PWHL to replace NHL on CBC’s ‘Hockey Night in Canada,’ with 4th season to open in early December

The newly expanded PWHL launches its fourth season with all 12 teams competing during the first weekend of December, and will include women’s hockey replacing the NHL on CBC’s iconic “Hockey Night in Canada” broadcast, the league announced on Monday.

The season will begin with three games on Dec. 5, starting with the Seattle Torrent traveling to Vancouver to face the Goldeneyes in a repeat of last season’s opener between the PWHL’s two 2025 expansion teams.

The reigning champion Montreal Victoire will launch the PWHL’s new broadcasting agreement with CBC in a prime-time game hosting the yet-to-be-named expansion team in Hamilton. And fellow expansion team San Jose will round out the day hosting the Minnesota Frost.

The remaining six teams will open on Dec. 6, with Ottawa hosting Toronto, New York hosting Boston and an all-expansion matchup featuring Las Vegas hosting Detroit.

The PWHL also released its full schedule of home-openers, with the remainder of the slate to be revealed on Friday. The regular season is set to run through April, though the league has not yet revealed how many games each team will play following the addition of four expansion franchises.

As part of the announcement, the PWHL announced reaching an agreement with Canada’s national public broadcaster to air eight Saturday night games over the course of the season.

The PWHL will partially fill the slot left open after the CBC and Rogers Communications’ sub-licensing agreement expired at the end of the NHL playoffs in June. Though the public broadcaster maintained the rights to the “Hockey Night in Canada” brand name, the move to Rogers ended CBC’s run of airing NHL games that began in 1952.

“Our partnership with CBC has been instrumental in the accessibility and growth of the league,” PWHL executive VP of business operations Amy Scheer said. “The opportunity to be part of this iconic brand represents another groundbreaking step for the PWHL to connect with our fans and forge new traditions.”

CBC’s eight-game package will feature games between Canadian-based teams, and its coverage will include pre- and post-game panel analysis.

The agreement builds on the PWHL’s past ties with CBC, and provides the league access to a national audience in Canada. Additionally, the PWHL announced the CBC’s French-language service, Radio-Canada, will provide exclusive audio coverage for all Victoire games.

The agreements come on the heels of the PWHL securing its first season-long U.S. national broadcast deal with Scripps Sports to air games on ION, which is available to more than 128 million American households.

As for the rest of the teams’ home-openers:

— Toronto hosts Hamilton on Dec. 8.

— Boston host Ottawa on Dec. 9.

— Detroit hosts New York on Dec. 12.

— Hamilton hosts Ottawa, and Minnesota hosts Seattle on Dec. 13.

— Seattle hosts Las Vegas on Dec. 20.

See AP’s full women’s hockey coverage here