Former Team Canada goaltender, Keely Brown, was a key figure in getting the NRL established.

[3] The NRL was founded in 2002 and began play the following year, with November 2004 marking the start of its official inaugural season.

The winning National Ringette League team is awarded with the Jeanne Sauvé Memorial Cup, named after Canada's first female Governor General.

A 2009 episode of Rick Mercer Report called "Ringette Night In Canada" featured the NRL's Cambridge Turbos.

[7] In 2013, Télé Québec broadcast a short documentary film titled 'Tout le monde dehors - La Ringuette', which focused on the NRL's Gatineau Fusion, along with Yvon Brault, who devotes his life to this sport.

[18] The teams and the league contribute to cover all the transport spending, accommodation, and rent of arenas.

The Lower Mainland Thunder in British Columbia[19] and the Ottawa Ice in Ontario[19] are the only now-defunct NRL teams in league history to have won a Canadian Ringette Championship along with the Jeanne Sauvé Memorial Cup, and the league's national championship gold medal.

[20] Both the LMRL Thunder and the Ottawa Ice won the NRL championship once in their team's history while their clubs were active.

Ontario teams included the Cambridge Turbos, Gloucester Devils, Ottawa Ice, Richmond Hill Lightning and Waterloo Wildfire.

Teams in the Central Division included the APFG Sixers, BoniVital Angels, Eastman Flames, Hix with Stix, and Manitoba Moose.

The format was intended to allow the league to create a media event and to hold attention.

Starting in 2011–12, eight teams play a full round robin to determine the champion, also called the Elite Eight.

The Jeanne Sauvé Memorial Cup[23] is the championship trophy awarded annually to the winning team in the National Ringette League.

List of Jeanne Sauvé Memorial Cup winners at the Canadian Ringette Championships:

The table below provides a chronological list of Jeanne Sauvé Memorial Cup winners at the Canadian Ringette Championships and the NRL's teams who won the gold, silver, and bronze medals.

[35][36] 2003–04The 2003–04 NRL season marked the National Ringette League's inaugural year with 17 teams competing across Canada.[which?]

in the West Conference, and the champions of the Central Division, the APFG Sixers (Assiniboine Park/Fort Garry, an AA provincial team from Manitoba).

The 2005–06 NRL season finals took place at the 2006 Canadian Ringette Championships in Longueuil, Quebec.

[40] The championship match of the NRL/LNR took place in the Centre Étienne Desmarteau in Montreal, on April 1, 2006, and was won by the Cambridge Turbos.

[50] The Cambridge Turbos won the world title having overcome in the Finnish champion team, Luvian Kiekko -82 [fi], in the final.

[58] The NRL experienced a new expansion during the 2011–12 season, with the creation of two new teams,[59] the Atlantic Attack (of Moncton in New Brunswick)[60] and Lower Mainland Thunder (of British Columbia).

This structure allowed teams to reduce the costs of transport given the size of the Canadian territory covered by the league.

At the end of the regular season, there is a break of a week when the various individual distinctions are awarded, then a National Ringette League Championship Tournament.

[63] The season's winners were the Cambridge Turbos, runners-up were the Richmond Hill Lightning, and the Edmonton WAM!

[64] The 2015–16 season's winners were the Cambridge Turbos, runners-up were the Gloucester Devils, and the Ottawa Ice finished in third.

[67] 2018–19The 2018–19 season's winners were the Calgary RATH, runners-up were the Atlantic Attack, and the Cambridge Turbos finished in third.

5 teams had withdrawn, including: BC Thunder, Bourassa Royal, Richmond Hill Lightning, Lac-Saint-Louis Adrenaline, and the Ottawa Ice.

The season's winners were the Calgary RATH, runners-up were the Edmonton WAM!, and the Cambridge Turbos finished in third.

Keely Brown, a former Team Canada ringette goaltender and coach, played for the Edmonton WAM!

[78][79] McAdam was instrumental in helping begin the development of the National Ringette League as well as one of its first teams, the Saskatoon Wild.