Elite Ice Hockey League team Manchester Storm have announced the establishment of a women’s professional ice hockey team ahead of the 2025/26 season.
The announcement comes off the back of an idea that has been years in the making from Great Britain U18’s head coach James Ashton.
After continual success within the development pathway for the Manchester Storm, the team lacked a professional stage for players to showcase their talents and compete.
As a result of this, high level players from the pathway would either stop playing the sport they love or move further afield to different cities and subsequently different teams.
One of the two men spearheading this newly founded team is the women’s general manager Wez Spurrett. He said: “We’re at an opportunity now where we were aware of a variety of very talented players that were going to out-age the junior programs.
“We knew that it was going to be a real travesty if they weren’t going to follow on and join a team that was available.”
It will be the first professional team of its kind under the Manchester Storm banner and a result for the women’s players in the academy pathway.
Wez also attributed the growth of the women’s game overall as an external driving force behind the decision. He added: “The women’s game globally is growing. The women’s league in America has become professional and really shone as well as the European leagues.
“It definitely became the right time to push that growth. With the buzz for the game and overall interest growing around the country, we really wanted to capitalise on that and give female players a place to come and play.”
Wez said that the Manchester Storm pathway is one that is ‘truly unique’ being one of the only programs that ‘ensures full development on the ice and at various levels’.
He explained that pathway is ‘one of its kind’, teaching ‘learn to skate’ basics from the age of seven, with skaters then able to progress further into the elite level of women’s ice hockey.
Statistics from the Manchester Storm Women’s Instagram showed that they plan to use a healthy mixture of returning players from the pathways due to former players directly contacting the organisation about the potential of playing.
This is coupled with current pathway players and externally sourced players from other teams to bolster their roster.