Agreement made – The new women’s professional ice hockey league will start in January

A new professional women’s ice hockey league will begin competition in North America in January after an agreement was reached between rival factions.

Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter and wife Kimbra, team president Stan Kasten and tennis legend Billie Jean King are helping run the league after Walter’s company bought the assets of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF).

Agreement announced on Friday ending a years-long feud between the seven-team PHF and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association. The group includes many members of the US and Canadian national teams who did not want to join the league, formerly known as the NWHL.

“I am extremely proud of our PWHPA group for remaining committed to our vision and unwavering in our efforts to change the landscape of women’s professional hockey forever,” PHWPA member and USA Women’s All-Star Kendall Coyne Schofield said in a statement. “Over the past four years, we’ve worked tirelessly to close the gap in terms of what young girls and boys could aspire to do in this sport.”

New Women’s Pro Hockey League Launches in 2024!

Billie Jean King, an initiative led by Mark and Kimbra Walter, is supported by PWHPA and PHF.

Detail: https://t.co/4huTY1DdX5 pic.twitter.com/oC0l3AwS6z

PHF (@PHF) June 30, 2023

It could also bring the NHL to the table in a supporting role. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said he and the team owners did not want to get involved in the interleague dispute, but would throw their weight around after it was formed.

“The National Hockey League congratulates the Women’s Professional Hockey Association and the Premier Hockey Federation on the agreement,” the NHL said. “We have already started discussions with representatives of this united group about how together we can continue to grow the women’s game.”

The PWHPA had been working with the Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises for the past 14 months to launch their own league.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity to advance women’s sports,” King said in a league statement. “I have no doubt that this league can capture the imagination of fans and a new generation of players.”

PHF was scheduled to begin its ninth season this fall. Instead, it is expected to cease operations. The new league will bring together the most successful female players in North America and will likely include talented players from Europe and Asia who have played in the PHF.

PWHPA Chief Jayna Hefford and PHF Commissioner Reagan Carey are expected to hold leadership positions in the new league.

“This is another step forward for women and girls playing professional hockey who dream of it every day,” said Johanna Boynton, who along with PHF Governor John Boynton will also be part of the league’s leadership.

Among the many things to be decided are the number of teams and the venue. The PHF, which had doubled each team’s salary cap to $1.5 million this season, had teams in Boston, Toronto and Montreal, as well as East Rutherford, New Jersey; Hartford, Connecticut; Buffalo, New York; and Richfield, Minnesota.

PWHPA was certified as a union this spring and has completed negotiations on a collective agreement. The 62-page CBA was presented to PWHPA members Thursday night and they have until Sunday night to ratify it and the new league constitution, according to a person familiar with the details who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity before the deal was finalized. announced.

If approved, the deal would run through 2031 and include a $35,000 minimum salary for players on active rosters, the person said.

In the meantime, the existing PHF player contracts have been voided, although the contract is in place to pay the contract parties a portion of their salaries through September, the person told AP. Some players lose contracts worth more than $150,000 over two seasons.

The higher wages helped the PHF attract several high-profile international players, including Switzerland’s Alina Muller, Sweden’s Emma Soderberg and former Finland goalkeeper and former PWHPA board member Noora Raty.

North American women’s professional hockey leagues have come and gone this century, and the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folded in 2019 after 12 seasons featuring some of the best players in the world. The NWHL was launched by Dani Rylan Kearney in 2015 as an investor-funded four-team league, but the league was plagued by occasional strife and was renamed the PHF.

PWHPA was established in 2019 following the death of CWHL. Its members opposed joining the NWHL and instead sought to pursue their vision of a league with a sustainable financial model and better compensation.

Earlier this month, PWHPA board member and US star Hilary Knight argued that the PHF was not the best model for building the women’s professional game, even as the sport continued to be divided.

“I make this distinction: The more women we can get paid to play the sport they love, I think that’s great,” Knight said. “What bothers me is the illusion of professionalism and what women’s hockey should be and settling for what it is, right? And I think that’s the big difference, let’s call it what it is.”