This morning the NWHL’s Boston Pride and the NHL’s Boston Bruins announced a partnership to advance the game of Women’s hockey in the state of Massachusetts and the surrounding area.
With this announcement, the Bruins become the 4th NHL franchise to partner with an NWHL franchise in the past 15 months which started with the New Jersey Devils back in October 2017 when they announced a 3 year partnership with the Metropolitan Riveters. Then Pegula Sports & Entertainment, who own the Buffalo Sabres, acquired the Buffalo Beauts to become the first NWHL team to be fully owned and operated outside of the NWHL. Also during this past offseason the Minnesota Wild announced that they would be partnering with the expansion Minnesota Whitecaps. The NWHL has also worked jointly with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2017), Wild (2018) and Nashville Predators (2019) on NWHL All-Star Weekends.
“In just the last 15 months, four NHL teams have secured mutually-beneficial partnerships with our clubs,” said NWHL Founder and Commissioner Dani Rylan. “We are proud of these alignments with NHL franchises. Our league office and teams work hard to be strong collaborators. As the Bruins will see, there is a lot that the Pride will bring to the table as they build women’s and girls’ hockey programs in their community.”
With this new partnership between the Bruins and the Pride will be highlighted by the new Bruins Academy Girls Learn to Play program, which will offer girls ages four through ten the opportunity to learn the basics of hockey led by Boston Pride players. There will be a $100 registration fee for the Learn to Play program which will include a full set of brand-new CCM equipment to keep valued at $500 retail, a professional equipment fitting, and four weeks of on ice instruction led by certified coaches. The girls program will also be held at five rinks beginning in March 2019: Philips Academy Rink in Andover, Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton, The Bog Ice Arena in Duxbury, Murphy Memorial Skating Rink in South Boston, and Veterans Memorial Skating Rink in Waltham.
The NWHL is growing, and with yet another partnership with the NHL, the future is looking bright for the NWHL and for Women’s Hockey.
*Feature photo courtesy of the NWHL.
