Out of the Shadows Hayley Wickenheiser writes about Steve Montador, depression, anxiety, hockey culture and supporting athletes as people during and after the game.

Elite Prospects is expanding its coverage of women's hockey to include tracking of women’s hockey transactions. This is going to make the offseason much easier!

The challenges of developing the game at the minor levels.

Sledge

Developing the Canadian National Team and details about the next two-day open development camp in May.

CIS

Laura Taylor, one of the goalies on the 2015-16 CIS silver medal UBC Thunderbirds passed away this week. Her family writes "For more than half her life, Laura valiantly tried to overcome her long battle with the effects of depression, within the disease of bipolar disorder, but sadly the struggle finally took its toll"

NCAA

Golden Gophers Amanda Kessel and Hannah Brandt opening Game 4 between the Stars and the Wild.
Canadian national team head coach Laura Schuler has been hired as head coach for Dartmouth College.

CWHL

The CWHL has a couple of openings - there's a summer internship in Toronto and the Calgary Interno are looking for a new GM.

Members of the Toronto Furies are participating in One Brave Night, a fundraiser for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). You can support them, or sign up to participate yourself.

To be strictly technical, the CWHL is only tangentially involved in this next story about opposition to the NWHL registering a trademark in Canada but it's hard not to see this as the CWHL and its partners taking steps to defend against a possible NWHL expansion. Considering that the original "National Women's Hockey League" was a precursor to the CWHL, this might actually be a real stumbling block for any Canadian expansion.

NWHL

Tatiana Rafter continues her weekly column over at Stanley Cup of Chowder.

When the week started, the story was more about how the restricted free agency period is coming to an end (April 30) with not a heck of a lot of players signed. Then other stuff happened. Normally, I try not to have a lot of duplication about one particular issue, but I think how this latest issue with the NWHL has been covered says a lot not only about the league, but about the media who cover them.

Meg Linehan broke the story that one of the NWHL's investors might be preparing to sue the league for Excelle Sports.

Kate Cimini at Today's Slapshot reported it like this, including further comment from the league. Jen Neale for Puck Daddy. Zoë Hayden at Victory Press. Michelle Jay for Along the Boards. More from Cimini, in an opinion piece.

Then Linehan's source came up with more documents and hard numbers. Cimini's reaction was this.

Dave Pendrys provides a bit of historical perspective, reminding us that things are early and even the NHL had a rocky start.

The City of Boston declared April 23 Boston Pride day.

Check out Today's Slapshot for more pictures and story.

Meghan Duggan has stepped down as assistant coach for Clarkson University to focus on her Olympic preparations. Erik Wollschlager speculates on what this might mean for her involvement in the NWHL.

Boston Pride GM Hayley Moore sees the impact the NWHL has had on younger players.

New Connecticut Whale GM Lisa Giovanelli talks to Kate Cimini about the challenge she's facing in the offseason.

The second ever NWHL trade didn't technically involve players. It involved the rights of two of last year's draft prospects - Riveters and Whale found a way around the new Draft Tax.

Jordan Smelker became the first Boston Pride player to re-sign.

IIHF

CWHL photographer Chris Tanouye shares more of his photos from the IIHF Women's World Championships.

UND women's hockey players are volunteering at the men’s U18 tourney

Alex Rigsby wasn't Team USA's only goalie at Worlds. A profile of Nicole Hensley.

Women's HockeyCanadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL)