NHL trailblazer Hayley strikes a blow for diversity
BUFFALO, NY — With a laugh, Kim Pegula’s competitive nature kicked in when the subject of the Toronto Maple Leafs hiring Hayley Wickenheiser was broached.
Impressed as the Sabres president was by the gender-breaking move in August, Pegula’s first reaction was wondering how Buffalo’s cross-border rival beat her to the punch in making Wickenheiser the NHL’s first woman to hold a hockey operations role as assistant director of player development.
“Darn it,” Pegula said, smiling. “I wish I would’ve done it first.”
The NHL’s first female team president then turned serious.
“No, I was very glad to see that. I think it’s a long time coming,” Pegula said. “That’s going to have staying power.”
Wickenheiser was amused when informed of Pegula’s initial reaction, hoping other teams such as the Sabres will follow the Maple Leafs in breaking hockey’s glass ceiling.
“Well, that’s a good thing,” said Wickenheiser, a fivetime Olympian and one of the most accomplished women in hockey. “I don’t see why we won’t see women in other positions like this in the near future.”
The Maple Leafs also added Noelle Needham as an amateur scout — only the third woman to hold such a job in league history — in another move buttressing the idea that the NHL is making progress in welcoming women to key roles.
“I think respect, courage, getting over tradition, being brave enough to think outside the box is what took so long,” Wickenheiser said.
“Hockey’s a very traditional game, very old school in a lot of ways. And the new generation of leadership doesn’t think the same way as the old school did,” she added. “It’s just an evolution of where we’re at as a society.”
Pegula, who with her husband Terry also own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, took over the president’s title of both teams in May after Russ Brandon resigned over an alleged inappropriate relationship with a female employee. Rather than hire a new president with both teams breaking in new coaches and general managers, Pegula took over to provide stability.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has stressed the importance of encouraging diversity in a league he says has a fanbase almost evenly split between the sexes.
“We want our clubs and our league to hire the most qualified people. But we want to consider applicants with every sort of background,” Bettman told Associated Press.
“Having the resource of lots of different people with lots of different backgrounds and experience is only going to make the game stronger.”
Wickenheiser has long criticized the NHL’s lack of diversity, especially compared to North America’s other major professional sports.
Dawn Braid was pro hockey’s first full-time female assistant in being hired as the Arizona Coyotes skating coach in 2016.
The NBA now features two female assistant coaches, including Becky Hammon, who interviewed for the Milwaukee Bucks head coach vacancy in spring. In the NFL, Pegula’s Bills were the first to hire a full-time female assistant, Kathryn Smith, in 2016, and in August appointed Phoebe Schecter to a coaching internship.
Finally, the NHL is catching up, with Wickenheiser saying: “If you’re only hiring white men, you’re probably missing out on a lot of talent that’s out there.”
Wickenheiser’s qualifications are impressive. The 40-year-old, who retired in January 2017, won four Olympic gold medals and a silver, and is the Winter Games’ career leader with 18 goals and 51 points.
She jumped at general manager Kyle Dubas’ offer to mentor Leafs prospects, but says she feels added pressure to succeed.
Wickenheiser foresees opportunities opening up on numerous fronts for women, from officiating to coaching.
“Yeah, anything’s possible,” she said, before breaking into a laugh when asked about her next step. “Honestly, I have given that zero thought. I’m just trying to get through today.”