29 August 2023
When starting the Professional Women’s Hockey League, leadership had what Stan Kasten called “a wide-open niche” — complete access to the best players in the world, and best markets in North America.
Yes, that includes Minnesota, which on Tuesday was officially announced as one home to one of the six markets for an inaugural season that will begin play as early as Jan. 1.
“If there is anything like a women’s hockey hotbed, it’s probably Minnesota,” said Kasten, president of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a member of the ownership group that will finance the league in its nascent years. “So, we really couldn’t leave them out of the ‘original six.’ ”
The Original Six is more commonly known as the collective name for the first six NHL franchises — Montreal, Toronto, Boston, New York, Detroit and Chicago — but with the financial backing of the Mark Walter Group, the PWHL believes it will become a similarly successful league.
That would be a first for a women’s sport that has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 30 years but has never had a stable professional league for its best players. Minnesota joins Montreal, Toronto, Boston, New York and Ottawa as the PWHL’s first markets.
Why Minnesota?
“It was just about finding the right markets — the right partners, the right facilities, availability,” said Jayna Hefford, former chairperson of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association and now a member of the PWHL’s leadership group.
“It was a bit of a puzzle to put together, but Minnesota was always a priority market for us and we just felt comfortable that we got to a point where we had all those other pieces as a part of it. It’s a market we’re incredibly excited about.”
The inaugural season will begin in early January and comprise 24 games, 12 at home and away — although Kasten said Tuesday that some games will be played at neutral sites. Ultimately, that will be expanded to 32-game schedules running from November to May.
Hefford said the league has identified a group of more than 300 eligible players and sent them to teams ahead of a 10-day free agency period that begins on Friday.
The start-up is being bankrolled by the Mark Walter Group — worth $5.6 billion according to Forbes Magazine — and BJK Enterprise, “a data-driven, people-focused investing, consulting and marketing firm” started by tennis great Billie Jean King. In July, those groups, with the backing of the players association, bought out the Premier Hockey Federation, the latest in a series of struggling North American women’s leagues.
The Minnesota Whitecaps, which had played in various leagues since being formed in 2004, was a member of the PHF but is no longer extant. Former Gophers Abigail Boreen and Catie Skaja were among players who had signed contracts to play for the Whitecaps; they will now be eligible for the PWHL draft.
The new league’s six teams are all owned by the Mark Walter Group and, Kasten said, there is no plan to change that in the group’s 10-year business plan for the league. Where the teams will play has yet to be announced, although Kasten said some of the venues will include arenas for teams in the American Hockey League, the NHL’s top minor league, and junior league arenas in Canada.
Longtime NHL executive Brian Burke is the new chair of the players association, which already has approved a Collective Bargaining Agreement that includes contracts ranging from $35,000 to $80,000 a year.
Kasten said Tuesday the ownership group is the PWHL’s sole investor. The NHL, he said, will likely provide some high-profile opportunities for the new league at events such as the Winter Classic, but for now its role is strictly consultary.
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