A new professional women’s ice hockey league will start in January with 6 teams in North America

Organizers announced plans Friday to launch a new women’s professional hockey league in January that they hope will provide a stable, financially sustainable home for the sport’s top players for years to come.

The North American league is expected to start with six teams, three in the United States and three in Canada, according to a person familiar with the league’s plans. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because details were not released.

There are still unanswered questions about where exactly the teams will play, whether the financial model will work after the previous leagues were frozen, whether there will be a broadcasting deal, but the initial framework is in place as the new league prepares to join the crowded sports landscape. The effort also has deep pockets behind it: Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter and wife Kimbra, team president Stan Kasten and tennis legend Billie Jean King help run the league.

“I don’t think there’s a more important moment in the game since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998,” said NHL Commissioner Reagan Carey. “I think it will change our sport forever and certainly for the better.

The agreement ends a long dispute between the seven-team PHF and the Women’s Professional Hockey Association. The latter group includes Kendall Coyne Schofield, Sarah Nurse, Hilary Knight and many other US and Canadian national team players who did not want to join PHF, whose assets were bought by the Walters company.

We didn’t celebrate the dissolution of the league,” said Nurse, who helped Canada win Olympic gold last year. “We were excited to move forward with a league that women’s hockey has never seen before. So much hard work and time has gone into this project, so we were excited that it will bear fruit.

The deal could also bring the National Hockey League to the table, perhaps in the same way that the NBA supports the WNBA. Commissioner Gary Bettman has said the NHL didn’t want to get involved in the interleague dispute and would throw weight after it was established.

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

Kasten said he called Bettman to deliver the news, which was met with satisfaction and excitement.

He offered us all the help he could give, Kasten said. We’re going to take him on. It helps make our runway a little smoother because I played in January and I have a lot to do between now and January. I don’t even have a name for this league yet.

PWHPA had been working with the Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises on the new project for the past 14 months. King said in a statement that it was an exceptional opportunity to promote women’s sports.

The new league is expected to bring together North America’s most successful female players, as well as players from Europe and Asia who have played in the PHF. Carey and PWHPA Chief Jayna Hefford are expected to be in leadership positions.

“This is exactly what we envisioned maybe better,” Hefford said. It’s been hard work and challenging at times to get here, but I’m so happy for the players who stuck it out and really made it happen.

PWHPA, which was certified as a trade union in the spring, 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 the condition of anonymity before the deal. was announced.

If approved, the contract would run through 2031 and range from $35,000 to $80,000 for players on the active roster, the person said Friday. 23 players are expected on the list.

Among the many issues to be resolved is where the six teams will play. The PHF, which had recently doubled each team’s salary cap to $1.5 million, had seven – Boston, Toronto and Montreal and East Rutherford, New Jersey; Hartford, Connecticut; Buffalo, New York; and Richfield, Minnesota.

The main sites for the new league are Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and London, Ontario, according to one person who spoke to the AP.

Kasten said the league waited at least a month before releasing the details, many of which have yet to be worked out.

We were going to choose a name soon, get a logo, land in cities, choose our venue, publish our schedule, Kasten said.

In the meantime, the existing PHF player contracts have been voided, although the agreement is in place to pay the contract parties a portion of their salaries through September, two people with knowledge of the matter told AP. One of the people said the players will receive half their salary or $5,000, whichever is greater, and that $1 million is set aside to be distributed to those who do not make one of the new teams.

“Our hearts definitely go out to their players and staff because we know what it’s like to get into the league and get the call,” Nurse said. It’s a bittersweet day.

Leagues have come and gone in North American women’s professional hockey, with the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folded in 2019 after 12 seasons featuring some of the best players in the world. The National Women’s Hockey League was launched by Dani Rylan Kearney in 2015 as an investor-funded four-team league, but it fumbled at times and was later renamed 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.

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