Women’s players hope event aids cause
Annie Pankowski got an email from the NHL asking if she’d like to be a part of its AllStar Weekend and jumped at the opportunity.
Then she found wouldn’t be alone.
A year after U.S. teammate Kendall Coyne Schofield grabbed the spotlight by becoming the first woman to take part in the fastest skater event, she and Pankowski will be among the 20 women’s hockey players participating in a 3-on-3 game during the NHL All-Star Skills Competition on Friday night.
It’s the NHL’s biggest showcase of women’s hockey thus far, though it’s still unclear what it means for the future of the sport.
“Everything we do all the time is to build women’s hockey,” Pankowski said Thursday. “We’re excited to be here and (have this) showcase. It’s going to be great for women’s hockey in general, great for visibility.”
The NHL invited 19 players who are part of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association — and Alex Carpenter, who’s playing in China — in large part because they’re some of the top U.S. and Canadian national team players.
But it has also been careful not to choose sides in the ongoing stalemate between the PWHPA and the National Women’s Hockey League, whose members pledged to boycott in an attempt to force a move toward a more sustainable league that pays players enough to make a living.
Players are being paid to be a part of All-Star festivities, and there’s hope that including them in a marquee NHL event advances women’s hockey.
“We’re honored and delighted to have them participating because I believe that our platform shines an even greater light on them,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said.
The U.S. will face Canada in a 20-minute 3-on-3 game, and two players will join NHL counterparts in a new event shooting pucks from the stands at targets on the ice. But after the likes of Hilary Knight, Amanda Kessel and Marie-Philip Poulin leave St. Louis, the challenge continues to map out what women’s hockey will look like in the years and decades ahead.
Some in the women’s hockey community would like the NHL to start its own league, like the NBA did with the WNBA. The NHL has said repeatedly it would not interfere while a league currently exists, and officials say AllStar Weekend isn’t evidence of choosing the PWHPA over the NWHL. out she