Collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League

Collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League

Date	March 31 – May 1, 2019 (2019-03-31 – 2019-05-01)
Also known as	French: L'effondrement de la Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin
Cause	Official: Unsustainable league finances Low attendance Fragmentation of North American women's hockey market
Participants	Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) Jayna Hefford (CWHL Commissioner) Liz Knox (CWHL Players' Association Chair)
Outcome	Legal dissolution of the CWHL Auctioning of league artifacts #ForTheGame players' strike and creation of the PWHPA Takeover of the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays by the ZhHL Severing of NHL affiliations with the NWHL's Buffalo Beauts and Metropolitan Riveters  NWHL expansion into Toronto
Casualties
150+ players and multiple league staff left without a job
Loss of 5 professional ice hockey teams

The collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League occurred in the spring of 2019. Previously one of the top women's ice hockey leagues in the world, the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; French: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin; LCHF) announced on 31 March 2019, that it would be folding effective 1 May.

The collapse had a major influence on women's professional hockey, leading directly to the creation of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), and the subsequent establishment of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL).