Professional Women's Hockey Players Association

The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization dedicated to advocating for the promotion of professional women's ice hockey.[1] It was founded in May 2019 following the dissolution of the Canadian Women's Hockey League, which only paid stipends, and player's dissatisfaction in the operations of the National Women's Hockey League. Their goal is to create a sustainable professional league for women's ice hockey.

Professional Women's Hockey Players Association
FoundedMay 20, 2019
Key peopleJayna Hefford (Operations Consultant)
Ilana Kloss Advisory Consultant
Steve Conforti, Marketing Consultant
Office locationPhiladelphia, PA, USA
CountryCanada
United States
WebsitePWHPA.com

History

Historically, women's ice hockey leagues have been strictly amateur, providing no pay or other incentives. Participation grew and women's competitions were eventually added by the International Ice Hockey Federation in 1990 and the Olympics in 1998. Several semi-professional leagues then appeared in Canada and the United States, including the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) in 2007. The CWHL called itself a professional level league, but the league only paid for travel, ice rental and uniform costs, plus some equipment,[2] and did not pay players.[3] From 2011 to 2015, the CWHL was the only organized women's senior ice hockey league in North America.

In 2015, the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) was launched in the United States and was the first women's ice hockey league to pay its players,[4] although it was still not considered a livable wage. In 2017, the CWHL followed suit and began paying its players a stipend.[5]

Following the 2018–19 season, the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) ceased operations citing the fragmentation of corporate sponsors between the CWHL and NWHL, lack of viewership, and reduced revenue from a partnership in China caused their league to be financially infeasible.[6] On May 2, 2019, over 200 players from both the CWHL and NWHL released a joint statement announcing their intent to not participate in any North American professional league for the 2019–20 season citing their dissatisfaction in the operations of both leagues in that neither provided health insurance or a livable salary.[7] The NWHL responded with that they were pursuing many more sponsors then in previous years and hoped to increase player salaries.[8] and agreed to give players a 50 percent split of revenue on league sponsorship and media deals. On May 20, 2019, the players formed a non-profit called the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) to further push for their stated goals of a league that provides financial and infrastructure resources to players, health insurance, and support to training programs for young female players.[9] With a large amount of North American players boycotting the NWHL, more than half of the signed players on opening rosters for the 2019–20 NWHL season were new to the league.[10]

In December 2019, the ECHL partnered with the PWHPA and chose four members to participate in the January 2020 ECHL All-Star Game with Dani Cameranesi, Kali Flanagan, Gigi Marvin, and Annie Pankowski each assigned to one of the four teams.[11] The 2020 NHL All-Star Game also expanded its inclusion of female skaters form previous seasons to a full three-on-three exhibition game between teams composed of American and Canadian women's players.[12] 18 of the 20 players were active PWHPA members and the event was supported by the PWHPA, but it was not directly in partnership with the association.[13] Jordan Juron was the first PWHPA member to defect and rejoin the NWHL, signing with the Boston Pride in January 2020.[14]

Dream Gap Tour

Due to their boycott, the members of the PWHPA decided to compete against one another on a tour to various North American cities, creating a series of exhibitions called the Dream Gap Tour.[15] Prior to the launch of the Dream Gap Tour, the NHLPA announced a partnership with the PWHPA in January 2020.[16]

During the autumn of 2019, showcases were held in Toronto (September 21–22), Hudson, New Hampshire (October 5–6), and Chicago (October 18–20). Each showcase had players divided into four teams with each team named after a particular player.

Toronto

All games took place at Toronto's Westwood Arena, and were sponsored by Unifor. Team captains were Rebecca Johnston, Brianne Jenner, Liz Knox, and Marie-Philip Poulin.

DateGameTeamsFinal score
September 211Team Johnston vs. Team JennerTeam Jenner 4, Team Johnston 3
September 212Team Poulin vs. Team KnoxTeam Poulin 2, Team Knox 1
September 223Team Johnston vs. Team KnoxTeam Johnston 6, Team Knox 5
September 224Team Poulin vs. Team JennerTeam Poulin 5, Team Jenner 1

Hudson

The second series of showcases took place in Hudson, New Hampshire, from October 5 to 6, 2019, sponsored by Dunkin' Donuts. All games were contested at Cyclones Arena. Team captains were Kali Flanagan, Hilary Knight, Jocelyne Lamoureux and Monique Lamoureux, and Lee Stecklein. The Hudson event series had two games on the first day and two on the second and adopted a playoff-style format. The second day's games have the losers from the previous day face each other in a consolation game and the winners play each other in a championship game.[17]

DateGameTeamsFinal score
October 51Team Flanagan vs. Team SteckleinTeam Stecklein 6, Team Flanagan 3
October 52Team Knight vs. Team LamoureuxTeam Knight 3, Team Lamoureux 1
October 63Team Lamoureux vs. Team FlanaganTeam Lamoureux 5, Team Flanagan 2
October 64Team Stecklein vs. Team KnightTeam Stecklein 5, Team Knight 4

Chicago

Sponsored by Magellan Corporation, all games are slated to take place at Chicago's Fifth Third Arena. Team captains are former Olympic players Lori Dupuis and Jayna Hefford from Canada, and Hockey Hall of Fame players Cammi Granato and Angela Ruggiero, both part of the United States gold-medal winning team in 1998 Olympic team. The playoff-style format from the Hudson event was retained.[18]

DateGameTeamsFinal score
October 191Team Hefford vs. Team Dupuis
October 192Team Granato vs. Team Ruggiero
October 203Consolation Game (Chicago Mission Rink)
October 204Championship Game (Hyundai Rink)

Leadership

Through the services of attorneys from Ballard Spahr, LLP, who provided pro bono support to help create the PWHPA, nine players make up a group of player representatives that are part of the board membership. Seven individuals serve in consulting capacities, making up the support team, while five attorneys from Ballard Spahr comprise the legal team: Conrad Bower, Kimberly Magrini, Dee Spagnuolo, John Langel and Chris Cognato.

gollark: Yes, Dumbledore has blatantly cheated a few times.
gollark: Harry: "hmm, I could never do anything to deal with the teacher who literally tortures me regularly"Also Harry: "hmm, I will now violently rebel against the democratically elected government and form a militia within the school"
gollark: He's very sensible, yes.
gollark: It's basically *entirely* driven by Quidditch, which is a terrible game.
gollark: The house point system is also weird and broken.

References
  1. "Women's Hockey: What's a Union? (plus, a note on our coverage)". The Victory Press. 2019-05-29. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
  2. Cleary, Martin (2007-09-30). "Dreaming of a league of her own". Canada.com. Archived from the original on 2007-10-23. Retrieved 2014-07-18.
  3. Longman, Jeré (2013-11-18). "Crashing the Boards and Cracking the Books". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  4. "NWHL, first paid women's pro hockey league, drops puck on first season". CBSSports.com. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  5. "Canadian Women's Hockey League will begin paying its players". The Globe and Mail. September 1, 2017.
  6. "Final Public Communication" (PDF). CWHL. July 2, 2019.
  7. "More than 200 players call for overhaul of women's pro hockey". The Sports Network. May 2, 2019.
  8. "A Statement to the Players, Fans and Supporters of the NWHL and Women's Hockey". NWHL.zone. May 2, 2019. Archived from the original on July 16, 2019. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  9. "Professional Women's Hockey Player Association established, issues statement". The Ice Garden. May 20, 2019.
  10. "2019-20 NWHL Preview: Storylines to watch". The Ice Garden. October 4, 2019.
  11. "PWHPA Members of U.S. Women's Ice Hockey Team to Participate in Warrior/ECHL All-Star Classic". OurSports Central. December 13, 219.
  12. "2020 NHL All-Star Skills highlighted by two new events". NHL. January 15, 2020.
  13. "PWHPA MEMBERS INVITED TO NHL ALL-STAR SKILLS". PWHPA. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
  14. "Jordan Juron joins Boston Pride from PWHPA". Boston Herald. January 10, 2019.
  15. Rachel Brady (September 20, 2019). "PWHPA: the Dream Gap Tour leading the way for women's hockey in North America". The Globe and Mail.
  16. Sportsnet Staff (September 20, 2019). "NHLPA announces partnership with PWHPA ahead of Dream Gap Tour". sportsnet.ca.
  17. "Dunkin' Showcase Details". PWHPA. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  18. "Magellan Corporation Showcase Details". PWHPA. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
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