Foundation collective bargaining agreement redefines women's professional hockey

A binding, bedrock document now in place, the best players in women's hockey will have a premier, professional North American league of their own.

"This is probably the most pivotal moment in the sport that we've really ever had," forward Sarah Nurse told The Canadian Press on Monday.

The Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association (PWHPA) ratifying a collective bargaining agreement with the new league's owners Sunday evening cleared the road for it to start operating in January 2024.

The other critical development was last week's announcement that Los Angeles Dodgers chairman Mark Walter, one of the new league's financial backers, bought out the rival seven-team Premier Hockey Federation that featured Canadian clubs in Toronto and Montreal.

Tennis great Billie Jean King will serve on the board of the unnamed new league.

The majority of Canada's women's national team were PWHPA members. Two of them — Nurse and Brianne Jenner — were among those representing the union at the bargaining table.

"To think that we could accomplish this and at this time, it's just amazing," Jenner said.

The CBA is effective Aug. 1 to July 31, 2031. The document redefines what women's professional hockey will look like in the future.

"It was the most important thing," Nurse said. "In my professional playing career, I've seen a few leagues come and go because of that lack of player protection and lack of communication between the league and the union.

"From our investment group, Billie Jean King and the Walter group, and us as players with the PWHPA, we knew that was the most important thing. Once we could create a collective bargaining agreement and agree on it, we were going to be flying from there."

Player agent Brant Feldman, who represents players on the Canadian and U.S. national teams, called the document "groundbreaking" and pointed out the WNBA started without a CBA and the National Women's Soccer League operated without one for its first decade.

The hockey league will feature six teams in to-be-announced locations — three in the United States and three in Canada.

In addition to a salary range between US$35,000 to $80,000, 23-player rosters, per diem, commercial rights and trade protocols, the CBA includes competition bonuses, a retirement plan, housing stipend, long-term disability, life and health insurance, workers' compensation, maternity leave and a dependent care assistance program.

"There's so much to this CBA, but it's unlike anything we've ever seen in women's hockey," said Jayna Hefford, a Hockey Hall of Famer who shepherded the PWHPA from its inception in 2019 as lead consultant.

"We didn't have much leverage. We didn't have opportunity to strike. There was no league. There was nothing that existed, but it was important to both parties that we did this the right way and we build a foundation for long-term success and professionalism for the athletes."

For Nurse and Jenner, the CBA's small details resonate. They recall riding on buses with their hockey bags in their laps and changing in the lobbies of community rinks in previous leagues.

"Our number-one goal was never about multimillion-dollar salaries, although that would be great in the future," Jenner said.

"It's about creating a professional environment for the best players in women's hockey and a league that young girls can dream about playing in.

"We wanted those players to be protected, we wanted them to have health insurance, we wanted them to have a strength and conditioning coach, have those pieces in place that would allow them to be at their best."

There will be winners and losers in unification of two women's hockey entities. The dissolution of the PHF voids existing contracts.

PHF salaries averaged US$34,000 this past season and ranged anywhere from $13,500 up to the $150,000 that was to be paid to Toronto Six forward Darryl Watts this upcoming season.

PHF players have been told they will receive severance, but don't yet know the details of that.

Metropolitan Riveters forward Madison Packer signed a two-year contract extension worth $90,000 the first year and $95,000 the second.

The American was trying to look beyond the uncertainty of her hockey future Monday.

"You don't know what the future looks like, where you'll be playing, if you'll be playing" Packer said. "I think a lot of people will end up continuing to have the opportunity to play professional hockey.

"Hopefully the initial shock kind of rolls over and you realize that you've just got to keep going to work until someone tells you not to."

There will be more players competing for fewer pro jobs in what will initially be a six-team league.

"As sad as this is that so many people are out of jobs, yeah it's tough. I might be out of a job too, but the game needs all the best players in the world playing in one spot," Packer said.

"If you're a player that doesn't move on in the new league, or you're in a market that no longer exists, that doesn't mean that what was built there dies.

"The fans and everyone fall in love with the people and the story and the energy, so you just keep that alive, and it looks a little different."

There also won't be room in the new league for all the roughly 100 PWHPA members either.

"We have a lot of members that may not get a chance to play. We have a lot of members that may play one or two years," Jenner said. "We have a lot of people that dedicated so much and will never put that jersey on.

"We didn't always have answers for our players these last couple of years while we were working through this process and I just give our players that stuck with it so much credit for putting their trust in what we were doing."

The PWHPA rose from the collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) in 2019 after a dozen years of operation.

Members refused to join the PHF and its predecessor, the NWHL, because it didn't meet their threshold for a pro league.

The PWHPA held showcase games and tournaments across North America to drum up support for the league the players envisioned.

In the meantime, the PHF augmented its benefits package and increased its salary cap to a planned $1.5 million per team for 2023-34.

Several PWHPA members migrated to the PHF before last season, but the former retained star power with Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Marie-Philip Poulin, Nurse and Jenner among its membership.

"A few of those high-profile players, they led the way and they took the heat for it for many years," Hefford said. "They've been questioned and they've been challenged. They stood their ground.

"It wouldn't have happened without Billie and Mark, but this is a special group of players that have changed, I think, the future of our sport forever."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2023.