Hilary Knight is one of 32 CWHL players to sign with the NWHL. Photo credit: Dia Dipasupil, Getty Images North America
Much ink has been spilled over the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), the first North American women's hockey league to pay it's players, and how several prominent players from the amateur Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) have signed with NWHL teams. A lot of that ink has been spilled over the Boston Blades, who lost 20 players off of their 2015 Clarkson Cup winning roster, including six Olympians and Janine Weber, who represented Austria in the World Championships Division 1A after her country failed to qualify for the Olympics.
As of today, just over a third of all current NWHL players played in the CWHL at some point in their careers. Yesterday, the NWHL and CWHL managed to collaborate for the Women's Outdoor Hockey Classic, a 1-1 tie featuring the Boston Pride of the NWHL and Les Canadiennes de Montreal of the CWHL.
So, with all of this going on between the CWHL and NWHL, I thought I'd statistically compare the two leagues, using NWHL equivalencies. NWHL equivalencies are the same as NHL equivalencies, first conceived by Gabriel Desjardins in 2004, while hockey analytics was in its infancy. The way to measure NWHL equivalencies is to divide the points scored by former CWHL players in the NWHL by the points those same players scored in the CWHL. While I was at it, I also thought I would look at the league quality of the NCAA, the main source of talent for the NWHL. The results are below:
CWHL to NWHL (n = 32): 0.80
NCAA to NWHL (n = 63): 0.64
The CWHL is on par with the KHL compared to the NWHL, while the NCAA is somewhere between the SHL and the KHL in terms of quality.
This has interesting implications for the CWHL, who provides just over a third of the NWHL's players.
As of today, just over a third of all current NWHL players played in the CWHL at some point in their careers. Yesterday, the NWHL and CWHL managed to collaborate for the Women's Outdoor Hockey Classic, a 1-1 tie featuring the Boston Pride of the NWHL and Les Canadiennes de Montreal of the CWHL.
So, with all of this going on between the CWHL and NWHL, I thought I'd statistically compare the two leagues, using NWHL equivalencies. NWHL equivalencies are the same as NHL equivalencies, first conceived by Gabriel Desjardins in 2004, while hockey analytics was in its infancy. The way to measure NWHL equivalencies is to divide the points scored by former CWHL players in the NWHL by the points those same players scored in the CWHL. While I was at it, I also thought I would look at the league quality of the NCAA, the main source of talent for the NWHL. The results are below:
CWHL to NWHL (n = 32): 0.80
NCAA to NWHL (n = 63): 0.64
The CWHL is on par with the KHL compared to the NWHL, while the NCAA is somewhere between the SHL and the KHL in terms of quality.
This has interesting implications for the CWHL, who provides just over a third of the NWHL's players.