After approving an expansion last April after the CWHL suddenly folded, John Wawrow reported on Tuesday an NWHL expansion being built in Toronto. This was told to The Associated Press by a person with direct knowledge of the NWHL’s plans.
This is not the first time that conversation around expansion has surfaced as last it did, Toronto was in the mix with the Markham Thunder and Les Canadiennes. That was first reported by Hailey Salvian of The Athletic Ottawa.
According to John Wawrow’s report, the Toronto hockey club will be managed by Margaret Murphy from Brown University. As Wawrow goes on to mention, the former NCAA head coach has already started building a roster of players. Wawrow learnt on condition of anonymity as the league isn’t expected to announce its plans to expand until the end of April.
When contacted for further comment, NWHL spokesman Chris Botta declined, only briefly saying, “The NWHL does not have announcement to make at this time.”
If this were to be completed, it would be the league’s first in Canada, also bringing the league’s total to six. In that, they would add to a mix which currently consists of the Boston Pride, Connecticut Whale, Minnesota Whitecaps, Metropolitan Riveters and Buffalo Beauts.
After their first attempt failed, the PWHPA was founded in May, an organization that has seen 200 of the game’s best players embark on the Dream Gap Tour. Prior to that, majority of those players could be found playing in the CWHL. Unfortunately, after 12 years, the women’s league closed back on March 31st.
Jayna Hefford made the difficult decision while citing the league was financially unsustainable. That, in part, led to the founding of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association.
Now at the end of their first season, Renata Fast, a Canadian Olympian, recently mentioned that the PWHPA will have “a lot more stops” in year two next season. Of course, this being the case if and when hockey is able to continue.
When speaking of their goals on HANIC, a weekly conference run by Meghan Chayka, the Burlington native said about their objective, “We want our game to be visible and we want to show what we have to the world.”
The PWHPA first came about after 200 players agreed to sit out the season. That being at least by pro standards, standing side-by-side speaking out for viability. Majority of the PA’s players are currently members of the National Women’s Team’s for USA Hockey and Hockey Canada respectively. Founded to demand equal structure, the PWHPA set out in May to establish a league with a sustainable, long-term economic model.
Back to the NWHL, the league, which operates out of Brooklyn, was first established in 2015 as startup venture by Dani Rylan. Now, as cited by Wawrow, it’s backed by private investors, becoming the first women’s league in North America’s to pay its players a salary. The CWHL, now extinct, was paying its players, staff and coaches stipends of cash before losing their donor.
With the league now setting out to open a franchise in the GTA, Fran Rider, who is the president of the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association, told John Wawrow and The Associated Press that she has been in contact with the NWHL. Why the two sides have engaged has been deemed unclear at the time of writing.
The Ontario Women’s Hockey Association, as explained by John Wawrow, oversees the women’s sport in the province by providing sanctioning rights to teams and leagues, in part for insurance purposes. Further to that effect, a club does not have to be sanctioned by the OWHA in order to participate.
Speaking of the province of Ontario, it’s unclear at the time of writing where in Toronto the team would compete. That essentially brings us full circle as we turn back to the PWHPA. Further to that regard, Wawrow added on Tuesday evening that Jayna Hefford said she was aware of the league’s expansion bid and thus, would welcome it. She would welcome it despite the fact that it doesn’t fit the goals of the PWHPA.
When discussing this to greater lengths, the operations consultant said, “We think this is an opportunity that’s going to be provided for some women to play hockey at that level. But it’s not the opportunity that we’re looking to provide and the professional league that we want to create.”
Because the NWHL is mainly based in the United States, it presents a secondary challenge aside from where it is the team would be playing. As such, this begs the question as to what coverage players would be getting. This is amongst the concerns as the team from Toronto would hit the ice at least half of the season in the United States. As such, the healthcare laws vary between that of Canada and what’s offered in the U.S.
Further building on the expansion team, the Toronto franchise would be mainly supported by Miles Arnone of Cannon Capital. Taking a look back to September, Arnone purchased the Boston Pride, this making the club the one privately owned.
That of course became the case after Pegula Sports and Entertainment returned control of the Beauts to the league. As well, the Metropolitan Riveters used to be partnered with the New Jersey Devils.
Joining Miles Arnone in backing the team is Johanna Boynton. Boynton was a two-time captain of the Harvard Crimson in the 1980’s. She joins the NWHL’s venture while still a longtime supporter of women’s hockey. Today, she is the CEO and co-founder of Boynton Brennan Builders in Boston.
Along with the new team’s ownership, a new head coach was appointed as well. Bringing on Margaret Murphy, they find a wealth of coaching experience. Known through the sports world as “digit”, Murphy coached at Brown University for 18 years, winning 318 games. Given her tremendous success, Murphy would later find herself enshrined in history with an NCAA women’s ice hockey record.
Once those days came to an end, Murphy joined the CWHL, being named as GM and head coach of the Blades. She would hold that same post for three seasons before leaving the franchise to tackle a new challenge. In that, she found the Kunlun Red Star, the newest expansion team based out of China. She coached the club in Shenzhen for one season before heading Team China internationally as well.
After taking two years off, Murphy finds herself on the bench again, doing so this time with the league’s new expansion team. As per Marisa Ingemi, three former CWHL players have signed with the impending NWHL team in Toronto. She also goes on to mention that several more players are currently in contract talks. An announcement to unveil those players is set to be made in the next few weeks.
As Hailey Salvian of The Athletic reports, at least two former PWHPA members have decided to join the Toronto expansion team. As she goes on to mention, both are non-national team members joining the league from the GTA chapter.
With Digit Murphy active, embracing her role on the team early on, Salvian adds with regards to recruiting that she is tapping into those rosters, among others. Keeping that in mind, as reported by Marisa Ingemi, at the end of the NWHL season, at least three players had left the PWHPA. It is believed that Lisa Chesson is one of them as she returns to Buffalo, re-signing with the Beauts.
Closer to the end of the season, Jordan Juron left the PWHPA to fill a void on the Boston Pride. As pointed out by Hailey Salvian, there, she joined Mallory Souliotis who left the PA to sign with Boston in June.
Although large chunks of the world are currently quarantined due to coronavirus, it clearly didn’t stop the league who are obviously busy, getting out in front of it. Before we look ahead to next season, there’s one last order of business to be had as the Isobel Cup has not yet been played for, thus the NWHL season is not yet complete. The championship game was postponed after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. The Whitecaps were to take on the Pride in the winner takes all back on March 13th.
For now, it will remain on hold until told so otherwise by public health experts. At that point, commissioner Dani Rylan and the board will convene to take the next step forward.