Photo Credit: : Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America
The NHL has long been seen as a men’s world and for the most part it still is, but one woman is looking to change that. She’s not trying to change the NHL, but instead, give women their own league with the NWHL or the National Women’s Hockey League. As the current commissioner and one of the general managers, Dani Rylan is changing the game of hockey for the better.
Rylan is a former hockey player for the Northeastern Huskies women’s team and before she was part of a college team, she was a part of the Metro State men’s hockey team. At Metro State, Rylan earned a degree in broadcasted journalism and also earned a Masters degree in Sports Leadership during her tenure at Northeastern. However, Rylan’s true passion was always about starting a women’s hockey league and women getting as many opportunities as men to play the sport that she loves so much.
Rylan’s first attempt to get a North American Women’s League occurred when she tried to team up with the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, but was rejected. At that point, Rylan decided to take matters into her own hands and created the NWHL in March 2015 and she hasn’t looked back since.
As a league that is less than a year old, the NWHL has already been wildly successful. Currently, there are four teams in the league:Â the Buffalo Beauts, Boston Pride, New York Riveters and Connecticut Whale which are all recognized as professional women’s hockey teams. Rylan also made a decision to use four areas that have a large hockey following and would be supportive of the league, but her biggest focus was on the players.
Even though the league would eventually come to attract some big names, Rylan insisted that all of her players be paid for their work. She was able to create a salary cap for each team of $270,000 along with each player being paid a minimum of $10,000 and “each player can subsidize her salary by getting an additional 15% of the profits from the sale of her jersey,” which helps the players out. The league also provides all of the equipment for the players. It doesn’t look like the NWHL will be on the lookout for money anytime soon though since they signed a TV contract with ESPN to broadcast their games on ESPN3 and an endorsement deal with Dunkin Donuts.
It does not appear that the NWHL will be ending anytime soon as Rylan has confirmed that there will be a second season after all of their success. She seems thrilled at the possibility of what the league can do for her players and for all female hockey players and is eager to add more teams, “We may have 10. We’ll see how successful we are. There are definitely a lot of viable hockey markets, not only in the U.S. but in Canada as well.” Rylan discussed the league in a post on Player’s Tribune and is showing exactly why women deserve a league as much as men do.
