Why women's pro hockey keeps flopping

Canada’s national women’s hockey team are Olympic Champions, the best in the world! In the leadup to the 2022 Winter Olympics, the team played a tune-up series against Junior A boy’s teams. They lost every one. Here’s the CBC story on the best women’s hockey team in the world losing 8-0 to the Drumheller Dragons. CBC has floated a barrage of happy stories on the new PWHL in recent weeks. A few rich men have decided it’s time for women’s hockey to take its place in the spotlight, and voila, a women’s professional hockey league is born! I predict that within three years it’ll join every previous women’s professional league in the dustbin of history. Here’s why. First off, the hockey ain’t that great. The top women’s team in the world doesn’t have a chance against elite teenage boys, let alone NHL caliber play. Much is made of the opportunity the PWHL provides young girls to achieve their dream of “playing hockey for a living.” The minimum pay for a PWHL rookie is $35k. You can do better as a shift manager at McDonalds. But if you really, really want to play hockey, I guess this is your ticket. Meanwhile, minimum wage for an NHL rookie is more than twenty times greater at $750k. You won’t make that at McDonalds until you own a few stores! Secondly, there’s a reason women’s hockey is doomed while women’s soccer/football and basketball will flourish. It’s all about the male gaze. When you’re watching women’s soccer, you know you’re watching women. Same with b’ball. The women may be freakishly tall, but everybody can see they’re women. Not so in hockey. Between the knee-pads and elbow-pads and shin-pads and shoulder-pads and a helmet and a cage, it’s hard to tell the difference between a junior boys team and the women’s national team. The only hope for professional women’s hockey is a commitment of unlimited support from the NHL. Given their recent ham-handed attempt to squelch Pride tape for hockey sticks, their commitment to diversity and gender equity may not be something the PWHL can take to the bank. So enjoy those $35k salaries while you can, girls… the happy days won’t last forever.