Wednesday FTB: Sceptres head east and west

Good morning Toronto Maple Leafs fans!

The PWHL has announced the locations for this seasons Takeover Tour games, with our Toronto Sceptres headed to Halifax on Wednesday, December 17th to play against the Montréal Victorie, then to Hamilton to play against the Seattle Torrent in the freshly renovated TD Coliseum on Saturday, January 3rd, and a final game in Calgary against the Ottawa Charge on Wednesday, April 1st.

The only criticism would be that I would have scheduled the Vancouver Goldeneyes as the opponent in Hamilton since that is former Sceptre Sarah Nurse's hometown.

As is custom every time the PWHL / PWHPA games happen in a city we start wondering if any of these cities will host a team of their own one day. Last season both Vancouver and Seattle hosted games and Vancouver had the fourth highest PWHL crowd we've seen, and now they both have teams.

For the Sceptres cities, all three have a great hockey history. Calgary was home to the Calgary Inferno while the Canadian Women's Hockey League was active, and saw two championships come to the city.

A downside to Calgary is that the city is saturated with hockey teams. Three teams currently play at the Calgary Saddledome: The Calgary Flames (NHL), Calgary Wranglers (AHL), and Calgary Hitmen (WHL). Other venues in the city don't have adequate capacity. The Olympic Oval is one of the largest, has hosted the Inferno, but only has 2,000 permanent seats and a speed skating oval around the rink that keeps the fans far away.

There is strong support for women's hockey in the city, but unless they keep the Saddledome in operation once the replacement Scotia Centre - which would be costly - there just won't be enough ice available for four professional teams, plus non-hockey events the city is going to want to draw in with a more concert and event friendly complex.

Halifax is the smallest of the three markets, but growing. It also has a more PWHL sized arena with the Scotiabank Centre fitting just over 10,000 fans. The league can for sure draw more, but as a young league it's a reasonable size and less chance of playing in a cavernous undersold rink. Another advantage is there only being one high level sports team competing for fans; the QMJHL Halifax Mooseheads. Easier to schedule ice around only one other team rather than three. The city loves it's hockey, with the Mooseheads second in QMJHL attendance averaging 8200 fans per game.

Great attendance has been seen for the Men's U20 World Championships, the CHL Memorial Cup tournaments, and the 2004 Women's World Championships. It's a growing city that could use more high level entertainment consistently in town to keep locals, university students, and visitors entertained, and a well loved city by visitors that will attract road tripping away fans for a weekend.

Finally, one I would personally love to see, is Hamilton, Ontario.

Copps Coliseum (or whatever bank it's named after this time) has been renovated once again, and after making the OHL's Bulldogs mad enough about how it's been handled that Michael Andlauer moved the team to Brantford, swore he wouldn't return, and then sold the team, there is no anchor tenant now that it's ready to re-open.

The Bulldogs in both OHL and AHL form we were supported, though the OHL team fared better as the AHL Bulldogs were affiliated with the Oilers and Canadiens. There's plenty of talk of the AHL returning, but a major league team is always preferred to a minor league one.

I will also admit that it's only my favourite choice because it would put a PWHL team closer to Toronto. What I would really prefer is non-NHL cities getting some teams as well (THAT'S WHY TORONTO HAS A TEAM HUR HUR HUR) because they also would love some high-level hockey, and be a very supportive fanbase, especially when there's no competition.

Where would you peg for the next expansion teams for the PWHL?

Also last night the Leafs played the Bruins and I swear we're back in 2015 not 2025. Figure it out, Buds. 5-3 loss to the Bruins. Just shaking my head.