The Buffalo Beauts are a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

team based in

Amherst, New York Amherst () is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. Amherst is an inner ring suburb of Buffalo. As of 2020, the town had a total population of 129,595. This represents an increase from 122,366 as reported in the 2010 census. The second ...

, United States. The team was established in 2015 as one of the four founding franchises of the

Premier Hockey Federation The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and h ...

(PHF), originally named the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL). They play at

Northtown Center The Northtown Center at Amherst, formerly the Amherst Ice Center and the Amherst Pepsi Center, is a 1,800-seat multipurpose arena in Amherst, New York, located adjacent to the University at Buffalo. The current sponsor is Northtown Auto, a Buffa ...

in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst. The team played at

Harborcenter LECOM Harborcenter is an American mixed-use development in Buffalo, New York developed by Pegula Sports and Entertainment. The building occupies a full 1.7 acre city block formerly known as the Webster Block, directly across from and connected ...

in downtown Buffalo for their first four seasons. The team has advanced to the

Isobel Cup The Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy Cup, often shortened to Isobel Cup, is the championship trophy awarded annually to the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) playoff winner. It is named after Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy, one of the first known women to ...

Finals in the NWHL's first four seasons, winning in 2016–17.

History

The Beauts held their first summer free agent camp on May 23 and May 24, 2015. In July 2015, the Beauts signed free agent and 2-time Team USA Olympic goaltender

Brianne McLaughlin Brianne Lea McLaughlin (born June 20, 1987) is an American ice hockey goaltender. During her career, she played for the United States women's national ice hockey team and the Buffalo Beauts of the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL). Playing ...

, making her the first player to sign a contract with the franchise. The team made its debut at home on October 11,

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

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 Brianna Decker (born May 13, 1991) is an American women's ice hockey player who plays for the Calgary section of the PWHPA and the United States women's national ice hockey team. She won the 2012 Patty Kazmaier Award while playing for the Univer ...

, 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

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. 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 The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen F ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the lea ...

won the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

Calder Cup The Calder Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the playoff champions of the American Hockey League. It was first presented in 1937 to the Syracuse Stars. The cup is made of sterling silver mounted on a base of Brazilian mahogany. In its curr ...

. The Beauts signed three superstars from the CWHL's

Brampton Thunder The Markham Thunder was a professional women's ice hockey team in the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). From 1998 through 2017, the franchise was known as the Brampton Thunder and Brampton Canadettes-Thunder before relocating from Brampton, O ...

on August 31, 2017, adding

Jess Jones Jessica "Jess" Jones (born August 30, 1990) is a Canadian ice hockey player, affiliated with the Toronto chapter of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA). Jones was a member of the Canadian national under-18 team that comp ...

Sarah Edney Sarah Edney was selected first overall by the Brampton Thunder in the 2015 CWHL Draft. She made her debut with the Canada women's national ice hockey team at the 2015 4 Nations Cup in Sundsvall, Sweden. Playing career Edney played h ...

, and

Rebecca Vint Rebecca Vint (born May 5, 1992) is a Canadian-born women's ice hockey player. She played with the Robert Morris Colonials women's ice hockey program and graduated as the program's all-time leading scorer, with 73 goals and 134 points. She most r ...

for the 2017–18 season. On December 21, 2017, Pegula Sports and Entertainment (PSE), owners of the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, alon ...

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. On June 27, 2018, the Beauts signed Team Canada goaltender

Shannon Szabados Shannon Lynn Szabados (; born August 6, 1986) is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender for the PWHPA and the Canada women's national ice hockey team. Szabados had played for the MacEwan University Griffins and the NAIT Ooks men's h ...

. Szabados had previously only played professional hockey on men's leagues such as the

Southern Professional Hockey League The Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) is a professional ice hockey independent minor league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indiana in the midw ...

and is the first woman to record a shutout in men's league. On December 7, 2018, the Beauts suddenly relieved

Ric Seiling Richard James Seiling (born December 15, 1957) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He spent the majority of his 738-game National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Buffalo Sabres, but also played one season for the Detroit Red ...

as head coach, replacing him with former Buffalo Sabre and Harborcenter Academy of Hockey coach

Cody McCormick Cody McCormick (born April 18, 1983) is a Canadian former ice hockey player and coach. He is of European and First Nations descent, with both Oneida and Chippewa/Ojibway ancestors. Cody McCormick is from London, Ontario Canada and has played for C ...

on an interim basis. On May 8, 2019, following the announcement of a professional women's hockey player

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

, Pegula Sports and Entertainment (PSE) relinquished ownership of the team back to the NWHL. Under Pegula, the Beauts were considered a well-run operation, with the team sharing resources and training facilities with the Sabres and

Rochester Americans The Rochester Americans (colloquially known as the Amerks) are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League; the team is an owned and operated affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. The team plays its home games in Rochester, New York, a ...

. 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. 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 The Minnesota Whitecaps are a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF; formerly known as the National Women's Hockey League). They play in Richfield, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, a ...

in 2018–19. The league indicated that it wanted to keep the team playing at the Harborcenter, which is owned by PSE, but the severance also required the team to negotiate an arena lease. On June 25, 2019, PSE sent a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not disc ...

letter to the NWHL for using the Beauts' name and brand. As part of the original agreement, PSE obtained the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from ot ...

s 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, but the team eventually retained the name. The league then moved the Beauts' home games to the

in nearby Amherst prior to the 2019–20 season. Due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the

2020–21 NWHL season The 2020–21 NWHL season was the sixth season of the National Women's Hockey League in North America. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the season was held in a bubble in Lake Placid, New York, from January to February 2021, with all five te ...

was scheduled as a single-site bubble tournament to be played over two weeks at

Herb Brooks Arena The Herb Brooks Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Lake Placid, New York. This surface, along with the USA Rink, was built for the 1980 Winter Olympics. About The arena hosted various events during the 1980 Winter Olympics, most famously the ice ...

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh ...

, from January 23 to February 5, 2021. However, the bubble season came to a premature end following several positive cases of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

. After the

Metropolitan Riveters The Metropolitan Riveters (originally the New York Riveters) are a professional women's ice hockey team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with home games at the American Dream Meadowlands ice rink. They were one of the four charter franchi ...

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. On March 8, the league announced the new schedule for the playoffs to take place on March 26 and 27 at

Warrior Ice Arena Warrior Arena is an ice hockey arena and practice facility in Brighton, Boston, Massachusetts. The arena is part of a larger mixed-use development being constructed by New Balance at Boston Landing that includes the headquarters of New Balance an ...

Brighton, Massachusetts Brighton is a former town and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located in the northwestern corner of the city. It is named after the English city of Brighton. Initially Brighton was part of Cambridge, and known as " ...

. Due to the postponement, Connecticut was given the third seed and the Beauts were eliminated from participation in the postseason. On June 28, 2021, the league announced the sale of the Beauts and

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.

Season-by-season records

Team

Current roster

Coaching staff and team personnel * Head coach:

Rhea Coad Rhea may refer to: * Rhea (bird), genus of flightless birds native to South America * Rhea (mythology), a Titan in Greek mythology It may also refer to: People *Rhea (name), list of people with this name Mythology * Rhea Silvia, in Roman mytho ...

* Assistant coach: Julia DiTondo * Assistant coach: Mark Zarbo * Goaltending coach: Shane Madolora * Video & analytics: Chris Baudo

Team captains

Emily Pfalzer Emily Pfalzer Matheson (born June 14, 1993) is an American women's ice hockey player who was the first captain the Buffalo Beauts of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) from 2015-2017. Internationally, Pfalzer plays for United States women's na ...

, 2015–2017 * Corinne Buie, 2017–2020 * Taylor Accursi, 2020–21 * Marie-Jo Pelletier, 2021-22 * Dominique Kremer, 2022–present

Head coaches

Shelley Looney Shelley Looney (born January 21, 1972 in Brownstown, Michigan and raised in Trenton, Michigan) is an American ice hockey player and head coach. She scored the game-winning goal in the gold medal game for Team USA at the 1998 Winter Olympics, ...

, Ric Seiling 2015–2016 *

and

Craig Muni Craig Douglas Muni (born July 19, 1962) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 819 National Hockey League (NHL) games over the course of his career. Playing career As a youth, Muni played in the 1975 Quebec International P ...

, 2016–2018 *

, 2018–2019 * Pete Perram, 2019–2021 *

, 2021–present

General managers

* Nik Fattey, 2016–2019 * Cody McCormick, 2019 * Mandy Cronin, 2019–2020 *

Nate Oliver Nathaniel Oliver (born December 13, 1940 in St. Petersburg, Florida) had a seven-year major league career in the 1960s, mostly with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Playing career Oliver was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1959. He hit just .224 ...

, 2020–present

Draft history

Courtney Burke from the

Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey The Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey team is the hockey team that represents the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. History On October 8, 1999, the Bulldogs played the Wisconsin Badgers in the first ever Women's WCHA conference ...

program became the first player in franchise history to be selected in the inaugural

2015 NWHL Draft Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak album ...

. Raised in the state capital of

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Cit ...

, Burke was also the first defensewoman selected in NWHL Draft history.

2015

The following are the Beauts' selections from the

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.

Media

In local Media the Buffalo Beauts are covered by ''

The Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by ...

'' and home games are broadcast live by 716 Sports Podcast via Steve Bermel (Play by Play) and Justen Ehrig (color commentary) and games are live-streamed to twitch.tv/nwhl.

Franchise milestones

Awards and honors

Megan Bozek Megan Bozek (born March 27, 1991) is an American ice hockey player and member of the United States national team. She most recently played with the KRS Vanke Rays of the Zhenskaya Hockey League (ZhHL) during the 2020–21 season. Bozek play ...

, 2017 Defensive Player of the Year Award * Maddie Elia, 2019 Most Valuable Player *

Hayley Scamurra Hayley Scamurra (born December 14, 1994) is a women's ice hockey player who currently plays internationally for the USA Women's Ice Hockey team, and previously played for the Buffalo Beauts of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). Before joining ...

, 2019 Scoring Champion, 2019 Players' Top Player of the Year *

, 2019 Goaltender of the Year *

Blake Bolden Blake Alexis Bolden (born March 10, 1991) is an American ice hockey player and scout for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). On October 11, 2015, she became the first African-American player to compete in the National Wo ...

, 2019 Defender of the Year * Carly Jackson, 2021 Foundation Award, 2021 Fans' Three Stars

References

External links

* {{Buffalo Sports Sports in Buffalo, New York Tourist attractions in Buffalo, New York 2015 establishments in New York (state) Ice hockey clubs established in 2015 Women's ice hockey teams in the United States Premier Hockey Federation teams Ice hockey teams in New York (state) Pegula Sports and Entertainment