Toronto women wrestle with hard hockey choice
Turning down an offer to play for the NWHL’s Toronto Six was difficult for Kristen Richards.
The 27-year-old Toronto teacher was tempted by a guaranteed spot on a quality women’s hockey team, plus the chance to earn a few thousand dollars.
Refusing that opportunity means Richards will compete against national-team players for inclusion on the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association’s Toronto roster.
Richards illustrated the complexity of the choice for players like her in a letter posted Thursday on her Twitter account.
“I wrote this when I was introduced to the idea of potentially going to the NWHL,” Richards told The Canadian Press. “I didn’t know what my best choice would be. I’m older. I’m in a full-time career.
“I’d love the opportunity to keep playing. The NWHL would give me the opportunity to play and be a big part of a team, versus my role in the PWHPA. The PWHPA is so strong that there’s no guarantee you’re going to make a team next year,” she said.
“What I came to terms with was the idea that there’s more for our game. I feel what the PWHPA is fighting for is more my view on what professionalism is.”
Richards believes there’s room for both entities in the women’s hockey landscape, however.
“What we forget about along the way is any opportunity in women’s sport right now is a good one,” she said. “Why are we women forced to say that we only deserve one league after all of this?”
PWHPA head Jayna Hefford agrees, which is a significant shift away from the “OneLeague” hashtag populating players’ social media posts last year.
“I do think they can coexist,” Hefford said. “The challenge is in the messaging really because it’s not entirely clear that all the top players are part of the PWHPA.”
The biggest names in the women’s game are involved in the PWHPA — Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Marie-Philip Poulin and Natalie Spooner to name a few.
Their goal is a league that pays them enough to be full-time professional players and that offers the same competitive, medical and insurance supports the male pros get.
The U.S.-based NWHL, which ran a 24-game schedule last season, has expanded to Toronto. Some players have been offered contracts between $10,000 and $15,000.
The PWHPA intends to operate groups of 25 players out of five hub cities that include Toronto, Calgary and Montreal. Competition in Toronto will be tight because half of the Canadian team lives in the area.