Angela James – CanucksBanter

By JOHN WAWROW Associated Press

Hockey Hall of Fame member Angela James opened what could become a widening rift between North America’s top two women’s professional hockey organizations on the eve of joining the new ownership group of the Premier Hockey Federation’s Toronto Six.

Days before the PHF officially announced the sale on Monday, James posted a lengthy note on a Facebook group page in which she accused the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association of stunting the sport’s development because of its refusal to join forces. Her message drew more attention when Six player Saroya Tinker re-posted it on her Twitter account.

“Right now, I’m so disappointed in the PWHPA. Who’s interests are you protecting?” James wrote.

“Why can’t you work out these differences instead of suppressing and handcuffing the elite women’s athletes in the progress of the pro game already made,” she added. “Women’s hockey is bigger than the PHF and the PWHPA, together we can make history.”

James, a Six assistant coach this season, said she was speaking on her own and did not note she was part of the group buying the Toronto franchise. The ownership group also includes former NHL coach Ted Nolan, former NHL player Anthony Stewart and Bernice Carnegie, co-chair of the Carnegie Initiative, which was established to promote inclusiveness in hockey.

James’ criticism drew a response from PWHPA adviser Liz Knox. Without referencing James, Knox tweeted Sunday that “management, coaches, front office (etc) speaking on behalf of players’ experience instead of supporting the true voice of the players is exactly why the PWHPA was formed.”

The back and forth overshadowed the Six’s sale to a group hailed for its diversity.

James is the only Black player to captain Canada’s national team. Nolan, the NHL’s coach of the year with the 1996-97 Buffalo Sabres, is a member of the First Nation’s Ojibwe tribe. Stewart, whose father is from Jamaica, is chair of Hockey Equality.

The group purchased the team from BTM Partners, which established the Six as an expansion franchise two years ago.

The PHF, formerly known as the National Women’s Hockey League before rebranding last summer, is North America’s lone professional women’s hockey league, established in 2015. The PHF plans to expand from six to eight teams, provide health care and also more than double its salary cap to $750,000 per team next season.

The PWHPA membership is made up of a majority of U.S. and Canadian national team players. It was formed in May 2019 following the demise of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.

The organizations have been at odds ever since, with PWHPA members balking at playing for the then-NWHL because of differences with former commissioner and founder Dani Rylan Kearney’s management style. Concerns also were raised over the private-investor-backed league’s financial shortfalls. The league slashed players’ salaries by more than half a month into its second season and was criticized for not always reimbursing players’ travel and meal expenses.

The PWHPA instead pushed for forming a league with what it called a sustainable economic model with more robust support for players.

Signs of the PWHPA closing in on its objective became apparent the past two weeks with talks intensifying with select NHL teams and major corporate sponsors to form a league within the next year.

The PHF, meantime, has spent the past two years transforming itself in a series of moves. It has revamped its business model, its teams are now independently owned and the league is headed by a board of governors.

And yet, questions remain after Commissioner Ty Tumminia cited personal reasons behind her decision to step down after this season after overseeing much of the PHF’s transformation. Her departure also coincides with the sale of the Six, with whom Tumminia first joined the league as the franchise’s chairwoman.

James questioned what more the PHF must do to meet the PWHPA’s demands, citing the $25 million league owners are committing over the next three year to increase salaries, add health care and improve infrastructure.

“They have already agreed to everything on the PWHPA’s wish list to my knowledge and still not good enough,” James wrote. “How about combining your resources for the better of the game, and everyone set aside their egos?”

___

More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Hockey legend Angela James did not mince words when discussing the current state of women’s professional hockey in North America.

IAN KENNEDY. hockeynews.com

James, who is an assistant coach, and soon to be part-owner of the Premier Hockey Federation’s (PHF) Toronto Six, wrote a social media post about the ongoing struggle to maintain a single professional women’s hockey league.

In the post, James called the current situation “petty teeter tottering by both the PWHPA and PHF” and said that she has “observed the womens elite game torn apart.”

The statement comes in the wake of recent comments from members of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) alluding to the fact the organization, which houses most of the USA and Canadian women’s national team players will soon be forming their own professional league.

This is despite the fact the PHF is already operating a professional hockey league for women, and recently announced a $25-million investment by owners and plans to add two expansion teams next season. James believes the PHF is already sustainable, and the PWHPA’s interests are for a small group of players, not women’s hockey as a whole.

“I am so disappointed in the PWHPA,” James wrote. “Who’s interest are you protecting? It isn’t the interest of the non national team players that have supported your association for 3 years now without playing a league game. Their careers have passed by now and you want another group of women elite players to follow you while you claim to make a sustainable league.”

The PWHPA had stated they would not join the PHF until certain needs were met including health care, professional infrastructure, and a liveable wage allowing women to work and train solely as hockey players.

According to James, those needs have already been achieved by the PHF.

“They have already agreed to everything on the PWHPA wish list to my knowledge and still not good enough,” James continued. “How about combining your resources for the better of the game and everyone set aside their egos?

James, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010 and won four World Championship gold medals with Team Canada listed many new additions and securities being offered by the PHF to players as a sign that the needs of the PWHPA had been met.

These included expansion, a salary cap of $750,000 for next season, health benefits, improved facilities, and increased practice time.

The PHF is a rebranding of the NWHL, while the PWHPA features many players from the now-defunct CWHL. The two groups have remained largely separate in recent years, which according to James needs to end for the betterment of women’s hockey.

“Why can’t you work out these differences instead of suppressing and handcuffing the elite athletes in the progress of the pro game already made. Women’s hockey is bigger then the PHF and the PWHPA, together we can make history,” she wrote.

“The best women players in the game deserve to be competing at a pro level in ONE league.”

The PHF is set to conclude their regular-season schedule on March 20 before beginning the Isobel Cup playoffs.

Source: hockeynews.com