New women's hockey league excited to show off product in Pittsburgh during successful 1st season

Nearly five years ago, hundreds of the top professional women’s hockey players in North America came together and bet on themselves.

The wager they made — sitting out and not playing for a year — was bold.

But the decision, announced in early May of 2019, was one many players felt needed to happen in order to secure a more viable future for their sport.

Fast forward five years, and the conversation around pro women’s hockey has shifted drastically for the better.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League, featuring teams in six cities and offering previously unheard-of salaries and benefits for players, launched in January.

The PWHL is backed financially by tennis icon Billie Jean King and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter.

So far, it’s gotten off to a hot start, with its teams, based in Boston, New York, St. Paul, Minn., Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, receiving encouraging support.

“When we sat out (five) years ago, we dreamt of this and thought of this, but I don’t think what’s happening is what we thought was going to happen, especially in year one,” said Montreal forward Laura Stacey. “So it’s been pretty amazing to see.”

On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Penguins will host a game between Montreal and Toronto at PPG Paints Arena as part of “PWHL Takeover Weekend.”

Additionally, the Detroit Red Wings are hosting Boston and Ottawa Saturday evening at Little Caesars Arena.

PWHL senior vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford, a five-time Olympic medalist with Canada and 2018 inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame, is hopeful for 8,000 fans Sunday in Pittsburgh.

Montreal and Toronto previously met at Scotiabank Arena, home of the Maple Leafs, in mid-February, which attracted a crowd of 19,285, setting a new attendance record for a pro women’s hockey game.

“It’s a privilege for us to have the opportunity to play,” said Toronto coach Troy Ryan, who also has led Canada’s women’s national team since 2021. “Looking forward to playing Montreal. Just in general in sports, the Montreal-Toronto rivalry is a big one, a heated one. We’re just excited to be this newest chapter in that exciting rivalry. It’s going to be a special opportunity to play them again here.”

The enthusiasm led the PWHL to announce this week that the upcoming April 20 meeting between Montreal and Toronto would be moved from Verdun Auditorium, which seats just over 4,100, to the Bell Centre, home of the NHL’s Canadiens, which boasts a capacity north of 21,000.

By then, six NHL venues will have hosted a PWHL game, with attendance records this season so far having short shelf lives.

“We’ve definitely outpaced all our projections as it relates to attendance, merchandise sales, sponsorships — just sort of goes on and on,” Hefford said. “We’re very excited and happy with that.

“We still know there’s a lot of work to do and we’ve got to continue to keep that momentum going, but it certainly has been an amazing launch for us and the excitement in multiple markets even like this (in Pittsburgh) outside of our own has been really great to see.”

The PWHL’s success out of the gate has been a tangible change from the days of the old National Women’s Hockey League (later the Premiere Hockey Federation), which in many cases offered salaries that amounted to little more than spare change, in addition to not providing its players with health care.

The Canadian Women’s Hockey League, established in 2007 before folding in 2019, which preceded the women’s players’ sit-out announcement by mere days, didn’t offer salaries for the majority of its 12-year existence.

Per the PWHL’s collective bargaining agreement, player salaries range from a league minimum of $35,000 to more than $80,000, with the average salary per team coming in at $55,000.

On top of compensation, in terms of day-to-day operation, the PWHL offers a standard many players have not seen before outside of Olympic and international competition.

“Having a franchise, having a team in the city that you’re living in, going to the rink every single day, showing up and (studying) video and practicing and having breakfast and lunch there for you, having an equipment manager there who’s sharpening our skates every single day — it’s the little details that really go unnoticed that make this league far and above the best I’ve ever played in,” Stacey said.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to have that professionalism at the national team level, but to now have it on a regular basis at that home level is pretty significant.”

The PWHL’s inaugural season comprises 24 games, with next year jumping to 32.

Its 3-2-1-0 points system, which awards three points for regulation wins, two for overtime wins, one for an overtime or shootout loss and zero for regulation losses, is different from the NHL.

The league’s 157 players come from 12 countries, with Canada (57%) and the U.S. (34%) producing the vast majority, many of whom are Olympic alumnae.

Additionally, 21% of the league (33 players) joined directly from the NCAA.

Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh will feature 11 players between Montreal and Toronto who won a gold medal with Canada at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

For Montreal coach Kori Cheverie, Pittsburgh constitutes familiar grounds.

Cheverie, who also serves as Ryan’s assistant with the Canadian women’s national team, worked with the Penguins this past preseason as a guest coach.

“This just feels like a natural fit for a game to happen in their arena and under the scope of their organization,” Cheverie said.

Ryan, Cheverie and several players for Montreal and Toronto previously participated in a game at PPG Paints Arena in 2022, when the Penguins hosted a contest between members of the U.S. and Canadian women’s national teams following the Beijing Olympics.

“It’s really exciting to be playing in Pittsburgh,” said Toronto forward Rebecca Leslie. “We’ve had a great reception from them in the past. … I think the fans are in for a really high-paced, high-energetic game.”

Montreal and Toronto, tied atop the PWHL’s standings with 30 points apiece along with Minnesota, meet Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

The PWHL’s CBA runs through 2031, by which time, if all goes to plan, expansion from six teams will have come into play.

With the Penguins’ growing ties to the PWHL, Pittsburgh may find itself at the forefront of that eventual conversation.

“I get asked a lot, and I always try to remind myself that we’re two months into our inaugural season,” Hefford said. “Things are going amazingly well in our minds, but (there’s a) long road to go. … We’re certainly thinking of it, but I don’t think it’s imminent.”

For now, players, coaches and executives are excited to show off their on-ice product and continue building momentum for the league they fought so hard to create.

“The amount of skill with the players in this league — it’s the best in the world,” Stacey said. “That’s what we wanted to create four years ago when we sat out, is to get every single person, whether you’re from Europe, Canada, the U.S. — across the world — the very best players all in one league playing against each other and with each other every single night.”