Les Canadiennes players are stunned following the news that the Canadian Women’s Hockey League is no more.

“We actually found out 20 minutes before it was announced to the world on Twitter,” said Karell Emard, a forward for the now-defunct team. “We had an all players, all staff conference call at 10 a.m.”

The Canadian Women’s Hockey Players Association, which represents the league’s players in contract negotiations and other matters, found out just 30 minutes before that.

“Very shocked and didn’t expect that at all,” she said.

“It was quite the morning.”

The team posted on Facebook that the news was “difficult to digest.”

In its statement, the CWHL cited that “the business model has proven to be economically unsustainable.”

“Technically that was the answer that was given to us too,” Emard said.

She also hinted at further news coming this week on the next steps for players. 

“We’re looking forward to what’s about to happen,” she said. “ I think it’s an opportunity for women’s hockey to grow even more.”


CWHL, NWHL, and NHL

The National Women’s Hockey League has teams in the US and has competed with the CWHL in the fight to become the pre-eminent North American women’s hockey league.

On Sunday, the NWHL released a statement sympathizing with the CWHL.

“All of us at the NWHL are saddened to learn this morning that the CWHL is discontinuing operations,” commissioner Dani Rylan said. “The CWHL was the first successful professional women’s hockey league in North America, and we have the deepest respect for all the players and leaders who built the league.”

The National Hockey League has repeatedly said that it would provide resources to professional women’s hockey provided it was under a single-league system. 

It echoed that again on Sunday, with deputy commissioner Bill Daly telling the Associated Press that “[the NHL] recognizes the importance of women having options to play the game at the professional level.”

Despite the stunning news, Emard feels it may be the turning point that the sport desperately needs to advance.

“There’s changes that needed to happen and now we are kindly forced to make them happen quicker than we thought,” she said.