(*) Indicates interim.


Regular season


Standings

At the conclusion of the regular season.


Schedule

All games take place at
Herb Brooks Arena Herb Brooks Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Lake Placid, New York. This surface, along with the USA Rink, was built for the 1980 Winter Olympics. About The arena hosted various events during the 1980 Winter Olympics, most famously the ice ho ...
in
Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, Essex County, New York (state), New York, United States. In 2020, its population was 2,205. The village of Lake Placid ...
. The regular season was originally scheduled to have each team face each other team once, followed by a seeded
round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...
for an additional two games per team to set the final playoff qualification. The team with the best record after seven games would be the regular season champion and top seed in the playoffs. However, after the Riveters were forced to withdraw from the season on January 28, the round-robin was changed to only the top three teams, ranked based on points percentage at the time, to set the playoff seeding between the three teams. The bottom two teams, Boston and Buffalo, played a best-of-three play-in series for the fourth seed in the playoffs. Toronto then won the round-robin and the top seed in the playoffs by defeating Minnesota and Connecticut. On February 1, the Whale forfeited their final game and withdrew from the playoffs, giving Minnesota the second playoff seed, the winner of the play-in series between Boston and Buffalo the third seed, and the loser the fourth. However, the originally scheduled playoffs would also be postponed, leading to the Whale taking part in the rescheduled tournament.


Playoffs

In the original schedule, following the regular season and round-robin, the four teams remaining teams would move on to a single elimination playoff for the Isobel Cup held on February 4 and 5. Due to schedule changes and teams withdrawing, seeding was determined by Toronto's and Minnesota's finish in the end-of-season round-robin after Connecticut withdrew and the winner of the Boston/Buffalo series to face Minnesota and the loser to face Toronto. The playoffs in Lake Placid were postponed on February 3 due to new positive cases of COVID-19. The league then scheduled the Isobel Cup playoffs to be held at Warrior Ice Arena in
Brighton, Massachusetts Brighton is a former town and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located in the northwestern corner of the city. It is named after the English city of Brighton. Initially Brighton was part of Cambridge, and known as " ...
, for the last weekend in March. Due to the postponement, Connecticut was re-entered into the playoff to face Minnesota, the team they would have faced regardless of seeding had the Whale not withdrawn from Lake Placid before the final game.


Draft

The 2020 NWHL Draft resulted in Sammy Davis being selected first overall by the Boston Pride. Additionally, Autumn MacDougall, a skater for the University of Alberta Pandas women's ice hockey program, became the first player in Canada's USports women's ice hockey to be selected in an NWHL Draft.


Milestones


Team

*On January 23, the
Toronto Six The Toronto Six were a professional women's ice hockey team in Toronto, Ontario, playing out of Canlan Ice Sports – York. They were one of two Canadian teams in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) along with the Montreal Force, and the first ...
expansion team played their first game, a 0–3 loss to the
Metropolitan Riveters The Metropolitan Riveters (originally the New York Riveters) were a professional women's ice hockey team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with home games at the American Dream Meadowlands ice rink. They were one of the four charter franc ...
. *On January 24, Lindsay Eastwood scored the first goal in Toronto Six history in a shootout loss to the Whitecaps. *On January 26, the
Toronto Six The Toronto Six were a professional women's ice hockey team in Toronto, Ontario, playing out of Canlan Ice Sports – York. They were one of two Canadian teams in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) along with the Montreal Force, and the first ...
earned their first win in a 2–1 victory over the Boston Pride. *On January 31, Toronto clinched the top seed in the playoffs by defeating both Minnesota and Connecticut in the revised
round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...
to finish the regular season.


Players

*On January 23: **Riveters' goaltender Sonjia Shelly earned her first career shutout. **Riveters' forward Kelly Babstock became the fourth player in the league to reach 100 career penalty minutes. **
Minnesota Whitecaps The Minnesota Whitecaps were a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). They played in Richfield, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, at the Richfield Ice Arena. Established in 2004, the ...
' captain Winny Brodt-Brown scored her first career NWHL goal. **
Buffalo Beauts The Buffalo Beauts were a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). They played in Amherst, New York, a suburb of Buffalo, at the Northtown Center. The Beauts were established in 2015 as one of the four founding f ...
 goaltender Carly Jackson made 43 saves in her professional debut, but lost in the shootout to the Connecticut Whale. *On January 24, Boston Pride captain
Jillian Dempsey Jillian T. Dempsey (born January 19, 1991) is an American professional ice hockey player for the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). The former captain of the Boston Pride of the now-defunct Premier Hockey Federatio ...
 became the first player in NWHL history to score 100 points with two goals against the Beauts in a 5–1 win. *On January 26,
Amanda Leveille Amanda Leveille (born 10 June 1994) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. Formerly a member of the Buffalo Beauts and Minnesota Whitecaps of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), Leveille holds the PHF all-time records for win ...
earned her seventh career shutout against the Riveters, passing Brittany Ott to take sole possession of the league's all-time record. *On February 1, Boston Pride assistant captain Kaleigh Fratkin surpassed Jillian Dempsey in NWHL career assists. *Toronto Six forward Mikyla Grant-Mentis became the first black player to win the NWHL's Most Valuable Player award. In addition, she won Newcomer of the Year.


Awards and honors

* Mikyla Grant-Mentis, Toronto, 2021 Most Valuable Player * Kaleigh Fratkin, Boston, 2021 Defender of the Year *
Amanda Leveille Amanda Leveille (born 10 June 1994) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. Formerly a member of the Buffalo Beauts and Minnesota Whitecaps of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), Leveille holds the PHF all-time records for win ...
, Minnesota, 2021 Goaltender of the Year * Mikyla Grant-Mentis, Toronto, 2021 Newcomer of the Year *
Saroya Tinker Saroya Tinker (born February 17, 1998) is a Canadian retired ice hockey Defenceman, defenseman. She last played for the Toronto Six of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), with whom she won the 2023 Isobel Cup championship. Playing career Tinker ...
, Metropolitan, 2021 Denna Laing Award


NWHL Foundation Award Winners

*Boston: Mallory Souliotis *Buffalo: Carly Jackson *Connecticut: Grace Kleinbach *Metropolitan: Saroya Tinker *Minnesota: Amanda Leveille *Toronto: Mikyla Grant-Mentis


Fans' Three Stars

*Mallory Souliotis, Boston Pride *Carly Jackson, Buffalo Beauts *Mikyla Grant-Mentis, Toronto Six


See also

* 2020–21 PWHPA season *
2020–21 SDHL season The 2020–21 SDHL season was the 14th season of the Swedish Women's Hockey League (; SDHL). The season began on 12 September 2020 and concluded on 26 February 2021. All ten teams were able to complete a full 36-game regular season. The season m ...


References


External links


League website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2020-21 NWHL season 2020–21 NWHL season NWHL season, 2020-21 NWHL season, 2020-21 NWHL season, 2020-21 NWHL season, 2020-21 NWHL season, 2020-21 Nwhl