Shirley Hon named GM of Vanke Rays

The second Chinese CWHL team is official

So I guess this makes the Vanke Rays an official CWHL team?

Despite no official release (unless you count a now deleted tweet), it would appear that the Vanke Rays are an official CWHL team as, today, their general manager was named. Shirley Hon will lead the second Chinese team to enter the league this year.

Per a release by the league, Shirley has been with the Kunlun Red Star Group since its beginning. She was also the Director of Administration of the Red Star’s men’s team in the KHL last season. Her background is in marketing and public relations in China.

Shirley’s announcement gives a GM to both Chinese teams. Chris Vanstone was announced as the KRS GM yesterday.

This is the first bit of concrete news about the Vanke Rays. Thus far, the league has been mum on them. However, their logo appeared suddenly on the website, and multiple people involved have tweeted images from China that show the Rays logo on the ice (and on elevator doors).

The CWHL Draft is Sunday and hopefully it will bring more clarity to the situation.