2019-20 NWHL season

The 2019–20 NWHL season is scheduled to be the fifth season of the National Women's Hockey League.

Playoffs Suspended
The league announced on March 12, 2020 that the league was postponing the championship game which was scheduled for March 13th at a time to be decided when the condition area appropriate.

On May 15, 2020 the league would announce that the championship game was cancelled.

2019 Offseason
On March 31, 2019, it was announced that the Canadian Women's Hockey League board of directors had decided that league would discontinue operations effective May 1, 2019. The Toronto Furies and Les Canadiennes de Montreal announced that their teams would continue while the Calgary Inferno announced an intention to do everything in it's power to continue women's hockey in Alberta. During the season, NWHL commissioner Dani Rylan had been in talks with the CWHL about the possibility of a single league. In response to the abrupt folding of the CWHL, The Athletic reported that the NWHL was exploring adding teams in Canada to fill the markets left by the CWHL, likely adding the former Toronto and Montreal CWHL teams with the possibility of adding Calgary if a major donor could help with the costs. NWHL commissioner Rylan stated that the league would continue to pursue all opportunities to ensure the best players in Canada have a place to play.

On April 2, 2019, the NWHL announced two expansion franchises in Montreal and Toronto and support from the National Hockey League that makes it one of the NWHL's biggest financial sponsors. Is is unknown if the NWHL will assume control of the Les Canadiennes and Furies teams or if the league will start new teams in Montreal and Toronto. The league is in conversations with all of the current stakeholders and partners within Toronto and Montreal including the Montreal Les Canadiennes and the Toronto Furies.

In early May, approximately 200 players announced they would boycott "women's professional hockey in North America" for the 2019-20 season, and formed a players union in the hopes of creating a sustainable league where players could earn a living wage under a league model that would work for both owners and players. The NWHL has a salary cap of $100,000 per team (with some players earning as little as $2,000 for the season) and there is no health insurance. The boycott is no specifically aimed at the NWHL but since it is the only professional women's hockey league in North America it is just a matter of semantics.

During May of 2019 the Buffalo Sabres (May 8) and New Jersey Devils (May 17) both announced they would not be continuing with its partnership with the Buffalo Beauts and Metropolitan Riveters respectively. While the league is taking over the Buffalo team, and intending to keep the team in Buffalo, no indication was made as to where they will play for 2019-20. The Riveters are searching for a new home as the Devils practice facility was their home arena.

In addition to these teams previously using NHL team practice rinks, Boston and Minnesota play at NHL team practice rinks as well. When the Montreal and Toronto teams were in the CWHL they also played in NHL team practice rinks.

The league announced on May 30, 2019 that due to no additional investors, the league would not be able to increase to full-time salaries or provide players with health insurance outside of the typical worker's compensation for injuries, but had come to an agreement to a 50 percent revenue split on all league-wide sponsorship and media deals. In addition, the league also stated they would not be able to add Montreal and Toronto for the 2019–20 season.

On April 22, 2020 the league would issue a release stating that a franchise was awared to be based out of Toronto.

Teams
Due to labor issues and NHL team separating themselves from several teams a few teams had to relocate to new arenas for 2019-20. The Buffalo Beauts and Metropolitan Riveters relocated to new venues from NHL team practice facilities. The Connecticut Whale (NWHL) relocated about 30 miles (50 km) to Danbury from Stamford.

Format
All teams qualify for the single elimination playoffs. The 4th and 5th place teams meet in the first round. The winner of that game plays the first place team and the 2nd and 3rd place teams play each other in the semifinals. The semifinal winners meet for the league championship.