Zhenskaya Hockey League

The Zhenskaya Hockey League (ZhHL; ), officially called the Women's Hockey League (WHL), is a professional ice hockey league in Eurasia, currently comprising ten teams: nine from Russia and one from China. The league is also known as the PariMatch Women's Hockey League for sponsorship reasons.
The league was founded via a joint partnership of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia (FHR) on 19 June 2015. It replaced the Russian Women's Hockey League (RWHL), which had been founded in 1995 and was operated by the FHR alone.
==History==
The creation of the Zhenskaya Hockey League was announced on 12 September 2014 at a meeting of Alexander Medvedev, president of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia (FHR), and Vladislav Tretiak, president of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The parties expressed their readiness to jointly establish the ZhHL and to achieve the dream of taking women's hockey in Russia to a new level of development. However, the FHR established the Zhenskaya Hockey League independently. There was a meeting with representatives of different Russian women's hockey teams on 2 July 2014. On the same day, the Honored Master of Sports, Alexei Yashin, was elected as president of the league while Yevgeny Chizhmin was appointed as the league's executive director.
However, the process of creating the league stalled because of a disagreement of the KHL with the fact that the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia established the league without reaching an agreement with the KHL, and on 22 December 2014, Alexei Yashin said in an interview with Championat.com: "While all this is a little suspended, what will happen next is hard for me to say. The management has made such a decision about changes in the KHL, which is what it is. I have a very good relationship with Alexander Ivanovich Medvedev. I think he did a lot for our hockey. I have not talked with Dmitry Chernyshenko yet. As for the women's league, when we talked, there was a certain situation that the KHL, FHR and Ruslan Gutnov would participate in the creation and development of this project. Now, while this process has slowed down, it's difficult for me to talk about terms."
 
The KHL, with the FHR, returned to the subject of the ZhHL in 2015. On 23 April 2015, the FHR Executive Committee voted to transfer the rights to host the women's ice hockey Russian Championship to the KHL. On 19 June 2015, the KHL established the Zhenskaya Hockey League, holding a presentation of a new league in the Ministry of Sport of Russia. On 8 September 2015, after the first matches of the championship of the ZhHL, the Board of Directors of the KHL approved the Rules of the League Championship.
Prior to the 2016–17 season, an eighth team, Dinamo Kursk, was supposed to added to compete in the league. However, on 5 September 2016, despite the league taking all possible measures to ensure they would take part, Dinamo Kursk ultimately withdrew from the competition due to unresolved organizational and logistical issues. On 25 July 2019, the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays announced it was joining the ZhHL for the 2019–20 season.
==Teams==
=== 2021–22 season ===
Team name 	Location 	Home venue 	Head coach	Captain
Agidel 	Ufa 	Ice Palace Salavat Yulaev 	 	
Belye Medveditsy	Chelyabinsk 	Yunost Sport Palace 	 	
Biryusa 	Krasnoyarsk 	Platinum Arena Krasnoyarsk 	 	
Dinamo-Neva 	Saint Petersburg	Sports Palace "SPBGBU CFMC and VO" 	 	
Ice Wings 	Yaroslavl 	GUOR Ice Hockey Arena 	 	
KRS Vanke Rays 	Shenzhen 	Shenzhen Dayun Arena 	 	
KRS Vanke Rays 	Mytishchi 	Mytishchi Arena 	 	
MSMO 7.62 	Voskresensk 	Podmoskovie Ice Palace 	 	
SKIF 	Nizhny Novgorod 	Trade Union Sport Palace 	 	
SKSO 	Yekaterinburg 	Kurganovo Sports Complex/KRK Uralets	 	
Tornado 	Dmitrov 	Dmitrov Sports Complex 	 	
*Temporary relocation for 2021–22 season
Source: 
==Russian Champions==
*1996 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (Luzhniki Moscow)
*1997 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (CSK VVS Moscow)
*1998 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (CSK VVS Moscow)
*1999 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (Viking Moscow)
*2000 : Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
*2001 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (SKIF Moscow)
*2002 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (SKIF Moscow)
*2003 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (SKIF Moscow)
*2004 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (SKIF Moscow)
*2005 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (SKIF Moscow)
*2006 : HC Tornado
*2007 : HC Tornado
*2008 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
*2009 : HC Tornado
*2010 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
*2011 : HC Tornado
*2012 : HC Tornado
*2013 : HC Tornado
*2014 : SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
*2015 : HC Tornado
*2016 : HC Tornado
*2017 : HC Tornado
*2018 : Agidel Ufa
*2019 : Agidel Ufa
*2020 : KRS Vanke Rays
*2021 : Agidel Ufa
===Russian Champions by season===
Year 	Champion 	Runners-up 	Third Place
Russian Women's Hockey League	Russian Women's Hockey League	Russian Women's Hockey League	Russian Women's Hockey League
1995–96 	Luzhniki Moscow 	Uralochka-Auto Yekaterinburg 	Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
1996–97 	CSK VVS Moscow 	Spartak Yekaterinburg 	Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
1997–98 	CSK VVS Moscow 	Spartak Yekaterinburg 	Spartak Moscow
1998–99 	Viking Moscow 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg	Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
1999–2000 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg	Viking Moscow 	Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
2000–01 	SKIF Moscow 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg	Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
2001–02 	SKIF Moscow 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg	Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
2002–03 	SKIF Moscow 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg	Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk
2003–04 	SKIF Moscow 	HC Tornado 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2004–05 	SKIF Moscow 	HC Tornado 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2005–06 	HC Tornado 	SKIF Moscow 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2006–07 	HC Tornado 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2007–08 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	HC Tornado 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2008–09 	HC Tornado 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	Lokomotiv-Energia Krasnoyarsk
2009–10 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	HC Tornado 	Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg
2010–11 	HC Tornado 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	Fakel Chelyabinsk
2011–12 	HC Tornado 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	Agidel Ufa
2012–13 	HC Tornado 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	Agidel Ufa
2013–14 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	HC Tornado 	Agidel Ufa
2014–15 	HC Tornado 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	Agidel Ufa
Zhenskaya Hockey League 	Zhenskaya Hockey League 	Zhenskaya Hockey League 	Zhenskaya Hockey League
2015–16 	HC Tornado 	Agidel Ufa 	Biryusa Krasnoyarsk
2016–17 	HC Tornado 	Agidel Ufa 	Dinamo Saint Petersburg
2017–18 	Agidel Ufa 	HC Tornado 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
2018–19 	Agidel Ufa 	Dinamo Saint Petersburg 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod
2019–20 	KRS Vanke Rays 	Agidel Ufa 	HC Tornado/Biryusa Krasnoyarsk
2020–21 	Agidel Ufa 	KRS Vanke Rays 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod/Biryusa Krasnoyarsk
2021–22 	KRS Vanke Rays 	SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	HC Tornado/Dinamo-Neva St. Petersburg
=== All-time Russian Championship titles ===
Team 	Titles	Years Won
SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	 	1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2014
HC Tornado (Moscow Region) 	 	2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017
Agidel Ufa 	 	2018, 2019, 2021
Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg	 	2000
KRS Vanke Rays 	 	2020
==References==
==External links==
* Official website (in Russian)
* 
* 
*Zhenskaya Hockey League at EliteProspects.com
* Women's Hockey League at Eurohockey.com
Women
Category:Women's ice hockey leagues in Europe
Lea