The PWHL has been without question a wild success story since its launch a year ago this past Jan. 1.
From fan engagement to putting bums in the seats to coming up with innovative rule changes that are actually popular, the PWHL has been one success story after another.
On the ice, the game itself has excelled. This ‘professional life’ is either all new or still relatively new for the 138 roster players and up to 18 reserves who make up the league.
How are they coping with it? Is the money they are making enough to get by? Are they living comfortably? Is there any need to find an off-season job to augment their league salaries?
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What about the reserves, the lowest paid in the league by a large margin? How do they make it work in a league where they do not receive the living stipend every player on a roster gets?
As with anything in its infancy, the PWHL is adapting and changing almost daily.
We talked to various players in the league, league staff and management to get a sense of where they believe the PWHL currently sits.
SOME TWEAKS WERE NECESSARY
The Collective Bargaining Agreement the Player’s Association and the league hammered out a year ago July that made the PWHL a reality is believed to be as thorough and fair in the history of such agreements on the professional sports landscape as has ever been penned, but that didn’t mean it was perfect.
After Year 1 the league sent out an extensive survey to its players to check on their satisfaction with the current state of things. The findings were tabulated and then relayed to the players for discussion when the league convened its two pre-season mini camps in Toronto and Montreal late in November.
According to both team management types and the players, the findings focused on three areas that required upgrading.
Some of the hotels were deemed not up to par by the players, as was some of the catering that provided team meals before and after workouts. But the biggest concern was security in and around practice sites and, in particular, at hotels when teams were on the road.
Renata Fast, a Toronto Sceptres defender, said the response by the league to all these concerns was both swift and satisfying.
“They were super receptive,” Fast said. “It was a pretty in-depth post inaugural season survey and then they went through the findings with us. The league has done a great job in adjusting those areas that we raised concerns about.”
ADDED PROTECTION
Security appears to have been an issue demanding of more attention than the league fully anticipated and it’s a direct product of the popularity of the entertainment they are providing.
“There were so many eyes on our league and so many passionate fans, so much media attention, and it raised some eyes that we needed some more security even around the player practice facilities and game venues,” Fast said. “That is something we expressed to the league. We wanted to make sure there was increased security just to make sure everyone feels safe. We love passionate fans, but yeah just to have extra eyes.”
Sceptres GM Gina Kingsbury said the need for more security was most notable for the women on the team when they went on the road.
“Just something to ensure we don’t have a ton of autograph seekers looming in hotel lobbies which we experienced a lot more than we expected last season,” Kingsbury said.
UPGRADED OUT-OF-TOWN HOTELS
A lesser issue, but still a complaint that got raised enough that the league acted upon it, was the question of hotels for the visiting teams.
Certainly, in both Ottawa and Toronto, the issue was considered important enough that the hotel choices changed.
In Ottawa, it was as much a question of distance between the hotel and the arena as it was quality of the roof over their heads. Toronto’s first away game this season was in Ottawa and Fast said the upgrade was suitable and works much better now.
In Toronto the move may have happened either way with the Sceptres new home now a good half-hour away from their old home in Toronto traffic.
Fast sounds almost a little jealous as she speaks of the calls she is getting from friends on opposing teams who already have stayed at Hotel X when they visit Toronto for a game. Hotel X is literally down and across the street from Coca-Cola Coliseum on the Exhibition Grounds.
“The girls are all texting me from the other teams saying ‘We are all living luxury at Hotel X,’” Fast said.
CATERING ELEVATED IN YEAR 2
As part of the collective bargaining agreement, players are entitled to pre- and post-workout meals on practice and game days. These too have been upgraded in Year 2 following some complaints about the quality and or selection of said meals.
Whether these complaints occurred in one market more than others is unknown, but the league complied with the request for an upgrade.
THE LIVING WAGE
Everyone on the six 23-man roster made at least $35,000 in Year 1, but the average salary was $55,000. Everything went up 3% in Year 2, meaning the minimum salary is $36,050 and will go up another 3% throughout the remainder of the CBA, which expires after the eighth season.
Each team has six individuals signed to three-year deals on its roster. Those players are making a minimum of $80,000 in salary. It’s up to the team how much beyond that their elite players are paid but we’ve heard mention of salaries touching $120,000.
Gina Kingsbury
Management can move money around and pay one player a little more and another a little less if they choose, but all six teams answer to the same owner and that owner wants consistency throughout the six clubs, so there’s only so much flexibility when it comes to a team’s payroll.
“There’s no wiggle room,” Kingsbury said. “The fact that there is a ceiling and a floor, GMs can’t say, ‘I’m not going to spend so much of my salary cap and go and get a big player later.’ It prevents that. In some ways you can look at it and say less creativity with your dollar, but it protects the athletes knowing we are spending that money on our athletes.
“We are not having everyone on a minimum and trying to save money for something down the road.”
THE RANGE OF SALARIES
As mentioned, every salary goes up 3% annually over the eight-year life of the CBA. No one’s going to have to worry about a living wage for those at the high end of the wage scale which starts at $80,000 and, in the case of many at this level, is augmented by National team funding.
The vast majority of foundational players or those signed to three-year deals are, or at least very recently have been, playing for their national team programs which provides another stream of income on top of what they are receiving from their PWHL employers.
ONE-YEAR DEALS
The one-year deals however started at just $35,000 and with few, if any, carded athletes at this level, things are a little tougher.
Kaitlin Willoughby, a forward for the Sceptres has twice arrived at training camp without a contract and both times earned a one-year deal.
Before the PWHL arrived, Willoughby already was a practising registered nurse while playing hockey on the side. This past off-season, she used some of her summer to pick up a travel nurse job in Minnesota.
“It was a little bit about the money, you know, when you are a player that is on the lower end of the salary scale (one-year deals) it’s just nice to plan for your future a little bit and save up that money, but also nursing is a very intense job so having to stay in practice and making sure I’m keeping up with requirements and licensing things and just making sure I’m up with that.”
Having said that, Willoughby said even living on a one-year contract at the current levels is certainly manageable.
“No, I think they set us up really well with things outside of our salary like the housing stipend ($1,500 monthly up to $1600 in year 2) and food at the rink,” Willoughby said. “When you think about a regular day, you don’t really have many expenses. If you are managing your money properly, I think it’s very doable to not have even had to work in the off-season. But yeah, they set us up really well.
“Comparing to that they had in the past, it was not even possible to do this.”
When the team is on the road the players also receive an $81 per diem to cover costs. These costs do not include the pre- and post-practice and game meals the team remains responsible for both on the road or at home.
For a player like Willoughby, all of this has meant the opportunity to focus fully on hockey for the entire season without worrying about a side job and that has brought her a lot of satisfaction.
“It was just so exciting to put all my energy into hockey during the season and with that I was able to see growth in my game like never before,” she said. “I think that’s the most exciting thing about this. We can all focus all our energy (on hockey), not just the people who are the top players and getting more funding (national team players).
“Hopefully 20 years down the road people don’t even have to think about a second job in the summer.”
HOW ARE THE RESERVE PLAYERS COPING
Each team can carry up to three reserves that can practice with the team, but can’t play unless they are signed to a contract.
Jess Kondas, a Calgary native, has been on Toronto’s reserve both all of last year and to start this year.
As such, Kondas, a defender, doesn’t pull down a salary and certainly isn’t banking any money with an annual stipend that starts at $15,000, her only compensation from the league. Unlike the rostered players, the reserves don’t receive a housing stipend either so to stay in market and have the benefit of practising with both a professional team and it’s staff, actually costs them money in rent.
Kondas, though, sees the long-term benefit of a little short-term pain now.
“It is tough,” she admitted. “At the end of the day, I’m a hockey player and I want to play games. I think I had to look at the bigger picture of opportunity in the future as well, and that is what influenced me to stay with this group.
“Last year I learned a lot and I am fortunate to be with this group and in this market,” she said. “There’s a lot of depth on our team and a lot to learn from and that’s not just the coaching staff but I learn a lot from the other girls too. They have a lot of support in me as well. At the end of the day, it is tough because I want to play, but for me it’s more hoping that opportunities come from being here or being seen by other teams.”
In that regard, Kondas made some progress a little earlier this year when a teammate was suspended for a game opening up a spot on the roster and providing her with her first live game PWHL action.
Kondas took advantage of the opportunity scoring in the game, but with the return of the player from suspension the next game, Kondas was back in her reserve roll.
Kondas has plenty of support at home, too, from both family and the gym where she works in the off-season as a strength coach.
“They know I’m trying to live the dream and they tell me go play and when you’re ready, come back to us,” Kondas said.
Reserves are not mandated to stay in market, but leaving kind of defeats the purpose. As it stands now, the reserve, or even the reserves on the five other teams, are a team’s only recourse when it needs a replacement player in the event of an injury or something else that takes a player out of action. Eventually that will change as the league settles on a farm system of some sort but that is still years away.
And just like any farm system, the goal as a reserve is to improve or at least maintain playing levels so if the call does come to join a roster, the player is ready. Practising daily with the best women’s hockey players in the world is the obvious best way to achieve this.
As a member of the reserves, Kondas does not travel with the team when they go on the road, so she takes that opportunity to make some money when they’re away.
“I will come out and work with some community teams in Etobicoke,” she said utilizing her background as a strength coach. “I also helped out in our gym (at Ford Performance Centre) here last year at Journey to Excel. But I think the majority of girls (on reserve) if you are living in market, you are most likely going to have to find another area to make a few extra bucks unless you are (already) living at home.”
Kondas loves her teammates and the staff she gets to work with in Toronto, but would leave it in a heartbeat if it meant getting to play anywhere in the PWHL.
“I think I would be answering for any reserves in the league when I say if we got the opportunity to play in a jersey and sign a contract, we are going to take it,” she said. “You just want a spot. It would be bittersweet leaving your group. I’m sure Knowlsie (Olivia Knowles) is going through that right now, but you want to play.”
Former Sceptre Knowles was claimed by the New York Sirens from Toronto’s reserves earlier this month when the Sirens ran into some injury trouble.
HOW ARE THE ROOKIES ADAPTING
Last season, everyone technically was a rookie. But there is a whole new crop of actual rookies this year moving from the college ranks, from overseas and a couple straight from Canadian universities into the league.
Cayla Barnes is a native Californian by way of Ohio State, where she is fresh off an NCAA championship. Barnes, already a two-time Olympian and a veteran of five world championships for Team USA, was drafted fifth overall by the Montreal Victoire.
Barnes’ move into the professional ranks is obviously made a little tougher landing in a new country not to mention a new language, but says the experience in Montreal has been made very easy by the open welcome and support she has received from her new teammates.
It’s a common refrain from the first year PWHL members we spoke to around the league.
For Barnes the transition from college to professional has been made easier because she has made the move in lockstep with Ohio State teammate and Surrey, B.C., native Jennifer Gardiner.
The two rookies are roommates and are figuring out all things Montreal together.
“Obviously we are really good friends and it made the transition a lot smoother,” Barnes said. “You have one person from your past or your past team and that makes things a little more comfortable.”
The Victoire also are a team that leaned a little more heavily into the veteran makeup of its roster when they were drafting, but Barnes said that too has made the move easier.
“I was a little nervous at first because you never know what to expect but it’s been amazing ever since I got here,” Barnes said. “The girls here and the staff here have been so welcoming and helpful with anything I have needed. We have a great group of girls here. I feel really honoured to be wearing the Montreal Victoire uniform.”
In Toronto, Izzy Daniel can relate entirely to what Barnes has been experiencing in Montreal.
The Patty Kazmaier winner is a native of Minnesota and had her own concerns before arriving in Toronto about getting comfortable not just with a new team, but a new country as well. Unlike Barnes, she didn’t have a co-pilot coming with her from Cornell, where she played the previous four years, to help.
Fortunately, she quickly paired up with Toronto’s first-round pick in the draft, Julia Gosling, and the two have been roommates since training camp.
“She has been a big help,” Daniel said of her new roommate who is a London, Ont., native. “She’s my chauffeur too getting around. She has helped a lot. Everyone else has been super welcoming and I’ve felt super comfortable right off the bat. I feel like I’m starting to open up and be myself so that’s a credit to my teammates.”
THE PRECEDENT WAS SET EARLY
Perhaps the best known of the Toronto Sceptres roomies, thanks to their social media presence, are the duo of Emma Maltais and Maggie Connors.
Maltais is an Ohio State product while Connors came out of Princeton. Maltais comes from down the QEW in Burlington while Connors grew up in Newfoundland. The two were familiar with one another when they were both drafted by Toronto prior to Year 1 in that first-ever PWHL draft, but weren’t overly close by any means.
That changed with one phone call from Maltais to Connors after the two had briefly congratulated each other at that draft in Toronto.
Connors was on her way back to Newfoundland that same day and Maltais was already texting her wondering if Connors had thought about her living arrangements in Toronto and whether she would be interested in rooming with Maltais.
The two are almost inseparable these days still sharing a place in Liberty Village, just across the tracks from the Sceptres new home rink in Year 2.
Connors firmly believes the move from college to professional hockey is best navigated with someone coming from a similar situation.
“I think coming into this and coming into this lifestyle, I think being able to do it with someone — I mean you’re not coming from the exact path, but in terms of coming out of university, it’s a little of a college lifestyle, but it’s professional now and you are on your own. It’s great to adapt to this lifestyle with someone so that’s why Emma was best choice.”
It’s a trend that appears to be catching on around the league and making life better for the players as they navigate their new professional landscape.
WHERE IS THE LEAGUE ON PHYSICALITY VS. SAFETY
The first handful of games have included a handful of hits that really don’t belong in the game based on the way the league is saying it wants things called, but things are moving in the right direction.
We’ll use the Maggie Flaherty hit on Alina Muller of the Boston Fleet from Week 2 as an example.
Flaherty, a Minnesota defender, was initially called for a major and a game misconduct on a hit that seemed to target the head with no play on the actual puck. After a review seemed to show Muller’s own stick hitting her in the head as Flaherty went into her, on-ice officials downgraded the penalty to a minor.
A day later the PWHL Player Safety Committee stepped in and announced that after their review Flaherty would be suspended for two games.
It took a little extra time, but the league eventually got it right and that’s the response the players are looking for from the league.
“There has a been a few hits in the league that have been (getting talked about) around the room,” Fast said in an interview prior to Flaherty’s league suspension was announced. “Just a little uncertainty of what the call should be. What’s a penalty? What’s a major. What’s a minor? Those are the questions being asked.
“Hopefully they will bring some clarity because you want to keep the players safe but at the same time we all love the physicality. Still, there’s a line to that and we are all trying to figure it out and hopefully the league can do its part and kind of (hand out) some discipline so it gets cleaned up.”
A SUMMARY
Just a handful of games into Year 2, the PWHL has made it very clear that, as good as things were in Year 1, they can still get better and more importantly the league is interested in making them better.
When issues come up like the need to bulk up security or beef up the catering or even improve their road hotels, the league has listened and acted.
The life of a reserve player, while challenging financially and likely the area most deserving of another look by the league, still provides a realistic entryway into the league for those living its existence daily.
How far away a more palatable and more livable option for these players remains unknown, but a more permanent farm system is being discussed.
And from a safety standpoint, the league is coming down hard on hits to the head while it seeks to establish the line between accepted physicality and what goes beyond that.
It’s all part of a product that is growing daily and handling the growing pains that come with that about as well as anyone could expect at this stage in its development.