Five Events Where Men's And Women's Hockey Could Collaborate

With the launch of the new professional women's hockey league, collaboration with the NHL is likely. Here's five events the two leagues could combine to grow.

There has been much talk of NHL involvement in the new professional women's hockey league since the acquisition of the PHF was announced by the Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises.

While the full extent of partnership between the new professional league and the NHL remains unknown, the groups continue discussions, and it's likely mutual initiatives will soon come to light. 

There are several logical opportunities to showcase the global talent of men's and women's hockey side by side. Here's a look at five events that could become collaborative.

It's the most logical, because it's already been happening, but with a single professional women's hockey league, All-Star weekend could become a larger scale event featuring full games and skills competition involvement for both men and women. When Kendall Coyne Schofield finished the fastest skater competition above NHL stars in 2019, NHL fans took notice, and combined events could become the norm. The 2024 NHL All-Star game is scheduled for February 3 in Toronto, which may be a rapid timeline for inclusion given the professional women's hockey league will begin their inaugural season only weeks before, but league involvement, whether it be a neutral site regular season game, or all-star events as outlined in the PWHL's collective bargaining agreement could be coupled between the leagues.

The NHL and NHLPA announced August 23 they would be working "to create an international competition to be held in February 2025 with the intention of beginning a regular rotation of Olympic participation and a World Cup of Hockey in the even years to follow."

The IIHF stated earlier this year that a women's World Cup of Hockey was something the organization was looking into, and with the core of elite men's and women's professional hockey players now becoming centralized in North America, combining men's and women's competition at the new event could become a topic for discussion.

Currently, the NHL and NHLPA are not planning to launch any new international competition until 2025 in part due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding NHL players from Russia and Belarus who remain banned from international competition by both the IIHF and IOC. 

NHL fans will admit, the allure of the Winter Classic and other outdoor games has become less novel than it once was, but that's not the case for professional women's hockey. There have been outdoor games involved the PHF and NCAA in recent seasons, but none to the scale of the NHL's Stadium Series, which will be held this year at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, home to the NFL's New York Jets and New York Giants.

The 82,500 seat stadium will host NHL games involving the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, and Philadelphia Flyers February 17 and 18. The events are another logical connection between the NHL and new league to produce a combined PWHL Stadium Series alongside the NHL.

The NHL Winter Classic is scheduled for January 1 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and could become another collaborative event, although not in time for this season.

The NHL is taking place in two iterations of the Global Series this year sending players to compete in Australia in September and Sweden in November. The Swedish series to be held at in Stockholm featuring the Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa Senators, and Toronto Maple Leafs, could be mimicked or coupled in the future between the leagues. 

In Europe, women's hockey continues to grow in Sweden's SDHL, Finland's Naisten Liiga, Switzerland's SWHL, and the six-nation EWHL. The attendance at the World Championship D1A tournament in China also speaks to the large Asian market for women's hockey. 

In order to showcase the new league to European players, a European tour or series would make a lot of sense for the new league.

This year's professional women's hockey league draft will look different and be held just prior to teams being formed due to timelines, but that's not to say the NHL and PWHL can't collaborate on future drafts showcasing the best young players in the world in both men's and women's hockey at the same time. This year, seeing Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, and Leo Carlsson standing alongside Taylor Heise, Alina Muller, and Sophie Jacques would have been an incredible opportunity to promote the sport globally.

Whether the women's draft happens on the same weekend, or earlier in the week alongside the other festivities that happen each year, it would be a win for many reasons, particularly leveraging the collection of hockey media that descend on the draft each year.