National Ringette League
Current season, competition or edition: 2016-17 National Ringette League season
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| Sport | Ringette |
|---|---|
| CEO | vacant |
| No. of teams | 16 |
| Country |
 Canada
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| Most recent champion(s) |
Cambridge Turbos (5th title) |
| Most titles | Cambridge Turbos (5 times) |
| Official website | NRL.ca |
The National Ringette League (NRL) is the top level ringette league in Canada. It is a showcase league, with all players involved unpaid, and is guided by the sports national non-profit sports organization, Ringette Canada.
The NRL currently consists of sixteen teams in two conferences - a western conference of five teams and an eastern conference of eleven. The great majority of the players come from Canada with a few from the United States, Finland, and other countries.
The final competition for the National Ringette League is held annually at the Canadian Ringette Championships. The winning team in the NRL division is awarded the Jeanne Sauvé Memorial Cup named after the late Governor General of Canada, Jeanne Sauvé. Initially coined the Jeanne Sauvé Cup, and initiated in December of 1984, it was first presented at the 1985 Canadian Ringette Championships in Dollard des Ormeaux, Québec. It is now entitled the Jeanne Sauvé Memorial Cup, in memory of the late Governor General of Canada.
The 2016-2017 season includes the following clubs
The 2016-2017 season includes 16 club teams.
Characteristic of North American sports, the NRL is a closed league with no relegation. There is an annual draft in between seasons, which is the main entry for new players in the league. The NRL runs four regional drafts; in 2011, there was one for the region of Ottawa and Gatineau, another one for Manitoba, another for Southern Ontario, and another for the Montreal region. Trading among teams is also common.
Ringette is a Canadian sport that was first introduced in 1963 in North Bay, Ontario. For ten years, play was confined to Ontario and Quebec, however the sport spread quickly and is now played by 50,000 girls across Canada.
However, it took the success of the 2002 Ringette world championships at Edmonton, where Canada took the golden medal, to spur the creation of the National Ringette League. The first NRL season began in November 2004 with 17 teams. There was no championship match after the first NRL season.
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