New Women's Junior League Launching In Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is set to launch a new women's junior hockey league for the 2023-2024 season.

A new provincial women's junior hockey league is coming to Saskatchewan. 

The new league will drop the puck in 2023-2024 with six teams competing in Regina, Kindersley, Lumsden, Outlook, Saskatoon, and Southwest (Swift Current/Gull Lake).

The league will allow for players to stay home and continue to develop playing competitive hockey while athletes pursue postsecondary options.

"It's so cool how you can stay in your province with the junior league now. If you're unsure of what university you want to go to, you can just play another year at home and stay with your family," Sage Babey said. Babey, 16, is a Merrimack College commit, who represented Team Saskatchewan at the 2023 Canada Games.

"I think that's a great option if you're not quite ready to move away or play at university or college."

Currently, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario all operate competitive Junior leagues. Ontario specifically has created a high performance pathway for players to prepare for university hockey and national team streams in the OWHL U22 Elite. Unlike other provinces where U-18 hockey is the top level, Ontario's U22 Elite league takes the best U-18 players. In Ontario, the league mimics the top men's Junior A leagues across Canada.

"Junior hockey is a very long tradition on the male side, and this will be awesome for the girls that jump in at the ground floor to build their own tradition," Blaine Stork, the president of Saskatchewan's U-18 women's 'AAA' loop said.

Saskatchewan's top minor women's team this year were the Regina Rebels, who won the provincial championship before winning bronze at the national championship Esso Cup.

Saskatchewan has produced several notable active women's hockey players. Emily Clark, current member of Canada's national team hails from Saskatoon, Alexis Petford who earned NCAA all-rookie honors, USports rookie of the year Sydney Mercier, Isobel Cup champion Taylor Woods who played for the Toronto Six this season, and NCAA national champion with Wisconsin this season, Sophie Shirley, are all from the province.