Russian Women's Hockey League

The Women's Hockey League (Russian: Женская хоккейная лига (ЖХЛ), romanized: Zhenskaya khokkeynaya liga (ZhHL)) is the national women's ice hockey league in Russia.[1] The league originally began in 1995 as the Russian Women's Hockey League (RWHL).

Women's Hockey League
Женская хоккейная лига
Current season, competition or edition:
2019–20 ZhHL season
FormerlyRussian Women's Hockey League
SportIce hockey
Founded1995 (reorganized as Women's Hockey League in 2015)
FounderIce Hockey Federation of Russia & Kontinental Hockey League
Inaugural seasonas Russian Women's Hockey League 1995-96
as Women's Hockey League 2015-16
MottoКрасивая Лига
“The Beautiful League”
No. of teams8
Countries Russia (7 teams)
 China (1 team)
Most recent
champion(s)		KRS Vanke Rays (1st title)
Most titlesSKIF Nizhny Novgorod (12)
Domestic cup(s)Russian Championship
International cup(s)European Women’s Champions Cup
Related
competitions		Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)
Official websitewhl.khl.ru

History

For the first time, the creation of the Women's Hockey League was announced on September 12, 2014 at a working meeting of the presidents of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia (FHR) and the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), Alexander Medvedev and Vladislav Tretiak. The parties expressed their readiness to jointly establish the WHL and to achieve the dream of taking women's hockey in Russia to a new level of development. However, the FHR established the Women's Hockey League independently. There was a meeting with representatives of different women's hockey teams of Russia on July 2, 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 December 22, 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 - that is. I have very good relations 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 WHL in 2015. On April 23, 2015, the FHR Executive Committee voted to transfer the rights to host the Russian Championship among women's teams to the KHL. On June 19, 2015, the KHL established the Women's Hockey League, holding a presentation of a new league in the Ministry of Sport of Russia. On September 8, 2015, after the first matches of the championship of the WHL, 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 added to compete in the league. However, on September 5, 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.[2] On July 25, 2019, the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays announced it was joining the WHL for the 2019–20 season.[3]

Participating teams for 2019–2020
Team City Arena Capacity Founded Joined league
Agidel Ufa Ufa Ice Palace Salavat Yulaev 4,043 2010 2015
Dynamo Saint Petersburg Sports Palace "SPBGBU CFMC and VO" 500 2013 2015
SK Gorny Ukhta Saint Petersburg Yubileyny Sports Palace 7,000 2018 2019
Biryusa Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk LD Sokol 200 1987 2015
HC Tornado Dmitrov Dmitrov Sports Complex 2,500 2003 2015
KRS Vanke Rays Shenzhen Shenzhen Dayun Arena 18,000 2017 2019
SKIF Nizhny Novgorod Trade Union Sport Palace 5,600 1995 2015
SKSO Yekaterinburg Kurganovo Sports Complex/KRK Uralets 1,500/5,570 2015 2015

Champions
  • 1996 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (Luzhniki Moscow)
  • 1997 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (CSK VVS Moscow)
  • 1998 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (CSK VVS Moscow)
  • 1999 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (Viking Moscow)
  • 2000 : Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
  • 2001 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (SKIF Moscow)
  • 2002 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (SKIF Moscow)
  • 2003 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (SKIF Moscow)
  • 2004 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (SKIF Moscow)
  • 2005 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (SKIF Moscow)
  • 2006 : HC Tornado
  • 2007 : HC Tornado
  • 2008 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
  • 2009 : HC Tornado
  • 2010 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
  • 2011 : HC Tornado
  • 2012 : HC Tornado
  • 2013 : HC Tornado
  • 2014 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
  • 2015 : HC Tornado
  • 2016 : HC Tornado
  • 2017 : HC Tornado
  • 2018 : Agidel Ufa
  • 2019 : Agidel Ufa
  • 2020 : KRS Vanke Rays
Club Titles Won Winning Years
SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
12
 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2014
HC Tornado (Moscow Region)
9
 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017
Agidel Ufa
2
 2018, 2019
Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
1
 2000
KRS Vanke Rays
1
 2020

Seasons overview
Year Champions Runners-up 3rd place medalist
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
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
gollark: Plotting graphs sounds kind of out of scope for it.
gollark: Do you mean a Discord bot?
gollark: There's already MathBot, which among other things can render TeX or something, but sure?
gollark: I'm hopeful on the driver thing, as their integrated drivers work fine.
gollark: They *currently* only make iGPUs, but are releasing dGPUs soon™️.

References
  1. "Russia to Launch New Women's Hockey League". 8 July 2014. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  2. "Курское "Динамо" не примет участие в чемпионате ЖХЛ". 5 September 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  3. "Kunlun Red Stars Vanke Rays officially joining the Russian Women's Hockey League". The Ice Garden. 25 July 2019.
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