PWHL Toronto has obvious Canadian connections with a shared GM, head coach, and several players. But questions of a conflict of interest have arisen among other teams and player agents.

PWHL Toronto saw incredible success from day one. The team was assigned Gina Kingsbury, long time Team Canada general manager as their new GM. Kingsbury then hired the coach she's most familiar with, Canadian national team head coach Troy Ryan. 

Prior to the draft, Toronto signed Canadian national team members Blayre Turnbull, Sarah Nurse, and Renata Fast. In the draft, they added Jocelyne Larocque, Emma Maltais and Kristen Campbell with their first three picks. With their fourth pick, Toronto was gifted Natalie Spooner. Spooner received compassionate circumstances approval from the league, and league evaluators deemed Spooner was a fourth round pick.

Few question the professionalism and ethics of Troy Ryan or Gina Kingsbury. Many, however, have questioned the blurred lines between where roles with Hockey Canada end and the PWHL begin, and how the inherent knowledge and access to players and information that comes with running Canada's national team have benefitted Toronto.

Those questions intensified this week following Toronto's signings of Daryl Watts and Emma Woods, but have been ongoing throughout the season.

In May, staff from across the league reached out to The Hockey News with concerns over potential conflicts of interest related to Toronto.

As The Hockey News first reported on May 11, those concerns surrounded Toronto's ability to leverage information that could be considered a conflict of interest in having access to medical records, fitness testing, and scouting reports collected by Hockey Canada for Team Canada. Toronto's staff obviously utilizes this information for the formation of Team Canada, but that knowledge being transferred to Toronto is the concern from other teams. It was noted at the 2023 Draft that Toronto staff were using laptops with Hockey Canada insignia on them.

PWHL Toronto was the only team prior to the 2024 PWHL Draft to claim they did not have a scouting staff, a point Gina Kingsbury confirmed in pre-draft media availability. Kingsbury stated she scouted NCAA games, and also, while working for Hockey Canada at the IIHF World Championships in Utica, New York, scouted for Toronto.

"I caught a lot of NCAA games, I caught obviously some games at the World Championships this past season, where I changed my hat a little, and took my Hockey Canada hat off and put my Toronto glasses on if you may and then looked at the game from a draft perspective," Kingsbury told media in the days leading up to the 2024 Draft. 

She stated she trusted Toronto's staff enough to go on the road herself and scout, and also used the network of connections she's formed over the years with Canada to advise her Toronto draft strategy.

"I've done probably the majority of the lifting on the scouting side with just being in those rinks," Kingsbury said. "The good thing with my experience as a general manager of the national team, I have a lot of contacts in the NCAA, a lot of coaches that have been part of our program that I trust, that I know they've got a good eye for the game. I've been picking their brain all season long on who they like, who they don't like to play against, who do they think is pro ready, those are the types of questions, dialogues that I always have with them."

Toronto surprised no one at the draft sticking with Hockey Canada connections early choosing national team forward Julia Gosling 6th overall before taking Megan Carter 12th overall. Carter attended Canada's national team Fall selection camp in September.

Concerns intensified on the opening day of PWHL free agency. 

According to sources, on Wednesday, June 8, only two days prior to the opening of free agency, Kingsbury and Hockey Canada sent out invitations for Canada's summer showcase camp. Among the names reportedly on that list, were PWHL forwards Daryl Watts and Emma Woods.

Watts has not attended a Hockey Canada camp since she was invited to camp in 2020-2021, her only invite. The Hockey News wrote in March regarding Watts' worthiness of a roster spot with Team Canada, and it's well documented that Watts herself chose to pull away from the national team program while at Wisconsin. Watts was 12th in league scoring this season with PWHL Ottawa recording 10 goals and 17 points in 24 games. Woods has never been invited to a Hockey Canada camp prior to being summoned for this summer, but has been a consistent pro playing in the CWHL, SDHL, NWHL, PHF, and now PWHL. The 28-year-old had five points in 24 games this season with New York. Neither have represented Canada at the Rivalry Series. 

The timing of the invitations, followed so closely by PWHL Toronto signing both Watts and Woods, the only players to flip teams on the opening day of free agency, raised concerns across the league. While invitations are typically sent out to Hockey Canada players in June, there is no publicly available date this must be complete as Hockey Canada's summer camp typically does not take place until early August. The Hockey News reached out to Hockey Canada seeking clarification on whether a specific deadline exists. Hockey Canada replied, but did not have the information readily available. 

For players in the PWHL, there is a significant financial benefit to being on a national team, as Canadian and American national team players can earn upwards of $100,000 per season for their national team participation.

Multiple league staff, as well as several player agents expressed their concerns to The Hockey News related to a perceived conflict of interest between Hockey Canada and PWHL Toronto. None of the league staff nor player agents who offered their concerns to The Hockey News were willing to be named. 

When asked if the PWHL had a conflict of interest policy, if the league has monitored the situation, and if they had comment regarding concerns over the perceived conflict, the PWHL responded via email saying "The PWHL is committed to operating with the highest integrity and all personnel are dedicated to maintaining exemplary professional and ethical standards. PWHL Hockey Operations thoroughly monitors, reviews, and approves all player signings to ensure full compliance with all relevant policies and procedures."

By definition, a conflict of interest does not need to be real, instead "an apparent conflict of interest is a situation that could be perceived as a conflict of interest by a reasonable observer to exist, whether or not it is the case," and these scenarios are treated the same as a real conflict. If the public or those sufficiently informed believe a conflict could be present, it becomes a "perceived or apparent" conflict "where her official duties appear to be influenced by her private interests."

According to a Toronto Metropolitan University document outlining potential, perceived, and real conflicts of interest, "A perceived conflict of interest occurs when an individual or institution may reasonably be understood as having two competing interests."

While not all potential or even perceived conflicts of interest turn into real conflicts, as TMU's document states, "Mismanaged potential and perceived conflicts of interest, even when they do not turn into real conflicts of interest, may undermine the trust and public confidence" in one's actions.

In this scenario, according to the concerns of league staff and player agents, the potential and perceived conflict of interest occurred in sending Canada's national team invitations only days before free agency opened. Similarly, as brought to the attention of The Hockey News in May, there are concerns over information collected for the purposes of Hockey Canada that could assist, directly or indirectly, in decisions made by PWHL Toronto. It's within the dual roles of Toronto's staff that the perception of conflict has grown.

As the Government of Canada's Panel on Research Ethics stated, dual roles "may create conflicts, undue influences, power imbalances or coercion that could affect relationships with others and affect decision-making procedures."

Many hockey organizations in Canada also have policies related to conflicts of interest, including Hockey Canada. According to the Alliance Hockey's 27.0 Conflict of Interest Policy, "A conflict of interest is a situation in which a person has a private or personal interest sufficient enough to appear to influence the objective exercise of his or her official duties..."

Hockey Canada itself has a history of mismanaging conflicts of interest. In 2021 and 2022, the federal government of Canada raised concerns with Hockey Canada about how the organization's board failed to track or monitor conflicts of interest, and "gave Hockey Canada the lowest grade possible in the category measuring its management of conflict if interests..."

Whether this potential conflict is real or perceived, it has raised concerns among those involved with the league.

What is known about Daryl Watts' signing in Toronto is that she turned down more money from other markets to sign with PWHL Toronto. As well, according to sources, Watts' father Michael, who has served as her agent, asked teams what they could do to help Watts achieve her goal of playing for Canada's national team.

In terms of hiring, conflicts of interest have been well documented as they relate to not only friends and family, but also those who have specific interests in a certain candidate being selected. In this scenario, the athletes were previously assessed and recruited for Hockey Canada positions by the same individuals in charge of negotiating their contracts with Toronto.

As the Government of Canada states in reference to conflicts in hiring, "All individuals involved in hiring processes, including individuals who have access to assessment materials, who provide administrative or managerial assistance or who make hiring decisions should take every possible step to prevent, disclose and resolve any bias and preferential treatment, perceived or real."

Both Watts and Woods however, also have personal ties to Toronto that certainly influenced their personal decisions to return to the city of Toronto. Watts grew up playing for the Toronto Aeros and Mississauga Chiefs, while Woods played south of Toronto in Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo. Both spent the 2022-2023 season with the PHF's Toronto Six winning an Isobel Cup title with the team.

None of the staff or agents who communicated with The Hockey News put any onus on the players in this situation, but rather pointed their concern to the influence of Canadian national team hopes, knowledge related to the Hockey Canada player pool, and timing of invitations with PWHL Toronto's roster moves.