Differences between the PWHL and other North American professional hockey leagues include a 3-2-1-0 points system, terminations of penalties following a short-handed goal, best-of-five shootouts, and greater restrictions on body checking.

The league's matches are broadcast nationally in Canada by the CBC and TSN, their French-language affiliates Radio-Canada and RDS, and in both languages on Amazon Prime Video.

The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) effectively replaced the NWHL and ran for twelve seasons, from 2007 to 2019, with teams competing for the Clarkson Cup.

[3] The CWHL, which operated on a non-profit basis, did not pay player salaries, but it did at times offer stipends and bonuses as it aspired to become a professional league.

[7] In the meantime, the PWHPA attracted partnerships with corporate sponsors and National Hockey League teams, organizing exhibition tournaments to generate support for their goal.

[12] The establishment of the Professional Women's Hockey League was announced by Mark Walter Group in August 2023, along with the location of its six charter franchises: Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Montreal, New York City, Ottawa, and Toronto.

[18] Prior to the start of the inaugural season, all six teams congregated at the Utica University Nexus Center in early December for a five day evaluation camp, including scrimmages used to experiment with new rules.

[22] The game's Canadian television audience of 2.9 million viewers was the largest for a sports or entertainment broadcast that day, beating the 2024 NHL Winter Classic.

The Advisory Board of the PWHL is formed by Billie Jean King, Ilana Kloss, Stan Kasten, and Royce Cohen.

[40] Unique to professional women's hockey, the PWHL established an eight-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the players' union.

[48] At the end of the regular season, the best four teams qualify for a postseason tournament that determines the champion, comprising two semi-finals and a final played as best-of-five series.

[55][56] As of the 2024–25 season, six teams compete in the league: the Montréal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, and Toronto Sceptres from Canada, and the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, and New York Sirens from the United States.

"[60] The teams are located in five of the seven Premier Hockey Federation markets—the Buffalo Beauts and Connecticut Whale were not given PWHL replacements, while Ottawa gained a franchise.

[61] Potential franchise nicknames were registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in October 2023: Boston Wicked, Minnesota Superior, Montreal Echo, New York Sound, Ottawa Alert, and Toronto Torch.

[76] In November 2024, the league announced a "Takeover Tour" for the 2024–25 season that would see teams play nine neutral site matches in Seattle, Denver, Buffalo, Raleigh, Detroit, St. Louis, Quebec City, Vancouver, and Edmonton.

[78] Prior to the start of the 2024–25 season, the league announced that it was exploring expansion, opening up a process for proposals and stating that it would ultimately look to add two new teams when possible.

[82] In Canada, the league reached agreements for the inaugural season with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (via CBC Television and CBC Gem in English, and Ici Radio-Canada Télé and Ici TOU.TV in French), Sportsnet, TSN, and RDS (French) to carry packages of games throughout the season, with all other games available via YouTube.

[83][82] For the 2024–25 season, Sportsnet was replaced by Amazon Prime Video, which exclusively carries Tuesday night games, and holds rights to one semi-final series.

In February 2024, the league announced a partnership with the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platform Women's Sports Network as its first national media partner in the United States.