With great disparity between similar calibre players signing vastly different financial terms as PHF rookies, perhaps it's time for the league to look at an entry level contract system.
With great disparity between similar calibre players signing vastly different financial terms as PHF rookies, perhaps it's time for the league to look at an entry level contract system.
With growth comes adaptation. The PHF salary cap grew remarkably over the past two seasons, including a doubling from $750,000 last season to $1.5 million this year. While the league instituted a new minimum salary of $30,000, in order to maintain competitive balance, continued refinement of salary policies will undoubtedly come.
One of those current gaps is in the signing of rookies to the league. Currently, all players are treated as equal free agents. It's a labor friendly idea to attract new talent, but it also risks teams undercutting veteran players to replace them, or to underpay NCAA talent if the player is geographically restricted by extraneous factors, such as completing schooling or family conditions.
In the WNBA, entry level structures are in place. For 2023, an undrafted rookie or third round pick receives $61,682; second round picks receive $64,657; while first round picks are tiered to earn $67,634 (picks 9-12), $70,609 (5-8), and $73,584.
None of those numbers are negotiable.
One issue with these contracts is that they aren't protected by the WNBA's CBA, meaning players only receive money when on the roster. Therefore if a player is released, they're paid only for the portion of the season they played.
In the PHF, no rookie system currently exists, resulting in wildly different compensation for players of similar talent levels. Ultimately, that rests on team discretion, and different tactics from general managers, but instituting new league minimums would also mean less top end contracts, ensuring more players are earning liveable wages.
The lack of salary disclosure by many players in the PHF makes this situation difficult to evaluate, those who did disclose can be used as a case study.
Of the NCAA and USports rookies who signed this year, we know contract values for Emma Seitz ($72,500), Maude Poulin-Labelle ($69,000), Claire Dalton ($65,000), Lexie Adzija ($60,000), and Catherine Skaja ($35,000).
We don't know the more than a dozen other contract values for Alina Muller, Gabrielle David, Sophie Shirley, Theresa Schafzahl, Maggie Flaherty, Claire Butorac, Brooke Bryant, Chloe Aurard, Zoe Boyd, Tatum Amy, Emma Soderberg, Lauren Dabrowski, Noemi Neubauerova, Anneke Linser, Naomi Rogge, Audrey-Anne Veilette, Rosalie Bégin-Cyr, Marika Labrecque, or Emily Rickwood.
Using our limited base, it's difficult to see the significant skill gap between Skaja and her $35,000 contract, to the other known players. Skaja's resume includes two U-18 World Championship gold medals, and she scored 34 points in 35 games for Minnesota last year. Looking at that success compared to the others forwards - Adzija (one bronze, 16 points in 26 games) and Dalton (one bronze, 36 points in 33 games) - the difference hardly justifies a contract more than 40% lower than the others.
Perhaps the biggest issue heading into this offseason was Daryl Watts' league record $150,000 per season contract. That contract was almost certainly used in negotiations by other top NCAA players who did not disclose their salary, and could be the reason the league has yet been unable to attract last year's Patty Kazmaier winner Sophie Jacques, who would undoubtedly be looking at that contract as a comparable. Similarly, a few top NCAA grads who have been on the USA national team reported being offered lowball offers.
In the WNBA, the minimum salary is roughly the same as the rookie minimum. The PHF's minimum salary of $30,000 could not be the baseline for NCAA players, and therein rests the issue. Graduating NCAA players considering career pathways would be tempted to take non-hockey jobs paying considerably more than $30,000 per year, a salary that is still not liveable in any major city, unless players have family they can live with rent-free, or if they take on a second job.
Using the players we know this season as NCAA signees, perhaps teams could take a range between Emma Seitz and Claire Dalton's contracts as the top tier $65,000-$72,500. A mid-range of $57,500 to $64,999, and a lower range of $50,000-$64,999 could be a start, but it would also create other issues. Setting limits of how many players could be signed at each tier would be necessary without a draft to guide those positions like the WNBA. For example, two top tier players, three mid-tier, and an unlimited lower tier.
Teams will undoubtedly find this system restrictive in filling out rosters, as veteran players are certain to want this new minimum, and elite players will want even more. Coupling it with a league maximum salary, as the WNBA has, could be a temporary solution.
While it's not a perfect solution, the goal of liveable wages for all begins with incoming players who are set to become the future of the league.