Big Read: That the best players in the world are meeting in one-off publicity events instead of their professional leagues is just one of the confusing messes facing the women’s game today. (KrRutherford)
That’s heavy, but she managed to deliver in the moment, partly because she “has rockets on her skates,” as Knight puts it, and because — like most of her elite teammates — she’s spent her entire life proving herself worthy. Growing up in Palos Park, Ill., Coyne Schofield was limited to boys’ house league for much of her early minor career because she got cut multiple times from the Orland Park Vikings AA travel team.
“It gives me chills,” Coyne Schofield says. “Just look at the opportunity we have to inspire the next generation.”Some say the leagues on both sides of the border have to make a decision if they want to avoid players making it for them.ere’s what happened the last two times the NHL threw its support behind the American and Canadian women’s national teams and their players: First, Coyne Schofield, Decker, Fast and Rebecca Johnston stole the show at the NHL All-Star Game .
Coyne Schofield, Decker, Knight and the rest of Team USA have made daring, progressive statements to drive their sport before. When the American national team threatened to boycott the 2017 world championships unless USA Hockey met demands for fairer pay and treatment, the big gamble paid off — players now make some $70,000, thanks to additional funds provided by USA Hockey and by the NHL.
Susan Cohig is spearheading the NHL’s involvement in women’s and girls’ hockey as the league’s VP of Club Business Affairs. “If there were not a women’s league operating, we’d be prepared to step in and create a scenario of running a league. We certainly would be interested in doing it, but really [only] if there isn’t a league operating,” Cohig says.
Andress was involved in conversations with the NHL for more than a decade and not even she saw an NHL business plan for a women’s league, though she believes one exists. “Everybody yammers all the time, ‘Well, you were just going to hand the keys over to the NHL.’ No, we were never going to just say, ‘OK, here,’” she says. “We were always waiting to see what the NHL, with one league, how they would operate it.
“But what kind of opportunities are they presenting? What kind of resources are they allocating?” Knight adds. “How are they helping the women’s players? For many years it was, ‘How do we get in the same room as our male counterparts?’ And now we’re in the room and we’ve got a seat at the table and you have to understand how much you’re worth.”
She’d add more games to the schedule, too; Szabados just barely broke into double-digit regular season starts with the Beauts this season, compared to the 22 she logged her last full pro season, with the SPHL’s Columbus Cottonmouths. According to an industry source, the NWHL schedule will expand next season, but Szabados imagines a world in which she can play against the best players in the game a couple times a week — like she did with Team Canada for the Rivalry Series last month.
Players found out on a Tuesday, Anya Battaglino remembers. Her Connecticut Whale had a practice that night, and she was the team’s players’ association rep, charged with delivering the news. “I cried,” says Battaglino, who’s now retired and serving as the director of the NWHLPA. “I had to look at Kelli Stack — one of my really good friends, one of the best players in the world — I had to look at a room of peers, friends, co-workers and say, ‘Hey, this is the situation.
The CWHL’s board just went through a bunch of changes, too. Former Team Canada captain Cassie Campbell-Pascall resigned for personal reasons and also because she wants one league run by the NHL — the WNHL. The Sportsnet rinkside reporter and colour commentator declined to be interviewed for this article: She’s said all she needs to say.
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