PWHL Pre-Season Leadership Media Notebook

The PWHL’s Jayna Hefford and Amy Scheer, the Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations and Senior Vice President of Business Operations respectively, spoke to members of the media on Tuesday to address questions prior to the start of the league’s second season.

The Hall of Famer Jayna Hefford led off with things she was looking forward to about the PWHL’s second season, citing the number of games increasing from 24 to 30 per team and giving new people the opportunity to see games as the league travels to nine neutral sites. She mentioned new initiatives that the league has introduced, from the PWHL’s first ever officials camp in Denver, to expanded grassroots programming such as camps and clinics within team markets, to improving the player experience with things like new travel arrangements and new mental health resources. 

Broadcast

Amy Scheer highlighted the league’s expanded partnerships with CBC and TSN alongside the addition of Amazon Prime as a partner in Canada. She also shared that the league has just finalized agreements with season one partners MSG and NESN to broadcast in America, and that YouTube will continue to be a partner in the US and internationally.

In response to a question from Tyler Kuehl of the Daily Faceoff regarding the hurdles to achieving a national broadcast in the US, Scheer added, “There are some national partners that would be willing to carry our teams today, and there are some national partners that feel we need to grow beyond the current markets that we’re in.”

Expansion

There were a number of questions about the much-hyped league expansion introduced by Scheer at the espnW summit last month. Scheer clarified that the proposed two-team expansion in the 2025-26 season is not guaranteed:  “We may add two teams, we may add zero. I think the goal is to expand at the rate in which the talent of hockey can support… The most important thing is to never compromise the quality of the play on the ice.” She declined to confirm discussion on expansion teams taking place with any particular cities, saying, “We are speaking with multiple cities across both countries and would like to keep those conversations private.”

Takeover Tour

Along the same lines as her comments regarding the evaluation of the reported 25 expansion proposals the league has received from interested cities, Scheer had this to say about the selection of locations for neutral site games: “We’re pretty picky about where we want to go and where we want to play. The good news is there’s more cities that want us than we have the ability to go to today.” She emphasized the connections the league will be fostering with local communities, saying they will be hosting a community event in every Tour city.

When asked by Michaela Schreiter of She's Got Game if the Seattle Takeover Tour stop would feature collaborations with the Seattle Storm or Seattle Reign FC, Scheer laughed. “I just sent the [Climate Pledge Arena] building manager a note this morning… We hope to do some collaborations with them… they both do a great job with their teams there and we’d love to collaborate with them in every possible way.”

Rule Changes

Hefford clarified some of the rule changes that have been streamlined for the upcoming season, in response to a question from Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun. The body contact rules have been adjusted to make explicit that contact is allowed between players traveling in similar directions while attempting to play the puck, and ruling out open ice hits between players traveling in opposite directions where the aim is not to play the puck. She also emphasized that using the boards for contact was in line with the style of play last season, and the rule adjustments bring that intention into focus. 

Other Subjects

After a question from Jerry Zgoda of the Minnesota Star Tribune, Hefford declined to provide comment on whether the controversial firing of Minnesota GM Natalie Darwitz has led to intended improvements for the Frost, saying, “We’re really confident with the staff and the players in place right now.”

Hefford answered several questions about the impact of the league and its meaning in the landscape of women’s sports in the past, present, and future. In response to a question from Bianca Hillier of the World Radio Show on the rise of the PWHL, the Northern Super League, and the WNBA going to Toronto, Hefford spoke on the growth of women’s sports in Canada and how they feed off each other: “I think for us in Canada we’ve had to watch on the sidelines with the evolution of the WNBA and the NWSL, and it was hard to believe in 2023 that we didn’t have professional women’s sports here. So to be able to launch as the first league and the first professional team in Canada was pretty great, but now to be able to see the momentum with the WNBA and the NWSL. We have great relationships with both of those groups and just can’t wait to bring women’s sports in a bigger way, specifically here to Toronto and then of course expand across the country.”

Scheer spoke to the significance of teams being added to EASports NHL: “It represents that we’ve made it to the mainstream, that we have a place in the sport ecosystem… and we belong.”