Pucksters primed to up the intensity

Revamped domestic women's league designed to raise standards on the ice ahead of world championship challenge

With more games to play and foreign players involved for the first time, the Chinese Ice Hockey Association has relaunched its women's league in a move designed to prepare the national team for a step-up in class next year.

Three months after earning promotion to the top tier of the IIHF World Championship, the Chinese women's program hopes the rebranded and extended domestic league system will help hone its young talents for their elite international challenge.

The puck will drop on the new-look 2023-24 women's league on Saturday in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province, where seven clubs open the regular season's phase one in a round-robin format. With two more legs scheduled from Dec 9-16 in Harbin and Dec 30-Jan 6 in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, the league will wrap up with a final phase in Beijing, where the top four will slug it out in best-of-three semifinal and final series from Jan 19-26, according to the CIHA.

Although not yet a fully fledged pro system with a home-and-away format, it's hoped that the league's busy schedule and frequent travel will give players a taste of what they can expect next year at the worlds.

"It represents a solid step forward in the professional reform of ice hockey's competition system in our country," Wang Xuan, who was elected president of the CIHA in April, said at a news conference on Monday.

"We are aiming to build the league into a robust network to identify, grow and select domestic talents to feed the national program and push the professionalization of club operations.

"With plenty of games to play on a consistent basis, we hope our players can keep improving in the wake of the national team's promotion earlier this year. So, when they square off against international heavyweights in the top division they will be ready."

Led by captain Yu Baiwei and several North American-born players with Chinese heritage, the national women's team secured a spot at next year's top-flight worlds after winning the Division I Group A tournament, the second-ranked event in the IIHF's seven-tier championship system, with a perfect run of five wins in Shenzhen in August.

China last appeared in the top echelon in 2009, with its return building on a ninth-place finish at the Beijing Winter Olympics where it stunned top-tier opponents Japan and Denmark in the group stage.

Superpowers such as Canada, the United States and Finland await for Team China at the 10-team worlds in Utica, New York in April next year.

To make the domestic league more competitive and fun to watch, women's clubs are allowed to sign foreign players for the first time. So far, 11 foreign pucksters from hockey powerhouses have signed up, including Finland's three-time Olympic medalist Minnamari Tuominen, Russia's under-18 national defenseman Natalia Vorontsova, and Canadian teen prodigy Kiana Wilkinson.

Each team is allowed to sign up to five imports for the 2023-24 season, with no limits on their minutes on the ice.

The newly arrived imports and Team China's naturalized players, who all play for Shenzhen-based club Kunlun Red Star, will push the homegrown youngsters to level up their games, said Wang.

With the help of Kunlun, North American-born players with Chinese roots were incorporated into the national program ahead of Beijing 2022.

Seven of the total 22 Team China players that won the Division I Group A title in Shenzhen were born in Canada or the United States and developed their early careers in North America.

The new league season will also feature a number of intriguing homegrown talents, as well as national team veterans from the traditional State-run system.

"Some of the next-gen players, such as Beijing's Wu Sijia, have made their presence felt in the hockey community in China and we'd like to provide them with a stage to keep maturing and realizing their full potential," said Wang.

Wu, a 16-year-old forward who developed her game in the Beijing Hockey Association's junior leagues, made her senior international debut in August.

After launching in 2016 with just 30 kids, the BHA junior league continues to go from strength to strength, with 500 girls signing up for its 2023-24 season to compete across seven age-group categories.