Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association – Page 4

By JOHN WAWROW Associated Press

FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2018, file photo, Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Jayna Hefford shakes hands with people associated with the hall before a hockey game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New Jersey Devils in Toronto. Two officials with direct knowledge of discussions tell The Association Press that talks with select NHL teams and major corporate sponsors have intensified in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association’s bid to form a pro league within the next calendar year. In a text to The AP, PWHPA executive Jayna Hefford would only say she is not in a position to comment at this point. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Talks with select NHL teams and major corporate sponsors have intensified in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association’s bid to form a league within the next year, two people with direct knowledge of discussions told The Associated Press.

While progress is being made, one of the people said an announcement is not imminent, while also cautioning against placing a timeline on when a proposed league made up of the world’s top players could be ready for opening faceoff.

“No timeline, but we’re getting closer,” said the person, who like the other AP source spoke only on the condition of anonymity because the discussions are private.

In a text, PWHPA executive Jayna Hefford declined to comment Wednesday.

Details of how the proposed league would operate are unknown, though the most ideal scenario would involve NHL franchises on both sides of the border co-sponsoring women’s teams competing in a regular-season schedule followed by playoffs.

What’s also unclear is when and how long a PWHPA league’s season would run. The top players have U.S. and Canadian national team commitments, including competing at the women’s world championships in August, as well as a yet-to-be scheduled series of rivalry games expected to be played in November.

The NHL, as an entity, has backed off funding a pro women’s league after the coronavirus pandemic blew a major hole in its budget. That hasn’t stopped the league from supporting women’s hockey, which most recently included the U.S. women’s team taking part in the Winter Classic on Jan. 1 and paying for a charter flight for the team to travel from its Minnesota base to Los Angeles en route to the Beijing Olympics last month.

It also hasn’t stopped NHL franchises from forming their own partnerships. The PWHPA lists 10 NHL teams as partners, including Washington, the New York Rangers, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Chicago and Philadelphia.

The establishment of a partially NHL-backed league attracting top international players would be considered a game-changer for women’s hockey.

It would be separate from the six-team Premier Hockey Federation, which was founded in 2015, and remains North America’s only women’s professional hockey league. In January, the PHF announced it is expanding to eight teams, and more than doubling its salary cap per team to $750,000 next season.

PWHPA members have mostly balked at joining the PHF while in pursuit of establishing their own league in which players receive livable wages, health care and have dedicated access to training and practice facilities.

The PWHPA was formed three years ago following the demise of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. In that time, the association has attracted enough corporate and media broadcasting partnerships to base players in five hub cities — two in the U.S. and three in Canada — to practice and compete against each other expense-free in a series of barn-storming weekend events across the continent.

The most recent “Dream Gap Tour” stop was in Ottawa last weekend, with another scheduled for Washington, D.C., this weekend.

The PWHPA is also hosting a “Rivalry Rematch” game between the United States and Canada set for Pittsburgh on March 12. It will be the cross-border rivals’ first meeting since Canada won Olympic gold with a 3-2 victory over the Americans last month.

The buzz over the PWHPA inching closer to forming a league grew immediately in the aftermath of Canada’s victory.

Canadian forward Brianne Jenner cited corporate support in both the PWHPA and PHF by saying, “I think we’re not that far off.”

“I think there is a market out there, and a lot of people want to see this level of of women’s hockey on a regular basis,” she added.

Canada coach Troy Ryan urged corporate sponsors to get on board.

“The girls deserve an opportunity to be professional athletes,” Ryan said. “I think if anyone is smart out there, corporate sponsors or donors or business people, they would back it as a business plan because I think there’s a viable market out there for it.”

U.S. captain Kendall Coyne Schofield grew emotional in stressing how important it is for women’s hockey to take advantage of the boost in attention the sport gets following the Olympics.

“Women’s hockey cannot be silent after these two weeks,” Coyne Schofield said. “We need to continue to push for visibility. We need to continue to fight for women’s hockey because it’s not good enough. It can’t end after the Olympic Games.”

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By JOHN WAWROW

Canada's Marie-Philip Poulin (29) poses with her team after defeating the United States in the women's gold medal hockey game at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

BEIJING (AP) — Speaking less than 24 hours apart over the final two days of the women’s Olympic hockey tournament, the two captains’ messages were emphatic, emotional and similar in their desire to grow the sport.

Kendall Coyne Schofield choked back tears following the United States’ gold-medal loss to Canada at the Beijing Games by saying: “We need to continue to push for visibility. We need to continue to fight for women’s hockey because (the status quo) is not good enough. It can’t end after the Olympic Games.”

Switzerland’s Lara Stalder voiced a similar theme directed at her nation’s hockey federation after losing the bronze-medal game to Finland.

“My message is to build a league in Switzerland. Make the best league in Europe,” Stalder said, noting she and 13 of her teammates play professionally in other countries.

“Obviously, there should be one league, like the NHL, for all of us to compete against the best players,” she added, suggesting Swiss league men’s teams should consider sponsoring women’s teams. “But I think we’re far away from that in Switzerland, and that needs to change.”

Another Olympic tournament is over, and little appears to have changed. Canada and the United States met in the final for the sixth time in seven Winter Games, and the issue of how to improve the sport globally remains.

At a time when everyone agrees changes are required, there’s little concrete consensus on what needs to be done other than private or public entities making larger investments.

Such is the case in North America, where there are few signs of a thaw between the continent’s only pro women’s hockey league, the recently renamed Premier Hockey Federation, and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, whose membership is largely made up of U.S. and Canadian national team players.

Based on player responses, the PHF remains mostly off their radar despite the league announcing last month it is expanding from six to eight teams and more than doubling the salary cap for each team from $300,000 this year to $750,000 for next season.

In one breath, Canada forward Brianne Jenner said: “That’s a really exciting thing, and I think we want to see the success of that league.”

In the next breath, however, she added: “But we also want to see something that is going to stand the test of time.”

”We have to make women’s hockey a priority.”

Asked who needs to come to the table if it’s not the PHF, Jenner said: “That’s a good question.”

The NHL was supposed to be that entity, before it backed off after the coronavirus pandemic blew a major hole in its budget.

American star Hilary Knight essentially shut the door on the PHF by reiterating the PWHPA’s mission statement to establish a player-driven league with a sustainable economic model.

The responses are a setback for the PHF, which has spent the past two years restructuring its governing model by bringing in private ownership groups. The league hoped its decision to invest $25 million over the next three years to increase salaries, provide health care and improve facilities would help lure the PWHPA members into joining.

If there was a bright side in Beijing, criticism that the world was falling behind the U.S. and Canada after several lopsided wins seemed premature.

The Americans briefly trailed the Czech Republic before pulling out a 4-1 win in the quarterfinals. Canada, meantime, was on its heels in allowing the Swiss to cut their lead to 5-2 before rallying to an eventual 10-3 win in the semifinals.

What became evident was the U.S. and Canada benefitting in the early stages after spending the previous four months playing and practicing together. Most of the other nations didn’t have that advantage. Their players didn’t have much time to be together because they have professional commitments and had to deal with COVID-19 travel restrictions. They used the preliminary round games to find their chemistry.

The Beijing Games were the first of seven Olympic women’s hockey tournaments in which every team registered a win, and with the field expanded from eight to 10 teams.

At the International Ice Hockey Federation level, newly elected president Luc Tardif attempted to fix a credibility gap, with the governing body criticized for favoring the men’s game over women. The latest example came a few months ago, when the IIHF canceled the Under-18 women’s tournament for COVID-19 reasons while pressing ahead with its men’s world junior championship.

The world juniors were eventually stopped a few days into the tournament because of COVID-19, and have been rescheduled for August. The Under-18 women’s tournament will also be rescheduled this year.

Tardif noted the IIHF added $5.4 million to its women’s hockey budget to increase its prize purse for players in both the qualifying tournaments and Olympics.

“I’m not the guy who doesn’t believe in women’s hockey. I think Zsuzsanna by my side, she’s always there to remind me, but she doesn’t have to push me a lot,” Tardif said, referring to women’s tournament organizer Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer. “I’m convinced, and I believe in women’s hockey.”

Tardif spoke at a news conference originally scheduled to start at 10 a.m., two hours before the women’s gold-medal final. The news conference was moved to 9 a.m. after the IIHF realized it could conflict with the game.

Stalder shook her head in dismay when informed of the potential scheduling conflict.

“Find your answer yourself in that,” Stalder said, sarcastically. ”We have to make women’s hockey a priority.”

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AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.

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