There are two famous rivalries in North American women’s hockey: Canada vs. the United States and the PWHPA vs. the PHF. One rivalry will last forever at every World Cup and the Olympics, while the other is dead.
On June 29, the Mark Walter Group acquired the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). Walter, owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chelsea FC of the Premier League and the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, had worked with Billie Jean King Enterprises to create a new professional women’s hockey league for members of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA). Since 2019, the PWHPA, founded by members of the defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), has been playing a Dream Gap tour in North America, used for its own professional league.
The CWHL and the forerunner of the PHF, the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), were at odds before the CWHL collapsed. When the PWHPA was founded, this altercation took on a new life. In 2019, just a few months after the closure of the LCHF, Hilary Knight, a member of The American Star and the PWHPA Board of Directors, told the world what she thought of the PHF and the NWHL.
“To me, it’s a glorious beer league,” said Knight, who played for PHF’s Boston Pride from 2015 to 2017. “It serves a purpose, but they are not elite talented players who play at a high Level.”
This was a sentiment repeated by Kendall Coyne Schofield, long-time captain of the American team and member of the PWHPA Board of Directors who played for the Minnesota Whitecaps of the PHF in 2018-2019.
“We have not seen a legitimate professional league so far…”she said at the time.
Since these words, the gap between PHF and PWHPA has only widened, while the talent gaps have rapidly narrowed and the working conditions in the PHF have improved considerably. The PHF expanded the teams, added health care and increased salaries from $150,000 per team in 2020-2021 to $750,000 per team in 2022-2023, and the League was to increase the salary cap again to $1.5 million per team this season.
