Women’s walkout could end careers

Non-stars will probably suffer most from drive for better-run league

For some women hockey players, the price for demanding a professional league that pays could be not getting a chance to play in it. About 200 women vow to not play in any North American league next season until they get the league they want.

What comes next could come too late or not have room for some of them.

The six-team Canadian Women’s Hockey League officially ceased operations May 1. The U.S.-based NWHL then announced its intention to expand to Toronto and Montreal and become a seven-team league, but the women refuse to play in that league because they don’t like its long-term financial prospects. The CWHL featured stars such as American forwards Hilary Knight, Brianna Decker, Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin and Finland goaltender Noora Raty. They’re among those agitating for a living wage to play hockey in one strong, marketable, professional league in North America.

For however long the protest lasts, national-team players will get on the ice for camps, games and tournaments via their country’s respective hockey federations. The Canadian women, for example, participate in regular skills sessions with regional coaches paid for by Hockey Canada.

But more than half the players in the CWHL were not on a national team.

Women pursued professional careers, worked full-time jobs and started a family while trying to train and practise enough to compete with and against the likes of Knight, Decker, Poulin and Raty.

For some in the rank and file, the collective movement they’re participating in will accelerate the end of their playing careers.

“When the league folded, my immediate reaction was, ‘Did I just play my last competitive game?’ ” said Melanie Desrochers, a Les Canadiennes de Montreal defender.

“I could play hockey again, but you’re never going to compete at that level in a beer league.”

The 27-year-old from Welland has a master's degree in neuroscience and is a clinical sales representative for a surgical robot company.

Any new women’s league that started out with a handful of teams would have both national-team players and college and university graduates competing for jobs.

The longer Desrochers is out of the game, the harder it becomes to play in the league she envisions.

“You could say that what’s at stake is ‘am I ever going to play again at that level?’ ” Desrochers said. “A lot of us are in that situation.”

But it will be worth it, she said, if they get the league they want.

“I personally decided to participate because I see the importance of growing something bigger,” Desrochers said. “If I’m not necessarily part of it as a player next season or the one after, I’ve accepted that.”

Markham Thunder goaltender Liz Knox is a contractor pursuing a career as a firefighter.

A typical Thursday prior to the CWHL’s demise started at 5 a.m. and ended at midnight as she worked her shift, took firefighting classes and squeezed in a late-evening practice.

“In five years, I don’t want somebody to be doing this,” Knox said.