The National Ringette League (NRL) () is the premier league for the sport of ringette in North America and Canada's national league for elite ringette players aged 18 and up. The NRL is not a women's variant of a more well-known men's league or sport like professional women's ice hockey or bandy; one of ringette's distinctive features is that all of its players are girls and women. As such, the NRL is the continent's first and only winter team sports league whose entire athlete roster is made up of women and non-binary athletes.
The NRL is semi-professional and operates as a showcase league for ringette in North America. The league functions as a committee under Ringette Canada, a non-profit sports organization and Canada's national governing body for ringette. Its Finnish equivalent is the SM Ringette league in Finland.
League history
Ringette is a Canadian sport that was first introduced in 1963 in North Bay, Ontario. For ten years, play was confined to Ontario and Quebec; however, the sport spread quickly and is now played by over 30,000 players and involves over 50,000 participants across Canada. The success of the 2002 World Ringette Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, where Canada won the gold medal, sparked the desire to create the National Ringette League. Former Team Canada goaltender, Keely Brown, was a key figure in getting the NRL established. The NRL was founded in 2002 and began play the following year, with November 2004 marking the start of its official inaugural season. The first NRL season included seventeen teams in three cross-country divisions.
The National Ringette League playoffs at the Canadian Ringette Championships (CRC) began in 2008 when they replaced the national championships for Under-19 years and Open divisions. Playoffs are held annually at CRCs to determine an annual league champion. Historically, they consisted of knockout matches, round robins, and tournaments in various cities, but currently the tournament takes place in just one city. 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. 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.
Structure and competition Teams compete in two conferences: the Western Conference, which consists of teams from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and the Eastern Conference and includes teams from Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. Currently the league operates based on hub-style tournaments, and a team can expect to host 1–2 such tournaments a season, while traveling for an additional 4–5. NRL games are divided into four 13-minute periods.
Characteristic of North American sports, the NRL is a closed league with no relegation. There is an annual draft in between seasons, which is the main entry for new players in the league. The NRL runs four regional drafts; in 2011, there was one for the region of Ottawa and Gatineau, another one for Manitoba, another for Southern Ontario, and another for the Montreal region. Trading among teams is also common.
Some players are selected from the league to help form Canada's national ringette teams, while the league also draws some international players, especially from Finland. In some cases, players have been traded between clubs in Canada's NRL to Ringette Finland's semi-professional ringette league, SM Ringette (formerly called ), and vice versa.
The NRL maintains a collaboration with the lower Ringette leagues in regards to the development of the young female players, therefore several teams of the NRL have affiliated development teams for Under 19 years old and Under 16 years old. The Canadian Ringette Championships for U16 and U19 takes place in the same place as the NRL playoff tournament elimination. It is this tournament which allows the tracers and talent scouts for the NRL teams to identify emerging young athletes as potential future NRL players.
In 2008, the budget of each NRL team varied between $15,000 and $20000. Le Fusion de Gatineau lance sa saison inaugurale The teams and the league contribute to cover all the transport spending, accommodation, and rent of arenas. The players must find their own financiers to pay for their equipment and personal spending and the players are not paid for play.
Background Over thirty different teams have competed in the NRL since it began in 2004. For the 2021–22 season, there were 12 teams playing in a hub format, down from 15 teams from the previous year, due to COVID-19. The Cambridge Turbos have won the most NRL titles. The Lower Mainland Thunder in British Columbia and the Ottawa Ice in Ontario 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. The LMRL Thunder won in 2011–12, and the Ottawa Ice won the league title in 2013–14. Both the LMRL Thunder and the Ottawa Ice won the NRL championship once in their team's history while their clubs were active.
For the 2005–06 season, the league had 19 teams competing in four divisions. The Eastern Conference in 2005–06 included the Ontario and Québec divisions. Ontario teams included the Cambridge Turbos, Gloucester Devils, Ottawa Ice, Richmond Hill Lightning and Waterloo Wildfire. The Ottawa Ice was an expansion team. The Québec division included the BLL Nordiques (who later became the Bourassa Royal) the Cyclones de Québec, the Montreal Mission, and Rive–Sud Revolution, all returning from the previous season. Teams in the Central Division included the APFG Sixers, BoniVital Angels, Eastman Flames, Hix with Stix, and Manitoba Moose. The Western Division included the returning league champion, the Edmonton WAM!, the Calgary RATH, BC Reign, the Saskatoon Wild, and the previous year's wild card team, the Edmonton Edge. With nineteen teams competing, it was this NRL season which recorded the highest number of teams competing in the NRL in a single season in league history. The 2005–06 NRL season also marked the inaugural season of the NRL Championship.
NRL National Championship format
The NRL Championship, which crowns the team champion of the league, is played annually by the eight best teams in the league at the Canadian Ringette Championships in the National Ringette League division.
History In 2010–11, the introduction of a new NRL Championship Tournament replaced the Championship qualifying rounds. The tournament took place in just one city. The format was intended to allow the league to create a media event and to hold attention. The top ten teams in the regular season of the league participated in the tournament.
Starting in 2011–12, eight teams play a full round robin to determine the champion, also called the Elite Eight.
Awards and honours Jeanne Sauvé Memorial Cup The final competition for the National Ringette League is held annually at the Canadian Ringette Championships. The Jeanne Sauvé Memorial Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the winning team in the National Ringette League. Initially coined the "Jeanne Sauvé Cup", and initiated in December 1984, it was first presented at the 1985 Canadian Ringette Championships in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Québec.
NRL Annual Award nominees At the end of March, during the week break before the National Ringette League Championships, the League names its annuals Award Nominees. Award winners are announced at the closing banquet of the Canadian Ringette Championships. The awards program recognizes the performance of NRL athletes during regular season play with trophies for:
Rookie of the Year Most Valuable Player Top Forward Top Centre Top Defence Top Goalkeeper Coaching Staff of the Year NRL Top Scorer
Teams
As of the 2025-26 season, there are 14 teams in the NRL, all of them based in Canada. The number of teams in the NRL can vary from season to season, as new teams may be added or existing teams may withdraw.
Current teams
+2025–26 NRL Teams (14 teams) Team City/Area Founded Cups G S B Western ConferenceBC Thunder British Columbia2011 1110Rocky Mountain Rage Cochrane, Alberta2025 0000Edmonton Black Gold Rush Edmonton, Alberta2015 0000Calgary RATH Calgary, Alberta2007 3322Edmonton WAM! Edmonton, Alberta20045542Manitoba Herd Winnipeg, Manitoba2021 0000Saskatchewan Heat Saskatoon, Saskatchewan2021 0000 Eastern ConferenceGatineau Fusion Gatineau, Quebec20080000Cambridge Turbos Cambridge, Ontario 2003 6634 Waterloo Wildfire Waterloo, Ontario2004 1103Eastern Ontario Capitals Ottawa, Ontario20250000Atlantic Attack Cocagne, New Brunswick 20111120Montréal Mission Montréal, Quebec2004 1121Rive-Sud Révolution South Shore, Quebec20040002Former NRL Teams Ottawa Ice Ottawa, Ontario20051102Gloucester Devils Gloucester, Ontario20040010Winnipeg Prairie Fire Winnipeg, Manitoba20060011Richmond Hill Lightning Richmond Hill, Ontario20060000LMRL Thunder British Columbia20111100
Western Conference
Edmonton Black Gold Rush
The Edmonton Black Gold Rush (commonly called "The Rush" or "Rushies") is a ringette team in the National Ringette League (NRL) based in Edmonton, Alberta. The team competes in the NRL Western Conference and was founded in 2015.
The following is the Rush roster for the 2022–23 season.
Edmonton Black Gold Rush 2022–23 No Player Position Victtoria Barbieri Danielle Bechard Brooklyn Bilyk Kaley Bilyk Molly Chorney Kat Eamon Sydney George Annie Hood Justine Kearney Nicole Pelletier Reid Petersen Jordyn Scoot Reeve Spanakis Jamie Tuininga Jordyn Vandenbrand Paytyn Wood
Eastern Conference Waterloo Wildfire
The Waterloo Wildfire is a ringette team in the National Ringette League (NRL) based in Waterloo, Ontario. The team competes in the NRL Eastern Conference in the Red Division.
The following is the Wildfire's roster for the 2022–23 season.
Waterloo Wildfire 2022–23 No Player Position Elyssa Perron (AP/GUEST) Emily Sharpe (AP/GUEST) Katie Bray (AP/GUEST) Brooklyn Norris (AP/GUEST) Isabel Lorentz (AP/GUEST) 2 Maddie MacLean 4 Jackie Gaudet 5 Emma Heaney 6 Jordan McClement (Rookie) 7 Lydia Duncan 8 Meghan Hanton-Fong 9 Erin Markle 10 Erika Kiviaho 12 Sydney Granger 16 Tatum Allen 17 Laura Dayman 18 Megan Heaney (Rookie) 23 Kelsey Youldon 24 Brianna Jacobi (Rookie) 25 Emily Power 29 Camrynn Schnarr
Nepean Ravens
The Nepean Ravens is a ringette team in the National Ringette League (NRL) based in Nepean, Ontario (Ottawa). The team competes in the NRL Eastern Conference in the Red Division and was founded in 2021.
The following is the Ravens roster for the 2022–23 season.
Nepean Ravens 2022–23 No Player Position K Gagnier (AP/GUEST) T forrest (AP/GUEST) R Steckly (AP/GUEST) J Wilson (AP/GUEST) 2 Amanda Law (Rookie) Defence 3 C Chestnut (AP/GUEST) 4 Olivia Edissi Defence 5 Laiya Evraire (Rookie) Forward 9 Josiane Labelle (Rookie) Forward 11 Allison Biewald Forward 12 Amanda Gour Defence 13 Samantha Jones Defence 14 Molly Lewis Forward 16 Brooke Wasylyshyn (Rookie) Forward 17 Emma Kelly Forward 19 Jalena Marelic Forward 21 Rebecca Bastien Defence 23 Abby Manson Forward 25 Alyssa Wong (Rookie) Defence 30 Rachael Pelisek Goalie 32 E Harvie (AP/GUEST) Goalie
Gatineau Fusion
The Gatineau Fusion is a ringette team in the National Ringette League (NRL) based in Gatineau, Quebec. The team competes in the NRL Eastern Conference in the Red Division and was founded in 2008.
The following is the Fusion's roster for the 2022–23 season.