European Women's Hockey League

The European Women's Hockey League, abbreviated EWHL, is an international ice hockey league. Created as the Elite Women's Hockey League in 2004 by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the EWHL comprises clubs from several countries in Central Europe and one team from Kazakhstan, and is played in parallel to national championships.
==History==
The EWHL was created in 2004 on the same principle as the men's ice hockey Interliga. For its first season, the EWHL featured teams from Austria, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia. Teams from additional countries joined the league during the following seasons, including HC Slovan Bratislava from Slovakia in 2005, KHL Grič Zagreb from Croatia in 2006, and HC Slavia Praha from the Czech Republic in 2007. In the 2008–09 season, the Italian and Hungarian teams gave way to two clubs from Germany, OSC Berlin and ESC Planegg. During the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons, the Netherlands national team participated in the EWHL.The Netherlands wishing to offer more competitive matches to their top Women players. Source: EWHL Website 
Before the 2019–20 season, the Elite Women's Hockey League was renamed, becoming the European Women's Hockey League to reflect its unique position within European women's ice hockey. Also, the Polish women's national team joined the league in 2019, playing as the Silesia Brackens and later under the name Silesian Metropolis Katowice. The Hungarian team KMH Budapest rejoined the league, and MAC Budapest was added.
The EWHL is mostly played in a championship format with home and away matches, with the exception of the 2005–06 season where the teams were distributed in two regional divisions followed by qualifying rounds. For the 2010–11 season, the regular season was followed by a play-off between the four teams at the top of the league table. 
Though they joined the league in the 2015–16 season, Kazakh team Aisulu Almaty has played only two EWHL games from their home arena, Baluan Sholak Sports Palace in Almaty, due to the significant travel distance. The 2019–20 season provided the first opportunity for Aisulu to play EWHL matches in front of a home crowd, when they hosted the EHV Sabres for a two game series during 19–20 October 2019. 
Since the 2019–20 season, the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation has overseen the league. The league president is Martin Kogler.
==Championship==
Years 	Gold 	Silver 	Bronze 	No. of teams
2004 	EHV Sabres 	HK Terme Maribor 	HC Agordo 	8
2005–06	HC Slovan Bratislava	HK Terme Maribor 	HC Eagles Bolzano 	11
2006–07	HC Slovan Bratislava	The Ravens Salzburg	HK Terme Maribor 	12
2007–08	Slavia Praha 	The Ravens Salzburg	EHV Sabres 	11
2008–09	Slavia Praha 	OSC Berlin 	ESC Planegg 	8
2009–10	ESC Planegg 	The Ravens Salzburg	EHV Sabres 	6
2010–11	EHV Sabres 	Slovan Bratislava 	ESC Planegg 	8
2011–12	EHV Sabres 	Slovan Bratislava 	HK Pantera Minsk 	6
2012–13	HK Pantera Minsk 	EHV Sabres 	Salzburg Eagles 	6
2013–14	EV Bozen Eagles 	Neuberg Highlanders	EHV Sabres 	7
2014–15	EHV Sabres 	EV Bozen Eagles 	Salzburg Eagles 	6
2015–16	EHV Sabres 	Salzburg Eagles 	Aisulu Almaty 	7
2016–17	EV Bozen Eagles 	DEC Salzburg Eagles	HC ŠKP Bratislava 	8
2017–18	EHV Sabres 	EV Bozen Eagles 	KMH Budapest 	8
2018–19	KMH Budapest 	EHV Sabres 	EVB Eagles Südtirol	9
2019–20	KMH Budapest 	MAC Budapest 	Aisulu Almaty 	10
2020–21	KMH Budapest 	EHV Sabres 	ŠKP Bratislava 	9
2021–22	KMH Budapest 	Aisulu Almaty 	EHV Sabres 	11
2022–23	Hokiklub Budapest 	MAC Budapest 	ŠKP Bratislava 	10
2023–24	HC ŠKP Bratislava 	Hokiklub Budapest 	MAC Budapest 	12
===Medal table by club===
 	Club 	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Medals
1 	EHV Sabres 	6 	2 	4 	12
2 	Hokiklub Budapest 	5 	1 	1 	7
3 	ŠKP Bratislava 	3 	2 	3 	8
4 	EVB Eagles Südtirol	2 	2 	1 	5
5 	Slavia Praha 	2 	0 	0 	2
6 	ESC Planegg 	1 	0 	2 	3
7 	HK Pantera Minsk 	1 	0 	1 	2
8 	DEC Salzburg Eagles	0 	5 	2 	7
9 	MAC Budapest 	0 	2 	2 	4
9 	HK Terme Maribor 	0 	2 	1 	3
10	Aisulu Almaty 	0 	1 	2 	3
11	OSC Berlin 	0 	1 	0 	1
11	Neuburg Highlanders	0 	1 	0 	1
12	HC Eagles Bolzano 	0 	0 	1 	1
12	HC Agordo 	0 	0 	1 	1
==See also==
* EWHL Super Cup
* Austria women's ice hockey Bundesliga 
* German women's ice hockey Bundesliga
* Swiss Women's A
==References==
* This article incorporates information from the French and German Wikipedias.
==External links==
* EWHL News in English
* (German) EWHL Website
* (German) European Women's Hockey Journal
Category:Women's ice hockey leagues