Last year, Dani Rylan wanted to bring a New York expansion team into the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), the home for women’s pro ice hockey in North America since 2007.
However, by last month, her aspirations had grown. Rylan, 27, a former player at Northeastern, announced the formation of the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), which says it will be the first North American hockey league to pay female players a salary.
Over the past month, the landscape of women’s professional hockey has changed significantly. The two leagues, once potential partners, will now battle to sign the top talent, as players choose between earning money in the NWHL or continuing to increase awareness of the sport without pay through the more established CWHL.
“I think that there are people who are skeptical, and I would just say that’s part of human nature,” Rylan said. “Change is difficult.”
It appears players are ready to take on that challenge. Hilary Knight, arguably the most popular and marketable female US hockey player, attended the NWHL’s launch event in New York on Monday, along with the two-time Olympian Brianne McLaughlin.
“This is the future of women’s hockey at a professional level after college,” Knight said.
The NWHL will have four teams: the Buffalo Beauts; the Boston Pride, based in Everett, Massachusetts; the Connecticut Whale, based in Stamford; and the New York Riveters, based in East Meadow, New York. The CWHL has five teams: the Montreal Stars, the Boston Blades, the Toronto Furies, the Brampton Fury and the Calgary Inferno. Several members of the US national team that won the world championship on April 4 played for the Blades.
The CWHL is a nonprofit, centrally funded league, meaning that all the teams receive equal access to funding, while the NWHL will have team owners who will be subject to a US$270,000 salary cap.
The NWHL’s free-agency period will begin next month, with a draft in June. The next CWHL draft will be on Aug. 23, and players will have to pay US$150 to enter.
Brant Feldman, an agent who represents about a dozen current and former players, was encouraged at the development of another pro option, but he is seeking more specifics about the NWHL’s finances and coaching and front office staffs, which will help him determine whether to recommend the new league.
Rylan, who will be the general manager of the Riveters, said the NWHL had raised “well beyond” 20 percent of its financial goal, but she would not disclose exact figures. She added that there were verbal commitments from more than 40 players.
“I think that the focus is on the players, and it will be a player-centered league and something they will be happy to promote,” said Rylan, who added that the NWHL would include a players’ union and some form of health insurance.
Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, said it was too early to know whether competing leagues would hurt the growth of women’s hockey.
She said that the salaries, which average US$15,000 per player, were not enough to live on.
“If nothing else, it’s a symbolic statement that these women should be acknowledged financially, because that’s how we basically acknowledge everything,” Kane said. “This could be a pivotal moment in women’s hockey.”
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
RSS