USA Hockey, women reach deal; aim for growth

While the impending start of the world championships created urgency for USA Hockey and the women’s national team to hammer out a deal, the agreement had everything to do with tournaments over the next four years and beyond.

The sides finalized an agreement Tuesday night that avoided what would’ve been a historic boycott for the defending gold medallists at the world championships on home ice. Instead, they settled on terms that could lead to players earning as much as $129,000 in an Olympic year and also set USA Hockey on a path to grow the women’s game even further.

“We didn’t want to settle for something that wasn’t going to push women’s hockey as far as we thought it was able to go,” U.S. captain Meghan Duggan said by phone.

The deal means players will be on the ice Friday in Plymouth, Mich., to begin their title defence against archrival Canada.

USA Hockey executive director Dave Ogrean said laying a foundation for the future of the women’s game was the crux of the agreement.

“It was critical to go through this process and to get this done, and I’m pretty sure that the women are very, very satisfied with where we ended up and it puts us in a great place to all move forward in a great way,” Ogrean said.

Coming off making just $1,000 a month for six months around the Olympics, this contract pays players roughly $3,000 a month, with annual compensation surpassing $70,000 when combined with contributions from the United States Olympic Committee. Players receive Olympic medal bonuses of $20,000 for gold and $15,000 for silver from USA Hockey and $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze from the USOC.As part of the agreement, players also received business class travel that men get for the world championships and the insurance protection they asked for.

Duggan called it a “historic moment in women’s sports.” USA Hockey president Jim Smith said people will look back on this day “as one of the most positive in the history” of the organization.