Report: PWHPA to Not Move Forward with PHF Collaborations

Soon after a assembly past month in between the PWHPA and PHF, fans and analysts speculated about the route of qualified women’s hockey in North The united states.

Subsequent a current conference of the PWHPA’s board, that route has come to be clearer.

​​”The PWHPA’s board has voted unanimously to conclusion any more discussions about collaborating with the PHF,” The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian said pertaining to the PWHPA’s situation.

Per Salvian’s article, a single of the contributing challenges in the PWHPA’s determination associated to the PHF’s Chairman of the Board, John Boynton. Boynton has been criticized for holding the similar chairman job for Russia’s Yandex. Yandex is Russia’s biggest technology enterprise and has been tied to the ongoing suppression of facts, and spreading of propaganda associated to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Not only is Boynton the Chairman of the PHF’s Board, he also owns the Boston Pleasure and Metropolitan Riveters, two of the league’s 6 groups, and reportedly owns the expansion legal rights to a Montreal franchise.

It is thought Boynton will be an challenge when it will come to attracting significant sponsors going forward.

According to Salvian, PWHPA fears associated to the PHF also incorporated “funding and the lack of a convincing small business design.”

With the choice, the PHF will proceed independently, with eyes on off-season expansion, while the PWHPA proceeds to just take their have techniques toward a independent specialist women’s hockey league in North The united states.

The PHF does have many unanswered queries to address this summer, namely, selecting a new commissioner and founding two promised enlargement franchises. Though Montreal is thought to be the first spot, a different has not been declared.

Both of those leagues have overtly said shared goals of overall health rewards, upgraded facilities, schooling assistance, and mainly, improved salaries making it possible for players to live solely as specialist hockey gamers with no needing secondary employment to nutritional supplement revenue. Although the PHF termed the March meeting between the two entities and the NHL “constructive,” the gaps in how to achieve these shared aims could not be bridged.

Though no formal programs have been announced by the PWHPA for up coming season, the team reportedly has the guidance of 11 NHL franchises impartial of league support to transfer forward. Future year, this could manifest in a more substantial scale tour as the PWHPA has operated in modern seasons.

In the meantime, the PHF stays the only formal expert women’s hockey league in North The us.