The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is perhaps the first women’s hockey league to treat its players as true professionals, say its founders.
Six teams make up the PWHL—Minnesota, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston and New York. Only Minnesota plays in an NHL arena (the home of the Minnesota Wild).
All six PWHL clubs are owned by the Mark Walter Group and have in place an eight-year collective-bargaining agreement with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, a players union formed in 2023, shortly after the PWHL bought out and disbanded the old Premier Hockey Federation last July.
Stan Kasten, a member of the four-person advisory group, met with the media, including the MSR, prior to the Minnesota-Montreal game on January 6. He is the president and part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, formerly the Atlanta Hawks GM, and former president of the NHL‘s Atlanta Thrashers, Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals.
Kasten took questions on the new league’s present and future, including such topics as merchandise, team nicknames, NHL involvement, even expansion. But only the MSR asked about diversity on the ice and off it.
The league has its work cut out for it in that regard, admitted Kasten. “That’s a great question. We don’t have a lot of players of color yet.”
Sophie Jacques (Boston), Mikyla Grant-Mantis (Ottawa), Sarah Nurse (Toronto) and Nikki Nightengale (Minnesota) are the PWHL’s only Black players. Among the PWHL League staff, advisory board and seven consultants there are zero Blacks.
“We are inclusive, and we’re going to be more inclusive,” continued Kasten. “As soon as Saroya Tinker resigned, we got her involved immediately. She’s doing broadcasting for us.”
The Canadian-born Black player who retired late last year played college hockey at Yale, played in both the NWHL and the PHF, but went undrafted in the 2023 PWHL draft. She accepted the PWHL Ottawa’s training camp invitation but announced her retirement just before camp opened last November.
“We’re also going to be involved as we have to be with local community programs and street hockey programs in every city,” declared Kasten. “Now we can turn the dial all the right way using our women as a role model.”
Before the record-attendance crowd to ever watch a pro women’s hockey game (13,316), the MSR asked Kasten about the PWHL attracting Black fans to games. We only spotted a few Black attendees who were caught on the arena’s overhead videoboard during the January 6 home opener for the PWHL Minnesota franchise.
Kasten noted that the league must go into “inner city communities” but also warned that any measurable growth among Black hockey fans “won’t happen overnight.”
Before he went to watch the contest, Kasten told the MSR that diversity “is very important to us. All of us with a sports background, I think, have demonstrated a real affinity for diversity because we know not only is it the right thing to do, a smart thing, it is just good business.
“We have a DEI program. Saroya Tinker, who was a great collegiate hockey player, is now leading that effort for us. We’re very proud of our plans for the future,” said Kasten.
“We do have plans. Check in with us in a year or two to see how we’re doing.”