The inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) wraps up in the coming days, as Minnesota and Boston battle it out in the league’s first finals. No matter which team prevails, professional women’s hockey in North America appears to be headed in the right direction after years of concurrent leagues, folding leagues, pay cuts and labor issues. Expectations are high for the PWHL’s second season, and therefore the stakes are too.
There has arguably never been a better time for women’s sports. A Disney-record 1.02 million viewers tuned in to last year’s NCAA gymnastics championship, and the arrival of Caitlin Clark in the WNBA has drawn even more eyes to women’s basketball — which just announced its impending expansion into Toronto. The PWHL, meanwhile, has already broken numerous attendance records. According to the league, the season garnered over 40 million views and more than 100,000 subscribers on YouTube.
These are stats that suggest a wellspring of support for a sport that for too long has been starved of resources.
Like with basketball and soccer, women’s hockey has a lot to offer men’s hockey fans — a quick, physical and incredibly skilled game — if fans know where to look.
The PWHL is a young and relatively small league, but it can build off the growth that women’s hockey more generally has seen in recent years. And like with basketball and soccer, women’s hockey has a lot to offer men’s hockey fans — a quick, physical and incredibly skilled game — if fans know where to look.
The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) was founded as an amateur association in 2007 but quickly grew to become the top women’s hockey league in North America. In 2015, the National Women’s Hockey League, which eventually became known as the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) was founded. The latter league focused primarily on the United States (though two Canadian teams were eventually added), and most importantly, players were paid.
Both the CWHL and PHF expanded over the years, but neither was perfect and a “two league” debate soon formed. The CWHL didn’t pay its players until 2017; the PHF did, but working conditions could reportedly be challenging and the league cut player salaries almost immediately, in 2016.
Still, the leagues continued to co-exist until 2019, when, on a seemingly random Sunday morning, the CWHL announced it was folding. Nearly two months later, the #ForTheGame movement and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association emerged from the ashes, formed as a temporary refuge for many of the U.S. and Canadian women’s national team players as they pushed for better wages, working conditions and stability in a full-time league outside of the Olympics and IIHF tournaments.
Four years after the formation of the PWHPA, the players were able to establish a collective bargaining agreement. Concurrently, and as suddenly as the demise of the CWHL, the PHF was acquired by Billie Jean King Enterprises and the Mark Walter Group, setting the stage for the debut of the PWHL. Just five months later, the inaugural PWHL season began on Jan. 1, 2024.
It took many years to get here, but there is now a single professional women’s hockey league in North America. At the same time, the league’s officially recognized players union, and collective bargaining agreement, is providing unprecedented structure and support for player rights, benefits and salaries.
The current CBA provides for a minimum salary, as well as a salary cap for each team, both of which increase by 3% annually. It spells out health insurance plans, disability insurance benefits, per diems and competition and performance bonuses, including $63,250 for the championship team to split among its players. In 2025, the PWHL will implement an elective 401(k) plan.
Standards are laid out for transportation and hotel accommodations, pregnancy benefits, parental leave, educational support, housing stipends and relocation expenses. While this all may sound incredibly basic for professional athletes, women’s hockey has had to fight for every last benefit, no matter how basic.
Still, there is work to be done. For example, the Minnesota team and staff had to scramble — ultimately taking two different flights — to make it to their semifinal series, less than a day after finding out their opponent. Coaches — and equally as important, equipment — were forced to take a later flight, delaying practices by a day. The league has since provided charter flights for the teams going to and from Minnesota. Charter flights, and flights in general, have infamously been a sticking point in the WNBA, with the league finally instituting a full charter program for the 2024 season. (The rollout of the program, however, has been a bumpy one.) While all PWHL games have at the very least been broadcast live on YouTube, linear television deals have been scarce, particularly in the U.S. Locally driven networks such as Sportsnet Pittsburgh, MSG and Bally Sports have picked up games, but the league would benefit greatly from securing a national TV deal. This would provide vital sponsorship money and greater mainstream visibility. Such deals have proven huge for women’s soccer and basketball. The NWSL’s current four-year media deal is valued at $60 million per year — 40 times the value of the previous deal. The WNBA and NBA are currently negotiating new rights with Disney, but the women’s league reportedly wants to double its rights fees, currently valued at $60 million per year. Undoubtedly, with time (and hopefully broadcast deals) will come PWHL expansion. A handful of players signed two- or three-year contracts last year, and with six teams in the league, there are a very limited number of roster spots. The key is to find the right time to expand. Will the PWHL finally be the answer for professional women’s hockey? All the stars seem to be aligning. Independent ownership will also be a key point of contention. Right now, all the teams in the PWHL are owned by the Mark Walter Group, which invites questions about conflicts of interest. (Walter is the billionaire chairman and controlling owner of the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, and a co-owner of Premier League club Chelsea F.C.) NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman initially refused to get involved with women’s hockey while there were two leagues. But will a unified league revive the conversation? The NBA and WNBA have had a successful partnership, but in a different context: The NBA actually created the women’s league and provides a portion of its funding. While not on exactly the same terms, the success of the NBA-WNBA partnership could provide a template for the NHL and PWHL. Then there are the necessary improvements to team names, logos and jerseys; a better home rink for PWHL New York; reviewing the league’s systems for refereeing and reviewing plays, and getting a real, full season under its belt. The inaugural season began in January due to time constraints, but let’s see what this league looks like with a full season beginning in October or November. I remain optimistic. Players, coaches, executives and passionate fans have supported the sport for years, and more attention is on women’s sports now than ever. Will the PWHL finally be the answer for professional women’s hockey? All the stars seem to be aligning. The PWHL’s inaugural season has been a success by most measures. Now it has a chance to lead the way into the future, pushing the limits of what is possible for women’s hockey — and women’s sports writ large.
Melissa Burgess
Melissa Burgess is a freelance sportswriter who has covered men’s and women’s hockey and other sports for over 12 years. Her work has appeared on platforms including The Hockey News, The Buffalo News, CBC Radio, Victory Press and WBFO Radio. She is a member of the first-ever women’s hockey chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. 
