'Our lives were pretty much ripped open': PHF stars in limbo amid unification of women's hockey

Mikyla Grant-Mentis didn't think much of her scheduled Thursday night Zoom meeting.

Instead, the 2021 Premier Hockey Federation MVP coached practice for the U-22 Brampton Canadettes girls hockey team, as she had planned.

That arrangement, however, was soon upended.

"Five minutes after the call started is when I got a bunch of text messages from people from my team last year saying, 'Holy crap, the league's over, they're terminating all our contracts,'" Grant-Mentis said.

The Brampton, Ont., native quickly hopped off the ice to join the call, where she and the rest of the PHF learned that their league was being bought out and folded. Those players are now left to wrestle with the new reality that their hockey careers, successfully entrenched in a solid foundation just last week, are in complete limbo.

In the PHF's place, there will be one professional North American women's hockey league with a collective bargaining agreement ratified by the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association — a group that held out from joining the PHF in its fight for sustainability.

PHF players were informed that next year's contracts were void, and that they would receive severance of either $5,000 US or 1/12th of their salary, whichever is more.

"Our lives were pretty much ripped open in a 10-minute Zoom call," Grant-Mentis told CBC Sports on Tuesday. "People made investments, bought houses, bought cars and stuff, and now we don't even know if we'll be able to have money to pay for it, if we'll have to get another job. There's just so much unknown that it's really disappointing that we're in this position when we've worked so hard to build up the league for the last couple of years."

Salaries in the newly formed league will range from $30,000 to $80,000, not including potential performance bonuses. Grant-Mentis, 24, made $80,000 last year with the PHF's Buffalo Beauts, and had already re-signed with the team for next season at $100,000.

She said she hasn't received any information beyond the initial Zoom call — not even a copy of the CBA. Instead, she's learning about the new league through Twitter and the PHF leadership committee, an 11-woman group formed in the wake of the takeover.

Madison Packer, who served as captain of the PHF's Metropolitan Riveters, is part of that committee. She said she initially learned the news from PHF commissioner Reagan Carey two days before the Thursday Zoom, and that she's reviewed a copy of the CBA.

Packer, the 32-year-old from Birmingham, Mich., said she was excited to find out there would be one unified league. Still, she acknowledged the overwhelming uncertainty, especially surrounding PHF players.

"The best thing that we can do right now is just to be patient and it's super anxiety inducing because we don't really have hard information," she told CBC Sports.

Grant-Mentis also acknowledged that one unified league may be better for the sport.