Five years ago, the Minnesota Whitecaps were the first American Clarkson Cup Champions. Now, in a league that is all but defunct, they look to fill the hole in pro women's hockey that is the Midwestern U.S. Whether that is as part of the CWHL or the new National Women's Hockey League remains to be seen.
If you drew out the boundaries of the two professional North American women's hockey leagues on a map, you would find a lot of concentration in the eastern part of the continent, with one western team (Calgary of the Canadian Women's Hockey League) thrown astray on the left-hand side.