The Beauts were established in 2015 as one of the four founding franchises of the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), rebranded as the PHF in 2021. The team played at Harborcenter in downtown Buffalo during their first four seasons.[1] The team advanced to the Isobel Cup Finals in the PHF's first four seasons, winning the championship title in 2016–17. The team folded in 2023 after the PHF and its assets were purchased and dissolved as part of the process of creating a new, unified professional league, the Professional Women's Hockey League.
The Beauts held their first summer free agent camp on May 23 and May 24, 2015.[2] In July 2015, the Beauts signed free agent and 2-time Team USA Olympic goaltender Brianne McLaughlin, making her the first player to sign a contract with the franchise.[3]
The team made its debut at home on October 11, 2015 in a 4–1 loss versus the Boston Pride. During a 5–3 home loss against the Boston Pride on October 25, 2015, Brianne McLaughlin allowed three goals by Brianna Decker, resulting in the first hat trick in NWHL history.
The Beauts finished the regular season third out of four teams. In the semifinals of the inaugural Isobel Cup championships, the Beauts faced the Connecticut Whale. The Whale had a perfect record against the Beauts in the regular season, but the Beauts upset the Whale by winning the last two games in the best-of-three series. They advanced to the championship series, but dropped two games in succession and were swept by the Boston Pride.
On October 7, 2016, Beauts forward Harrison Browne came out as a transgender man and thus became the first openly transgender athlete in professional American team sports.[4] That same year the Beauts won the 2016–17 Isobel Cup Championship in an upset win over the defending champion Boston Pride. This was Buffalo's first professional hockey championship since the Buffalo Bisons of the American Hockey League won the 1970Calder Cup.
On December 21, 2017, Pegula Sports and Entertainment (PSE), owners of the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres and Harborcenter, announced it had purchased the Beauts. This made the Beauts the first team in the NWHL not owned by the league and the first professional women's hockey team in North America to be owned by the same organization of its market's NHL team.[6]
On June 27, 2018, the Beauts signed Team Canada goaltender Shannon Szabados. Szabados had previously only played professional hockey on men's leagues such as the Southern Professional Hockey League and is the first woman to record a shutout in men's league.[7]
On December 7, 2018, the Beauts suddenly relieved Ric Seiling as head coach, replacing him with former Buffalo Sabre and Harborcenter Academy of Hockey coach Cody McCormick on an interim basis.
On May 8, 2019, following the announcement of a professional women's hockey player strike, Pegula Sports and Entertainment (PSE) relinquished ownership of the team back to the NWHL.[8] Under Pegula, the Beauts were considered a well-run operation, with the team sharing resources and training facilities with the Sabres and Rochester Americans. Szabados cited the amenities provided to the Beauts' players through the partnership as one of the goals of the strike for the rest of professional women's hockey.[9]
While the Beauts played at the Harborcenter, in the NWHL's largest arena by capacity, they consistently led the NWHL in attendance for the first few seasons until they were surpassed by the Minnesota Whitecaps in 2018–19.[10][11] The league indicated that it wanted to keep the team playing at the Harborcenter,[12] which is owned by PSE, but the severance also required the team to negotiate an arena lease.[13]
On June 25, 2019, PSE sent a cease and desist letter to the NWHL for using the Beauts' name and brand. As part of the original agreement, PSE obtained the trademarks associated with the team and formed a separate entity called Buffalo Beauts Hockey to operate the team. While PSE verbally agreed to relinquished ownership and operations of the team, the NWHL apparently did not sign the transfer paperwork before the deadline, leading to PSE's cease and desist letter. As PSE still owned the Beauts' branding as of July 2 while the NWHL continued to use the Beauts' name,[14] but the team eventually retained the name. The league then moved the Beauts' home games to the Northtown Center in nearby Amherst prior to the 2019–20 season.[15][16]
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020–21 NWHL season was scheduled as a single-site bubble tournament to be played over two weeks at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York, from January 23 to February 5, 2021.[17] However, the bubble season came to a premature end following several positive cases of COVID-19. After the Metropolitan Riveters were forced to withdraw on January 28, Buffalo was in last place. The final games of the regular season were rescheduled with the top three teams playing a round-robin for seeding in the Isobel Cup playoffs, while the Beauts would face the Boston Pride in a three-game play-in series for the fourth seed. Prior to the third game on February 1, Connecticut also withdrew from Lake Placid over health and safety concerns, causing the Beauts/Pride series to be for the third and fourth seeds with the Beauts losing the game 1–7. By February 3, the league completely postponed the Isobel Cup playoffs and ended the Lake Placid event.[18] On March 8, the league announced the new schedule for the playoffs to take place on March 26 and 27 at Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton, Massachusetts. Due to the postponement, Connecticut was given the third seed and the Beauts were eliminated from participation in the postseason.[19]
On June 28, 2021, the league announced the sale of the Beauts and Minnesota Whitecaps to a joint partnership of NLTT Ventures, LLC, led by Andy Scurto, and Top Tier Sports, led by Neil Leibman. Scurto was named the team's governor.[20]
In the summer of 2023, it was announced that the PHF and its assets had been purchased, and that the league and its teams would be dissolved as part of the foundation of a unified women's league, the Professional Women's Hockey League.[21] Buffalo was not included among the cities that would host the PWHL teams, leaving the city without professional women's hockey.[22] All of the Beauts' contracts were voided as part of the transition.[23]
Season-by-season records
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTL = Overtime losses, SOL = Shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
^Starting with the 2021–22 season, 3 points are awarded for a regulation win, 2 points are awarded for an overtime/shootout win, 1 point is awarded for an overtime/shootout loss, 0 points are awarded for a regulation loss[24]
Courtney Burke from the Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey program became the first player in franchise history to be selected in the inaugural 2015 NWHL Draft.[33] Raised in the state capital of Albany, New York, Burke was also the first defensewoman selected in NWHL Draft history.
The following are the Beauts' selections from the 2015 NWHL Draft of college players in their junior year held on June 20, 2015. Note: The team has not announced any contract signings from this list to date. A player who is drafted but does not sign with the organization that selected her, may enter free-agency after completing her senior year.
In local Media the Buffalo Beauts were covered by The Buffalo News. Home games were broadcast live by 716 Sports Podcast via Steve Bermel (Play by Play) and Justen Ehrig (color commentary) and games were live-streamed to twitch.tv/nwhl.[citation needed]
Franchise milestones
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(September 2020)
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