Zhenskaya Hockey League

The Zhenskaya Hockey League or ZhHL (Russian: Женская хоккейная лига, romanized: Zhenskaya khokkeynaya liga, lit. 'Women's Hockey League'), officially called the Women's Hockey League (WHL),[1][2][3][4] is a professional ice hockey league in Russia, currently comprising eight teams.[5] The league is also known as the PariMatch Women's Hockey League for sponsorship reasons.[6]

Zhenskaya Hockey League
Женская хоккейная лига
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2023–24 ZhHL season
FormerlyRussian Women's Hockey League, 1995–2015
SportIce hockey
Founded19 June 2015 (2015-06-19)
FounderKHL & FHR
DirectorAlexei Morozov
MottoКрасивая Лига
(The Beautiful League)
No. of teams8
CountryRussia
Most recent
champion(s)		Agidel Ufa
(2022–23)
Most titlesAgidel Ufa (4 titles)
Domestic cup(s)Dmitry Solunsky Cup
Official websitewhl.khl.ru

The league was founded via a joint partnership of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia (FHR) on 19 June 2015. It replaced the Russian Women's Hockey League (RWHL), which had been founded in 1995 and was operated by the FHR alone.

History

The creation of the Zhenskaya Hockey League was announced on 12 September 2014 at a meeting of Alexander Medvedev, president of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia (FHR), and Vladislav Tretiak, president of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The parties expressed their readiness to jointly establish the ZhHL and to achieve the dream of taking women's hockey in Russia to a new level of development. However, the FHR established the Zhenskaya Hockey League independently. There was a meeting with representatives of different Russian women's hockey teams on 2 July 2014. On the same day, the Honored Master of Sports, Alexei Yashin, was elected as president of the league while Yevgeny Chizhmin was appointed as the league's executive director.

However, the process of creating the league stalled because of a disagreement of the KHL with the fact that the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia established the league without reaching an agreement with the KHL, and on 22 December 2014, Alexei Yashin said in an interview with Championat.com: "While all this is a little suspended, what will happen next is hard for me to say. The management has made such a decision about changes in the KHL, which is what it is. I have a very good relationship with Alexander Ivanovich Medvedev. I think he did a lot for our hockey. I have not talked with Dmitry Chernyshenko yet. As for the women's league, when we talked, there was a certain situation that the KHL, FHR and Ruslan Gutnov would participate in the creation and development of this project. Now, while this process has slowed down, it's difficult for me to talk about terms."

The KHL, with the FHR, returned to the subject of the ZhHL in 2015. On 23 April 2015, the FHR Executive Committee voted to transfer the rights to host the women's ice hockey Russian Championship to the KHL. On 19 June 2015, the KHL established the Zhenskaya Hockey League, holding a presentation of a new league in the Ministry of Sport of Russia. On 8 September 2015, after the first matches of the championship of the ZhHL, the Board of Directors of the KHL approved the Rules of the League Championship.

Prior to the 2016–17 season, an eighth team, Dinamo Kursk, was supposed to be added to compete in the league. However, on 5 September 2016, despite the league taking all possible measures to ensure they would take part, Dinamo Kursk ultimately withdrew from the competition due to unresolved organizational and logistical issues.[7] On 25 July 2019, the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays announced it was joining the ZhHL for the 2019–20 season.[8]

Teams

2023–24 season
Location of Zhenskaya Hockey League teams in Russia
Location of ZhHL teams in Western Russia

In June 2023, the only China-based team in the Zhenskaya Hockey League, Shenzhen KRS, announced they would not participate in the 2023–24 ZhHL season "due to the participation of players of the Chinese national team in the domestic championship of the country."[9] The withdrawal of Shenzhen KRS reduced the number of participating teams to eight, all of which are located in Russia.

The departure of Shenzhen KRS, which featured sixteen Chinese and four Canadian players during the 2022–23 season, and the transfer of Hungarian-American forward Hayley Williams from Dinamo-Neva to Hokiklub Budapest in the European Women's Hockey League, left Czech defenseman Pavlína Horálková of Biryusa as the only foreign import player active in the 2023–24 ZhHL season.

Team name Location Home venue Head coach Captain
Agidel Ufa Ufa Ice Palace Salavat Yulaev Valeri Davletshin Maria Pechnikova
Belye Medveditsy Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk Yunost Sport Palace Denis Afinogenov Yekaterina Lebedeva
Biryusa Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk Platinum Arena[10] Alexander Vedernikov Pavlina Horalkova
Dinamo-Neva Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg Jubilee Sports Complex Alexander Zybin Alyona Andryushchenko
MSMO 7.62 Voskresensk Podmoskovie Ice Palace Alexander Syrtsov Vlada Nazarenko
SKSO Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg Ice Arena A. Kozitsyna Sergei Chistyakov Diana Abdulina
Tornado Dmitrov Dmitrov Sports Complex Sergei Bondarenko Yekaterina Zakharova
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod KRK Nagorny Oleg Nemestnikov Angelina Goncharenko

Sources: [11][12][13]

Russian Champions
  • 1996 : Luzhniki Moscow (HC SKIF)
  • 1997 : CSK VVS Moscow (HC SKIF)
  • 1998 : CSK VVS Moscow (HC SKIF)
  • 1999 : Viking Moscow (HC SKIF)
  • 2000 : Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
  • 2001 : SKIF Moscow (HC SKIF)
  • 2002 : SKIF Moscow (HC SKIF)
  • 2003 : SKIF Moscow (HC SKIF)
  • 2004 : SKIF Moscow (HC SKIF)
  • 2005 : SKIF Moscow (HC SKIF)
  • 2006 : HC Tornado
  • 2007 : HC Tornado
  • 2008 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (HC SKIF)
  • 2009 : HC Tornado
  • 2010 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (HC SKIF)
  • 2011 : HC Tornado
  • 2012 : HC Tornado
  • 2013 : HC Tornado
  • 2014 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (HC SKIF)
  • 2015 : HC Tornado
  • 2016 : HC Tornado
  • 2017 : HC Tornado
  • 2018 : Agidel Ufa
  • 2019 : Agidel Ufa
  • 2020 : KRS Vanke Rays
  • 2021 : Agidel Ufa
  • 2022 : KRS Vanke Rays
  • 2023 : Agidel Ufa

Russian Champions by season
Year Champion Runners-up Third Place
Russian Women's Hockey League
1995–96 Luzhniki Moscow Uralochka-Auto Yekaterinburg Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
1996–97 CSK VVS Moscow Spartak Yekaterinburg Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
1997–98 CSK VVS Moscow Spartak Yekaterinburg Spartak Moscow
1998–99 Viking Moscow Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
1999–2000 Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg Viking Moscow Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
2000–01 SKIF Moscow Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
2001–02 SKIF Moscow Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
2002–03 SKIF Moscow Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
2003–04 SKIF Moscow HC Tornado Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2004–05 SKIF Moscow HC Tornado Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2005–06 HC Tornado SKIF Moscow Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2006–07 HC Tornado SKIF Nizhny Novgorod Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2007–08 SKIF Nizhny Novgorod HC Tornado Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2008–09 HC Tornado SKIF Nizhny Novgorod Lokomotiv-Energia Krasnoyarsk
2009–10 SKIF Nizhny Novgorod HC Tornado Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2010–11 HC Tornado SKIF Nizhny Novgorod Fakel Chelyabinsk
2011–12 HC Tornado SKIF Nizhny Novgorod Agidel Ufa
2012–13 HC Tornado SKIF Nizhny Novgorod Agidel Ufa
2013–14 SKIF Nizhny Novgorod HC Tornado Agidel Ufa
2014–15 HC Tornado SKIF Nizhny Novgorod Agidel Ufa
Zhenskaya Hockey League
2015–16 HC Tornado Agidel Ufa Biryusa Krasnoyarsk
2016–17 HC Tornado Agidel Ufa Dinamo Saint Petersburg
2017–18 Agidel Ufa HC Tornado SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
2018–19 Agidel Ufa Dinamo Saint Petersburg SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
2019–20 KRS Vanke Rays Agidel Ufa HC Tornado/Biryusa Krasnoyarsk
2020–21 Agidel Ufa KRS Vanke Rays SKIF Nizhny Novgorod/Biryusa Krasnoyarsk
2021–22 KRS Vanke Rays SKIF Nizhny Novgorod HC Tornado/Dinamo-Neva St. Petersburg
2022–23 Agidel Ufa Dinamo-Neva St. Petersburg Biryusa Krasnoyarsk/Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod

All-time Russian Championship titles
Team Titles Years Won
HC SKIF
12
 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2014
HC Tornado
9
 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017
Agidel Ufa
4
 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023
KRS Shenzhen
2
 2020, 2022
Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
1
 2000

References
  1. Kaplan, Emily (29 January 2020). "What the NHL can learn from the KHL's support of women's hockey". ESPN. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  2. "ЖХЛ – Women's Hockey League (@whl_ru)". Twitter. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  3. Potts, Andy (9 September 2021). "All around the world – the WHL makes an international impact". KHL. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  4. "Women's Hockey League details". Eurohockey.com. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  5. Seren Rosso, Alessandro (8 July 2014). "Russia to Launch New Women's Hockey League". The Hockey Writers. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  6. "Parimatch стал титульным партнёром чемпионата ЖХЛ". Zhenskaya Hockey League (in Russian). 22 September 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  7. "Курское "Динамо" не примет участие в чемпионате ЖХЛ". Zhenskaya Hockey League (in Russian). KHL. 5 September 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  8. Jay, Michelle (25 July 2019). "KRS Vanke Rays officially joining the Russian Women's Hockey League". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  9. "«КРС Шэньчжэнь» не выступит в чемпионате ЖХЛ сезона 2023/2024" ["KRS Shenzhen" will not perform in the ZhHL championship of the 2023/2024 season]. Zhenskaya Hockey League (Press release) (in Russian). 28 July 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  10. ""Бирюса" переезжает на "Платинум-Арену"". KHL (in Russian). 4 October 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  11. ""Белые Медведицы" и "Ледяные Крылья" стали участниками ЖХЛ". Zhenskaya Hockey League (in Russian). 27 July 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  12. "Состав участников чемпионата ЖХЛ 2022/2023. В сезоне сыграют девять клубов". KHL (in Russian). 18 August 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  13. "Zhenskaya Hockey League (Russia (W)) – 2023-2024 Standings". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
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