Bruins take Pride in women’s game
The Bruins announced a partnership with the NWHL’s Boston Pride yesterday, following the lead of three other NHL franchises. The Pride have played their home games at the Bruins practice facility, Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton, for 2½ seasons. Prior to that, they played at Harvard’s Bright-Landry Rink. While the financial component of the agreement won’t be made public, when asked about the costs of the Pride playing at Warrior, NWHL deputy commissioner Hayley Moore said there is a financial commitment from the Bruins. “The big premise is to take a larger step in committing to the game at every level,” she said. “We’ve been able to partner with the Bruins on different initiatives . . . . I think this has been the next big step in that movement. For both of is, it’s our commitment on growing the game, and growing the women’s game that we’re excited about elevating to the next level.” Team president Cam Neely confirmed the Bruins would be assisting in ice time at Warrior as a part of the financial commitment. Pride salaries won’t be raised, just as those of the Buffalo Beauts weren’t when the Sabres organization purchased that NWHL franchise a season ago. The NWHL salary cap for teams is $100,000, and any changes have to be approved by the league. The Beauts are the only team with external ownership. “The (NHL) as a whole has helped with women’s hockey,” Neely said. “There’s the two leagues, ideally they’d have one league. But for us, it made sense to work more with the Pride.” The only NWHL team without NHL backing is the Connecticut Whale, located in Stamford. The Metropolitan Riveters are partnered with the New Jersey Devils and Minnesota Whitecaps with the Wild. “We looked at our previous NHL deals in our discussions with the Bruins,” said NWHL commissioner Dani Rylan. “We looked to those first three deals to help structure this fourth one.” The Pride won the inaugural Isobel Cup in 2015-16 before losing to Buffalo in the title game the next season. They lost to Buffalo in the semifinals a season ago, and are currently in first place in the standings. While the league does not make attendance numbers public, Warrior holds roughly 1,200 fans and the Pride have consistently drawn standing room only crowds there. “There’s going to be continued support on the promotional and marketing side,” said Rylan. “That’s expected.” There’s been an expressed hesitance for the Bruins to “take sides” by partnering with either the Pride or the Worcester Blades of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. Given it is the Blades’ first season out of Boston, it likely made the decision to pair up with a pro women’s hockey team in town a bit easier. “It’s been an ongoing process on both sides,” Moore said. “There’s a lot of opportunity to work together. As that relationship has continued to grow, it just made sense to formalize things.” The Pride host the Whitecaps tomorrow night, when the Bruins will have a presence, and they’ll make a concerted effort to be involved in the team’s final three home games of the regular season. Part of the partnership involves the Bruins sharing Pride content and promoting their games on their various digital platforms and at Bruins home games. “We’re very supportive of the women’s game,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said at the Jan. 1 Winter Classic in South Bend, Ind. “We’re not looking to start a third league, so we’re going to wait to see how things play out (between the NWHL and CWHL). At the right time, we might get involved. But the circumstances would have to change from where they are now. And we are involved to some extent now, including some financial support.” For the Bruins, it was the same dilemma. “We certainly didn’t want to have to pick one over the other,” Neely said. “It’s tough to work with both though we did do some things with both teams. It made it a little bit easier just to focus on the Pride right now.” Rylan didn’t rule out the Pride playing a game at the Garden, but said it wouldn’t happen this season. Buffalo and Metropolitan have played at their respective NHL team’s rinks this season. Neely expressed interest in the Bruins and Pride playing a doubleheader.