PWHL announces new expansion franchises are coming to Las Vegas and Hamilton, Ontario

The Professional Women's Hockey League has proven to be a success with teams in Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver.

On Wednesday, the league announced that it will be adding another two teams, with franchises being awarded to Hamilton, Ontario, and Las Vegas.

That's right. I think we can officially call Las Vegas a "Hockey Town."

According to the league, the team in Hamilton — currently known as PWHL Hamilton — will play at TD Coliseum, while PWHL Las Vegas will play at T-Mobile Arena, home of the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights.

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Both cities make a ton of sense. The league says that Hamilton has one of the most concentrated areas in the world for women's and girls' hockey. Meanwhile, Las Vegas has seen a 600% explosion in female hockey participation since the Golden Knights began play in 2017.

And I think it's probably reasonable to expect that number to rise even more when the PWHL team gets rolling.

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Of course, the addition of Las Vegas expands the league's footprint outside of the northern United States and Canada, which is a big deal and will get more eyes on the league.

Both teams will begin play next season, which is an impressive time frame considering the league's Walter Cup Final between the Ottawa Charge and Montreal Victoire is about to get underway this week.

Even more impressive, the league will also be welcoming a previously announced expansion team in Detroit.

It's great to see this kind of growth and more professional opportunities for women's hockey players. If you watched the Olympic tournament, you know there's a lot of talent both in North America and abroad.