Top women's hockey is back in Toronto - it's just a question of where they will play.
Toronto's team will be anchored by three Olympic gold medalists: forward Jennifer Botterill, a Winnipeg native, and defenceman Tesse Bonhomme, a Sudbury native, both helped Canada win gold at this year's Vancouver Olympics, while goaltender Sami Jo Small, a Winnipeg native, has been on two previous Olympic gold-medal winning teams.One player they will not get is the lone Toronto native who played on this year's Olympic gold medal winning team, three-time Olympic gold medalist Cherie Piper who has been protected by her old team, Brampton. She grew up in Scarborough, attending Albert Campbell Collegiate from 1995 to 2000.Barb Fisher, the general manger of the new Toronto team that will play in a newly revamped five-team Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL), said an announcement of the team's home arena is expected imminently.The league includes two other teams from the GTA - Brampton and Burlington - as well as teams from Montreal and Boston.Since players aren't receiving the big bucks like their male counterparts playing in the NHL, teams were able to protect up to five veterans with Toronto choosing three - Small and Botteril along with one-time national team player Martine Garland from Toronto.Toronto also had two of the Top 3 draft picks with which they chose Bonhomme as their top pick"Bonhomme's the No. 1 choice in Canada right now, we got her," Fisher said.And with their third pick they chose Port Perry native Britni Smith. This year, Smith was among the 10 finalists announced for best U.S. college player (she played for St. Lawrence University).Also on the team is Fisher's daughter, Kendra Fisher, sharing goaltending duties with Small."Kendra lives in Etobicoke, and so I live there part time because part of my job requires me to be there," said Barb Fisher, who works in community economic development and recruitment and also maintains a residence in her hometown of Kincardine."I'm usually (in Etobicoke) two to three days a week but when hockey season comes I'm there four or five."Toronto's complete draft is available at http://www.cwhl.ca/While the above players are a lock to make the team, the rest of the roughly 30 players per team will have to secure their position in tryouts that will start in mid-September.After that there will be another draft - where teams can chose from players that have been cut as well as any new players who want to play in the league - followed by another tryout, "and then our schedule starts Oct. 23."Organizers hope this latest push to form a women's professional hockey league will work, after a few years of growing pains. The players had to take matters into their own hands the last couple of years and form the Canadian Women's Hockey League, after a fledgling earlier Ontario- and Quebec-based semi-professional league called the National Women's Hockey League - which also featured numerous Olympians - folded after a few years.Fisher has been heavily involved in all the various incarnations. In fact she was a former owner and GM of the Toronto Aeros of the old NWHL of which she was also a league vice-president.The new league hopes to cash in on the recent Hockey Summit in Toronto which, for the first time, devoted significant time to women's hockey."We're getting all kinds of support. The IHF (International Hockey Federation) is very keen about having us do what we're doing at the level we're doing it. We've been supported by U.S. hockey, by Bob Nicholson from Hockey Canada, the NHL's supportive..."Further to that we've got a number of carryover sponsors from last year, ones that we're grateful are there."Check out the revamped league at http://www.cwhl.ca/