Ligue féminine de hockey de l'Ouest
The Whitecaps were formed by two Minneapolis–Saint Paul area hockey dads, Jack Brodt and Dwayne Schmidgall in 2004. They wanted to give their daughters – Winny Brodt, former Minnesota Golden Gophers player and U.S. national team member, and Jenny Schmidgall Potter, a four-time U.S. Olympic medalist – a place to play after college. The Whitecaps were part of the Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL) from the fall of 2004 until the summer of 2006. In July 2006, it was announced that team, along with other WWHL teams, would be joining the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) for the 2006–07 season. However, this was short lived as the NWHL and WWHL could not reach an agreement upon a playoff schedule. As a result, the merger was not consummated. With the collapse of the NWHL in the summer of 2007, the Western Women's Hockey League was a completely independent league.