Russian Women's Hockey League

The Women's Hockey League () is the national women's ice hockey league in Russia. The league originally began in 1995 as the Russian Women's Hockey League (RWHL).
==History==
For the first time, the creation of the Women's Hockey League was announced on September 12, 2014 at a working meeting of the presidents of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia (FHR) and the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), Alexander Medvedev and Vladislav Tretiak. The parties expressed their readiness to jointly establish the WHL and to achieve the dream of taking women's hockey in Russia to a new level of development. However, the FHR established the Women's Hockey League independently. There was a meeting with representatives of different women's hockey teams of Russia on July 2, 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 December 22, 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 - that is. I have very good relations 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 WHL in 2015. On April 23, 2015, the FHR Executive Committee voted to transfer the rights to host the Russian Championship among women's teams to the KHL. On June 19, 2015, the KHL established the Women's Hockey League, holding a presentation of a new league in the Ministry of Sport of Russia. On September 8, 2015, after the first matches of the championship of the WHL, 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 September 5, 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 July 25, 2019, the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays announced it was joining the WHL for the 2019–20 season.
==Participating teams for 2019–2020==
Team 	City 	Arena 	Capacity 	Founded	Joined league
Agidel Ufa 	Ufa 	Ice Palace Salavat Yulaev 	4,043 	2010 	2015
Dynamo 	Saint Petersburg	Sports Palace "SPBGBU CFMC and VO" 	500 	2013 	2015
SK Gorny Ukhta 	Saint Petersburg	Yubileyny Sports Palace 	7,000 	2018 	2019
Biryusa Krasnoyarsk	Krasnoyarsk 	LD Sokol 	200 	1987 	2015
HC Tornado 	Dmitrov 	Dmitrov Sports Complex 	2,500 	2003 	2015
KRS Vanke Rays 	Shenzhen 	Shenzhen Dayun Arena 	18,000 	2017 	2019
SKIF 	Nizhny Novgorod 	Trade Union Sport Palace 	5,600 	1995 	2015
SKSO 	Yekaterinburg 	Kurganovo Sports Complex/KRK Uralets	1,500/5,570	2015 	2015
==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
Club 	Titles Won	Winning Years
SKIF Nizhny Novgorod 	12 	1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2014
HC Tornado (Moscow Region) 	9 	2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017
Agidel Ufa 	2 	2018, 2019
Spartak-Mercury Yekaterinburg	1 	2000
KRS Vanke Rays 	1 	2020
==Seasons overview==
Year 	Champions 	Runners-up 	3rd place medalist
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
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
==References==
==External links==
* whl.khl.ru Women's Hockey League official site
* fhr.ru Ice Hockey Federation of Russia official site
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* Euro Hockey
Women
Category:Women's ice hockey leagues in Europe
Lea