As part of Women in Sport Week, eight-time world champion and Olympic gold medal winner Hilary Knight explains why more than 200 professional women’s ice hockey players are sitting out the 2019/20 NWHL season to push for a more sustainable league.

Hilary Knight and her USA teammates were preparing to fly to Finland for April’s 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championship when the phone rang. With suitcases packed and equipment in tow, they huddled around as the individual on the other end of the call informed them that the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), one of two professional competitions for female ice hockey players in North America, was folding.

“My initial reaction was that it was heart-breaking,” says Knight, speaking to SportsPro in May. “You think about all the fans and everyone that put in effort – the current players, former players. It’s a bummer that it’s folded, but at the same time I think it’s opened the door for other opportunities to come forward and hopefully we can build a more sustainable future together.”

As it happened, the USA would still leave Finland with their ninth world title, beating the hosts in a shootout in the final. Yet they returned home facing a much more uncertain future. Within weeks, using the hashtag #ForTheGame, Knight and more than 200 of the world’s top female ice hockey players had announced that they would not be participating in the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) in 2019 - or any professional competition in North America, for that matter - in a call to arms to address the current state of the sport.

“I don’t want to use the word ‘boycott’ by any means, because I think that’s the wrong label to it,” says Knight, who played for the CWHL’s Les Canadiennes de Montréal in 2018. “We’re a group of high-quality, elite talented players that have platforms off the ice, have tremendous success on the ice, and we just want something that’s sustainable and viable.”

We may represent different teams, leagues and countries but collectively we stand as one. #ForTheGame pic.twitter.com/O9MOOL8YOt — Hilary Knight (@HilaryKnight) May 2, 2019

For those that might be less familiar with Knight, the 30-year-old boasts a record to rival that of any athlete competing in a team sport around the world. Now an eight-time world championship winner, she added a previously elusive Winter Olympics gold to her honour roll in PyeongChang in 2018. On top of that, Knight has picked up countless individual accolades at college, club and international level, including the CWHL’s most outstanding player award in 2013 and tournament MVP at the 2015 world championships.

More pertinent to this discussion, though, is that Knight has also been christened by US media as the face of women’s ice hockey in the country, an unofficial position of authority she has used to draw attention to the insufficient salaries and benefits afforded to professional female players.

The NWHL’s salary cap was cut in 2016 after its inaugural season from US$270,000 to US$100,000 per team, with each player being paid a minimum of US$2,500. In contrast, Connor McDavid alone was paid a reported US$15 million by the Edmonton Oilers during the 2018/19 National Hockey League (NHL) season.

We attached the word ‘professional’ to the CWHL and NWHL for years now and, to be honest, I don’t think it’s professional whatsoever.

Comparing the five-team NWHL – where most players do not earn a living wage and, in many cases, must hold down second jobs - with its male equivalent is admittedly reductive given the stark difference in the revenues generated by the two leagues. For Knight, however, it at least demonstrates that the existing options for female ice hockey players in North America can be described as ‘professional’ in only the loosest sense of the word.

“We attached the word ‘professional’ to the CWHL and NWHL for years now and, to be honest, I don’t think it’s professional whatsoever,” she says. “I think what provides the professionalism is the volunteers and the way that the athletes and the coaching staff approach the way that they see the game and they want to see the game and want to bring it to the next level.

“But then there’s realising that when we were talking about a professional league, living off a couple thousand dollars, and not having healthcare and all these other ancillary issues, there’s nothing professional about that. So I think that’s where the disingenuousness we felt as a group came from.

Hilary Knight (right) and Kendall Coyne-Schofield celebrate winning gold at last year's Winter Olympics in PyeongChang

“If you pull back the curtain it’s really bare bones, and yes it gave us a place to play and we’re grateful for that, but there wasn’t a grander vision to grow and there was no growth model. That’s why you can compare it to the guys, but really it’s a zero to 100 per cent comparison. You think about how they are able to wake up, go out there and do the sport that they love and it’s become their job, I think that’s something we aim to replicate.

“Granted it’s going to take us many years, we’re not saying we want the same salaries right now by any means, but that’s something that we want to grow to.”

In response to May’s announcement, the NWHL moved quickly to confirm that it is still working towards a start date of October for its 2019/20 season, when it will be offering increased salaries and a 50-50 revenue split from sponsorships and media rights deals.

Knight, though, is in no mood to pull punches. She is adamant that the NWHL – which does not disclose its budget or revenue – is not the solution, and that papering over the cracks in the short term will do no good for the longevity of the sport.

“No, I don’t think it’s sustainable, I don’t think it’s a viable option, and that’s why there are 200-plus women in the world willing to forego playing in it to build something better,” she asserts.

“When I say that, we’re not out there looking to destroy anything – we’re just looking to build. We have a grander vision of what the sport should look like, not only from a players’ perspective, but also the needs of future generations. So I think that’s where the intent is, to really build and cultivate the best group of women to be able to go and do that.”

Knight (second from left) speaking alongside her USA teammates at the espnW Summit in October

Despite the absence of some of its most recognisable names - including the likes of Kendall Coyne-Schofield, who this year became the first woman to compete in the NHL All-Star skills competition - the NWHL has been able to retain some of its top talent such as Madison Packer, the joint top scorer in the league’s history, who committed her future to the Metropolitan Rivers in May.

Indeed, not everyone is behind the decision of Knight and her peers to leave the NWHL behind. Critics argue that this year did, in fact, offer an opportunity to showcase the world’s female ice hockey stars on one stage. Packer herself has said publicly that she is not entirely clear as to what the group of players absent from this year’s competition are trying to achieve. Meanwhile Anya Battaglino, the NWHL Players Association director, warned in an official statement that the #ForTheGame movement would actually set women’s ice hockey ‘backward’.

Knight is keen to point out, however, that this mission transcends the existence of just one organisation, and is about creating a better platform for female ice hockey players at every level of the sport.

“I think a lot of the criticism has come from: ‘you have built up this phenomenal momentum in the sport and you’re going to lose that’, but I’d argue against that passionately,” she declares. “I think this opens up an opportunity for us to take our traditional game and flip it sort of on its head for a season.

We have a grander vision of what the sport should look like, not only from a players’ perspective, but also the needs of future generations.

“We’re going to go about this creatively, we’re going to continue the momentum and we’re going to create awesome content. We’re going to be in other cities which might not necessarily have seen professional or at least calibre professional hockey before, and we’re just going to make it work this year.”

Knight admits that details are still being ironed out as to exactly what that day-to-day operation will look like, but adds that there are “many different partners” and “a lot of sponsors” that want to be involved.

“Sponsors and partners are critical to not only our individual success but our sport’s success”, asserts Knight, who herself has worked with Red Bull to create content shining a light on women’s ice hockey. “That’s something when I’m talking to the company and figuring out if we want to work together and if our values align: can I take women’s hockey to the next level? Can I increase visibility? If the answer is yes, then I think we’re in a good working format.”

Straightening out a lot of the logistics for the next 12 months will no doubt also fall to the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), a new union formed in May to help coordinate training needs and develop sponsor support for those sitting out this season. That organisation launched echoing many of the sentiments that Knight and her fellow players have already trumpeted, but perhaps most notable was that it drove home the need to create better programmes for young girls looking to get into the sport.

“Don’t get me wrong,” says Knight, "it’s going to be great for us whatever we decide to build and partner with or sponsors and whatnot. But really the benefactors are the girls that are growing up now so they have a career path. It’s going to do great for many different reasons, but I think just the fact that more people are going to get involved with the sport and you’ll have more girls active and healthy and athletic is awesome.”

What will be most important, though, is that those taking up the sport have a pinnacle to aim for. The NWHL itself has said it is open to discussing the possibility of forming a new professional league should the right backers come forward, stating that it will ‘always do what’s best for the game’, even if that were to mean helping to establish a new organisation. However, that particular promise was accompanied by an admission that the NWHL has not yet held discussions with any investors it believes have the necessary funds to create a more sustainable alternative.

Some within the game have argued that the best-case scenario would be for the NHL to step in and create a new women’s league based on the model of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), which has a formal relationship with, and is essentially bankrolled by, its male counterpart. Despite not owning a controlling stake in any professional women’s league, the NHL contributed US$50,000 to both the NWHL and CWHL last season but made no further commitments.

Knight looks on during a visit to the NHL headquarters in March last year

The NHL’s expertise would undoubtedly be invaluable in terms of sourcing sponsorships and broadcast deals, as well as helping to grow attendances, but commissioner Gary Bettman has said that he is not interested in running a women’s league while one still operates. That position was reasserted by deputy commissioner Bill Daly earlier this year, when he noted that the NWHL remains “an existing league with an existing organisation and business plan”, adding that the NHL “do not intend to interfere with their business or their objectives”.

“I think that’s a question for NHL,” says Knight, when asked whether #ForTheGame might stir the men’s organisation into action. “I don’t work for them. I think as a kid you grow up and you watch the NHL and you want to be a part of the NHL. I don’t think that’s ever changed, but in terms of what they’ve done for women’s hockey, I know their support has been extremely generous so far without even having a major stake in either league, and also their support from the grassroots level and the national team has been great, but that’s definitely a question for them.

“I can only emphasise that the future looks extremely bright for our sport, and I’m really excited about opportunities to come, whatever those look like.”

We’re going to go about this creatively, we’re going to continue the momentum and we’re going to create awesome content.

Whatever the outcome of the next year or so might be, Knight says she is prepared to take a stand for as long as it takes. There is no guarantee that the next 12 months will inspire change, nor that a pot of gold will appear at the end of it. Having someone of Knight’s stature and visibility will help, but it is the power of the collective that the American believes will really make people sit up and take notice.

“I think that’s what’s really special about our group is sort of this selflessness,” she explains. “It’s not going to be easy, this year’s going to be extremely difficult. It’s going to be fun and exciting but there is some nervousness and some anxiousness because you want to be able to play the sport that you love – now we’re going to have to put together our own structure to be able to do it.

“To have 200-plus powerful women in the world say we’re going to forego this season to build something better I think that just speaks to the character and the quality of individuals that we have involved.

“You go about this for many years and you get out of college and you’re really excited and then you realise that the sport’s not where you thought it was, and a couple years down the line you realise: ‘if I don’t change it then who’s going to change it?’ Luckily we’ve got the right group now to do it.”

Yet women’s ice hockey players are not the only female athletes calling for change. Gender inequality in sport has been thrust under the microscope in recent times, and nowhere more so than in North America, where the Fifa Women’s World Cup-winning US national soccer team have been taking on their own federation in a quest for equal pay and working conditions.

And like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and many of the other female athletes currently driving women’s sport forward, there is a stoic determination about Knight that certainly resonates.

Knight believes the future looks "extremely bright" for women's ice hockey

“It’s important to maintain that visibility and continue to have these conversations and the dialogue and have people chime in,” she says. “I know people will say women’s sport doesn’t sell enough tickets and comments like that. You can’t combat each one individually but I think our success in the long run is going to silence that backlash for sure.

“This is a difficult sport because it’s not very often that you show up at a rink and you have to plan to be able to play, and it requires a lot of sacrifices from the family, whether that’s financial or time. But once these opportunities truly present themselves and become more readily available and more diverse I think we’re going to see the sport get to new heights that it’s never seen before.

“Part of that is developing other countries at an international level, but if that trickles down it’s going to help the grassroots development as well. So we’re trying to create that vision so people can see it, buy into it and invest in it – but also sign up for it and be a part of it.”