The PWHL has transformed women’s hockey, but its biggest trophies honour the people who created the league rather than the pioneers who built the sport. From the Walter Cup to its MVP awards, the league has a chance to preserve women’s hockey history—not just create its own.
The Women’s Professional Baseball League recently unveiled the names of its first four franchises, each paying tribute to a pioneering woman. As The Hockey News’s own Ian Kennedy wrote, it was a reminder that a new league can build its own identity while still celebrating those who came before it.
I’m not suggesting every PWHL team should be named after an important woman from its city. Sometimes, a great brand is simply a great brand. Minnesota Frost or the Ottawa Charge are perfect examples.
That said, Montreal could have been the exception.
The league came remarkably close. Instead of La Victoire, why not the Montreal Victorias?
The name would have paid tribute to the historic hockey team, the 19th century’s Montreal Victorias, while also referencing Queen Victoria, whose name remains woven throughout the city. Victoria Bridge, Square Victoria, the Square-Victoria–OACI métro station and the Royal Victoria Hospital all bear her name. As an added bonus, Victoria is the Latin root of victoire.
But while team names are one thing, trophies are another.
Championships and individual awards are where a league tells its story. They are the honours players dream of winning and the names that become part of hockey history.
That’s where the PWHL missed—and continues to miss—an extraordinary opportunity.
The Walter Cup
Since its inception, the PWHL has too often acted as though the history of women’s hockey began with the league itself.
Nothing illustrates that better than three decisions: the Walter Cup, the Billie Jean King Most Valuable Player Award and the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP Award.
Mark Walter and his ownership group deserve tremendous credit. They invested hundreds of millions of dollars to make the PWHL possible. Women’s hockey owes them a great deal.
But gratitude and permanence are two different things.
In April 2024, the league announced that its championship trophy would be called the Walter Cup.
Every hockey fan understands what that trophy represents. It is the league’s Stanley Cup.
So why is the greatest prize in women’s hockey named after a male owner instead of a pioneer who helped build the sport?
And I always thought that the league seemed aware of how that decision would be received.
Its announcement emphasized that the trophy recognized both Mark and Kimbra Walter’s commitment to women’s hockey. It also noted that Mark Walter was speaking on behalf of his wife, Kimbra, and their daughter, Samantha.
I went back through every league press release since the PWHL launched.
The April 4, 2024 announcement was the first time either Kimbra or Samantha Walter had ever been mentioned.
It was a curious coincidence.
The league also said the idea for the Walter Cup came from Billie Jean King. Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, they say.
Hockey Already Had the Blueprint
Ironically, previous women’s professional leagues had already shown a better path.
The NWHL and PHF awarded the Isobel Cup, named after Isobel Stanley, Lord Stanley’s daughter, a hockey player herself who participated in what it’s believed to be the earliest women’s hockey game.
The CWHL awarded the Clarkson Cup, named after former Governor General of Canada. Adrienne Clarkson, who donated the trophy to the league. The first visible minority and refugee to be appointed governor general, and the second woman, Clarkson followed in the footstep of Lord Stanley and Earl Grey, two former governor generals who also donated a trophy still in existence today. Clarkson herself voiced her disappointment that the PWHL ignored existing women's hockey history, and that the league never inquired about the trophy.
More importantly, Lord Stanley, Earl Grey nor Adrienne Clarkson owned the leagues to which they donated their trophies.
Another Missed Opportunity
Back to 2024, a few weeks after announcing the Walter Cup, the league announced that its regular-season MVP trophy would bear the name of Billie Jean King.
King is one of the greatest athletes in history and one of the most influential figures in women’s sports. She is also a tennis legend.
Next came the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP Award.
Kloss is another accomplished tennis player and a longtime advocate for women’s sports. She also happens to be Billie Jean King’s partner of more than 40 years.
Walter, King and Kloss all played important roles in creating the PWHL.
They deserve recognition for that.
But the highest honours in women’s hockey should tell the story of women’s hockey.
As the former Governor General, Madame Adrienne Clarkson said, "I guess if you'e going to tennis players to talk about hockey, then you're not very interested in talking to Canadian women about hockey."
Instead of honoring pioneering women in the sport or markets the league has put down roots in, the league chose to celebrate three American businesspeople with little direct connection to the sport itself.
That feels like a missed opportunity.
Women’s hockey has existed for more than 130 years. The first Women’s World Championship was held 36 years ago. Women’s hockey has been an Olympic sport for nearly three decades.
There is no shortage of pioneers whose names deserve to live forever.
Imagine the Possibilities
If the league wanted to keep an American name on its championship trophy, why not the Norris Cup?
Marguerite Norris became the first woman to lead an NHL franchise as president of the Detroit Red Wings and the first woman to have her name engraved on the Stanley Cup after Detroit won championships in 1954 and 1955.
The league MVP?
Why not the Hayley Wickenheiser Award or the Angela James Award?
The Playoff MVP?
The Cammi Granato Award.
The best goaltender?
Manon Rhéaume introduced millions across North America to women’s hockey long before there was a professional league. Or, if the league preferred to honour the greatest goaltender of all time, the Kim St-Pierre Trophy would be a fitting choice.
The Defender of the Year?
The Geraldine Heaney Trophy or the Angela Ruggiero Trophy.
At the end of the day, you don’t have to agree with these picks. The debate could go on for hours. But you do get the point. And any of those names would remind every generation of players who built the sport long before the PWHL existed.
The PWHL has already transformed women’s hockey. Now it has the opportunity to become its steward as well.
The league shouldn’t simply create history.
It should preserve it.
