With the inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League underway, the league’s future is clear: the PWHL should introduce multiple expansion teams in the following season.
The PWHL has exceeded expectations, not only in its style of play, which is exceedingly more physical and physically demanding than any other venue of women’s hockey, but in its popularity. The opening game of this first season broke attendance records for women’s hockey, and nearly every following matchup has outdone the previous games’ crowds. Despite lackluster jersey design and team branding, the PWHL is functionally excellent, and the best way to continue this trend is to expand the league from six to 12 teams.
This expansion, while not without difficulty, is well-deserved and would carry considerable benefit. The PWHL’s choice of six teams is rooted purely in history: mirroring the “Original Six” teams of the National Hockey League, who, in spite of the current 32-team NHL league, still tout their original status in marketing and as a distinction from other teams, even against teams that predate that league and joined later. Granting the current teams, all located in what can only be described as hockey metropolises, ‘original’ status makes sense, but from a player asset perspective, the league is capable of doubling.
The PWHL’s inaugural draft class included nearly 300 players, meaning that as many as were drafted or eventually signed to teams were passed over. With many of the star players drafted early PWHL, especially goaltenders, coming from Olympic-level play, much of the draft class that was passed over were young players coming immediately from the NCAA, who, in the absence of a professional contract, are less likely to remain skating following their college playing careers, which hurts the chances of them signing later on. The PWHL lacks any sort of farm team system, and injured or unavailable players are replaced by substitutes who are paid a salary regardless of whether they play for a team, meaning player development is left solely to NCAA teams. Without an expansion, highly talented NCAA players may finish their career this year, find themselves not drafted by the PWHL’s current teams to replace the few former Olympic players, who are all likely at the end of their professional tenure, and move on from the sport into another career for purely economic reasons. Such a number of draft-eligible players not drafted or signed to teams means that there are enough potential players to fill potential expansion team rosters.
This situation bodes well for expansion because more teams would mean more required players, and therefore more talent. In the NHL’s system, players are drafted and typically left to finish their NCAA careers, or assigned to the lower-tiered leagues: the ECHL or American Hockey League. This allows players to not only keep playing to develop but also make enough money to be willing to stay in the sport. This pipeline system is key to the NHL, and a poor player pipeline can relegate teams to lengthy rebuilds due to a drought of talent. In the absence of any type of affiliate league for player development, the PWHL should expand with more teams in order to employ more former NCAA players, which in turn allows for a bigger, more talented and more diverse draft class, and will encourage teams to trade players for a competitive edge, which has yet to occur.
Players in comparable leagues, like the NHL and even European leagues, typically do not take gaps within their professional careers. Barring injury recovery, players who are not re-signed or who have left for even a few seasons often have difficulty returning to their careers, and when they do, it is because these players are league-wide names desired for their brand value. With former NCAA players lacking the sportwide branding that allows NHL superstars more leeway in surprise returns from retirement, those passed over in the initial draft or not signed in subsequent PWHL drafts may leave the sport permanently, dampening an already widely successful league.
While the economic considerations of finding new franchises, playing venues, coaching staff and team owners may be daunting, the overall success of the league so far leaves hope for more PWHL teams. Larger crowds than anticipated means more funding, and the already-passionate fans may inspire would-be team owners to help expand, should the league agree.
The PWHL has prided itself so far on being the most successful women’s league to date, and hopes to inspire players who may one day join its ranks. The best way to expand women’s hockey is to do just that: expand women’s hockey. The PWHL should expand to 12 teams to bring new franchises to new cities, new talent to the league and, above all, more hockey to all.
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