The 2017–18 CWHL season is the 11th season of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. This is also the first season in which the teams pay their players a salary.

 

Hockey fans will get their first look at the CWHL’s newest teams, Kunlun Red Star and Vanke Rays, when the Markham Thunder opens their home schedule on Oct. 21-22 while Vanke makes its debut against the Furies in Toronto on Oct. 28-29. The Thunder and Furies will also be the first teams to travel to China as Vanke hosts Toronto and Kunlun welcomes Markham beginning Nov. 18.

 

 

THE CWHL: 

Founded in 2007, the Canadian Women’s Hockey League was created with two goals in mind— to create a place for the highest-level women’s hockey players to continue to compete and hone their skills and to create a future for the sport of women’s hockey.

 

On June 5, 2017, the league revealed at the Hockey Hall of Fame that it would expand into China with the Kunlun Red Star WIH, a women's team associated with the Kontinental Hockey League's Kunlun Red Star men's team. The league soon added a second Chinese team in the Vanke Rays.

 

Boston Blades
Calgary Inferno
Kunlun Red Star WIH
Les Canadiennes
Markham Thunder
Toronto Furies
Vanke Rays