Divide in women's professional hockey remains unbridgeable despite growth in North America
CBC
Women's professional hockey is expanding in North America, but remains divided.
The Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association (PWHPA) possessing the bulk of player star power in Canada and the United States has a league in development with Billie Jean King and Mark Walter, co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as potential backers.
The Premier Hockey Federation increasing salaries and teams in North America in its eighth season, and recruiting recognizable names in Canadian hockey into management roles, is bent on strengthening its foothold in the women's pro hockey space.
And the divide currently appears unbridgeable as an attempt to negotiate unification — with the NHL's encouragement — went no where earlier this year.
The 2022 women's world hockey championship in Denmark features 34 PWHPA players — with 21 on Canada's roster, 13 on the U.S. team and none from the PHF on either team. Seven PHF players are sprinkled across the rosters of Finland, Switzerland, Czechia and Hungary.
The PWHPA has the most recognizable North American players in women's hockey in Denmark— Olympic gold medallists Kendall Coyne Schofield, Hilary Knight, Amanda Kessel, Marie-Philip Poulin, Sarah Nurse and Brianne Jenner among them.
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While they won't give specific reasons on their reluctance to join the PHF, they make it clear their vision for a pro league differs.
"We have the utmost confidence and belief in what we're doing," Nurse said in Denmark. "We really want to make that professional league because we don't believe it currently exists.
"Things are very close. We have such an incredible backing with our investment group with the Walter Group and also Billie Jean King. There couldn't be better people on our side. Things are really moving along and we're really hopeful that we're going to have an announcement we can make to the public very soon."
So while the PWHPA, with 43 Olympians among its 150 members, continues to schedule Dream Gap Tour weekend tournaments this fall to keep eyes on its product, the PHF is upping the ante with various incentives.
Increasing each team's salary cap 150 per cent to $750,000 — an average of $29,000 on a 26-player roster — covering players' health care premiums, a commitment to updating facilities and equipment, increasing ice time and growing the regular-season schedule to 28 games are among them.
Players have an equity stake in the PHF's profitability and retain commercial control of their own image.
Forward Mikyla Grant-Mentis of Brampton, Ont., became the league's highest-paid player this year when she signed a one-year, $80,000 US contract with the Buffalo Beauts.
