EDITORIAL – The PWHL and NSL are probably the two most important women’s sports leagues in Canada. These are the two leagues that started the professional women’s game in Canada. Also, three of the six teams in the PWHL are Canadian (there are two PWHL expansion teams starting play for the upcoming season, including a fourth Canadian PWHL city with Vancouver), while all six teams in the NSL/SLN are Canadian.
PWHL and NSL: A Friendship Between Two Leagues
PWHL and NSL: An Incredible Partnership
Even before the NSL was born, the PWHL was promoting the NSL. In fact, in the inaugural PWHL draft, there were advertisements of the CANWNT/CANXNT players seen everywhere at the event. Then, a high representative from the PWHL said this:
“It was hard to believe in 2023 that we didn’t have professional women’s sports here,” said PWHL senior vice-president of hockey operations and Hockey Hall of Famer Jayna Hefford.
Of course, Hefford was also talking about the Toronto Tempo, which was not named at that time. In addition, which was not known at the time of the article, was the creation of the Canada Super60 league, which will include a small two-team women’s competition that will kick off in July of this year.
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This was also just the start of the promotion of women’s soccer. All three Canadian PWHL/LPHF teams have NSL/SLN teams (there will be a fourth PWHL Canadian team with Vancouver for the 2025-26 PWHL season), so it makes that partnership even more noteworthy between each of the teams.
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Promotion of the Women’s Soccer Teams by the PWHL/LPHF Teams
This is something the PWHL/LPHF has done a fantastic job at. All three Canadian NSL/SLN teams did a great job of promoting their city’s professional women’s soccer team. The Ottawa Charge had the Ottawa Rapid FC/CF Rapide Ottawa’s marquee signing and the CANWNT/CANXNT legend, Desiree Scott, at TD Place Arena. Also, earlier this year, the Montreal Victoire invited seven Montreal Roses FC/Roses de Montréal players to the Victoire game.
As for AFC Toronto, the Sceptres have highlighted the team on at least three occasions. One of them is bringing in Helena Reuken, one of the co-founders of the AFC Toronto and the president of the Toronto Tempo, Teresa Resch standing in a photo with current Toronto Sceptres general manager, Gina Kingsbury.
There was also another occasion where many players on the AFC team watched the Sceptres game. The most noteworthy one was the one seen above. Also, what is also noted is that Diana Matheson was the one who read the starting lineups of the New York Sirens. This is while the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo did the official puck drop between the Sceptres and the Sirens.
NSL/SLN Teams Promoting PWHL Teams
This relationship works both ways. The Montreal Roses FC brought a few Victoire players to the launch of the Montreal NSL/SLN team, which was revealed to be the Montreal Roses FC/Roses de Montréal. This is something AFC Toronto has started to do with the Toronto Sceptres.
While the NSL/SLN season has just started, there has been some cross-promotion between the leagues. For example, for AFC Toronto, they highlighted a few of the Toronto Sceptres players as seen above on April 19. Also, the Vancouver Rise FC made an X (or Tweet) on April 24 for the upcoming PWHL Vancouver team, which will begin play at the Pacific Coliseum in the 2025-26 PWHL season.
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Promotion of the NSL/SLN Teams That Do Not Have a PWHL/LPHF Team
What makes the PWHL and the NSL relationship so special is the promotion of non-PWHL teams as well. Two of these times happened with the PWHL neutral site game. One was the promotion of the Vancouver Rise FC players during the PWHL neutral site game at Rogers Arena (this was before Vancouver got a PWHL team for the 2025-26 season). There was also the promotion of the Calgary Wild FC players in the PWHL neutral site game at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.
The remaining NSL/SLN city, the Halifax Tides FC, was promoted in the Rivalry Series game between Canada and the U.S. back in February. The Halifax Tides FC players took a photo with the Canadian women’s senior ice hockey team a few days before the game was played at the Scotiabank Centre.
The NSL/SLN Season Has Started on April 16
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The six home openers for each team can be seen above, with five of them already played. The main broadcasters of the games are TSN/RDS and CBC/Radio-Canada. It seems that a lot of the RDS and Radio-Canada games will televise Montreal Roses FC games, while TSN and CBC will broadcast many games for all six NSL/SLN teams. In addition, for the remaining games, they will be shown on CBC Gem and TSN+. Lastly, the games will be shown on nsl.ca. It is unclear, though, if nsl.ca will showcase NSL/SLN games outside of Canada or not.
The relationship between the two leagues is very special. There is no doubt that the NSL (and women’s soccer in general) benefited greatly from the promotion from the PWHL and the women’s ice hockey community. Also, it seems that the NSL has followed in the PWHL’s footsteps with a similar TV deal with the mainstream networks of TSN/RDS and CBC/Radio-Canada. Expect this relationship to continue to blossom for years and decades to come.
Photo Credit: Toronto Sceptres X Account on May 8, 2025.
