The Daily Faceoff Show: The future of the PWHPA and the PHF

It seems like the state of women’s hockey is up in the air yet again, as the PWHPA’s board unanimously voted to end discussions about collaborating with the PHF.

When the PWHPA has a lot of the best women’s hockey players in the game and the PHF has the structure and financial might to support a league, it seems like a perfect match between the two, but neither side can reach a compromise as of this moment. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has stated that he’ll gladly support the women’s league when the right time comes, much like the NBA does with the NWBA, but won’t do it until there is only one league to support.

With neither side looking to find common ground at this point, Frank Seravalli and Chris Peters discussed on The Daily Faceoff Show about which of the two will come out ahead.

Chris Peters: I think the unfortunate thing is that we’ve kind of being put into this situation where they have to be pitted against each other. One has to survive somehow, right? And I think that’s not very helpful for the entire women’s hockey game as a whole.

There needs to be a professional league. I think there’s enough momentum right now among the women’s sports, not just in hockey, but in basketball and soccer. There’s a path forward for women’s professional sports, and it’s starting to become clearer and clearer. It’s not as clear in hockey because of these two entities and not being able to work together.

One of the things that Hailey (Salvian of The Athletic) reported on that I think is important is that there is some concern about where the sources of funding are coming from for the PHF. There is an executive on their board that has ties to a Russian company Yandex, that is basically the top tech company in Russia, and that is a concern for the PWHPA, reportedly.

But aside from that, I think that there’s a lot of people that have a lot invested in this right now on the PHF side. They’ve gotten somewhere around $25 million worth of funding. But, I think the PWHPA is saying, “That’s great, but what is sustainable from that? Where do we grow from here?”

And I think that there’s still a lot of mistrust, and I think that there is a path forward for them to coexist, but we do need to figure out exactly…I think the PWHPA in particular doesn’t have that league structure that the PHF has right now, which is really confusing for fans and is a barrier to entry for enough people where it’s like, “I don’t really understand what this is.”

So, we’re moving in the right direction, but we’re kind of stalled right now. I still think that this is something that has to come together quickly, and I hope that, if they can’t get along, they can coexist, and I just don’t know exactly how that’s going to look going forward.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I just have my doubts as to whether they can coexist. Because no matter what, when you’ve got the top players in the world not participating in your league, you’re always going to be viewed, even if you have the structure and have the money, as sort of second tier, or subpar. We need to have the best players competing against each other consistently. That’s what the PWHPA has, but they don’t have the funding, and they don’t have the structure.

I still wish these two sides could find a way to coexist, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be the case. And until that happens, I think they’re only going to continue to cannibalize each other, and it sort of seems like while they both want to succeed, that they’ve both got their own path in terms of how they think that might happen.

And in some ways, when you look at a lot of the failures of the PHF, going back to their Lake Placid bubble, even going back to their playoffs last year, their MVP, as Hailey reported, getting $1,000 in Dick’s Sporting Goods gift cards. Like, that’s not any way to treat your best players.

So there’s been a lot of disappointment in terms of the PHF, and how things have unfolded. I understand the mistrust from the players and the PWHPA. There’s been a lot of turmoil as well, a lot of turnover from the top of that league. There’s a lot happening here, and so certainly we’re going to keep our eye on all that’s happening in the women’s game. We’d love to see one unified league, with the best players in the world being paid properly so that they don’t have to have other jobs in the workforce, that they can focus solely on playing and putting their best product on the ice.

We’ll get there one day, I just wish it was sooner than it has been.

You can watch the full episode here…