Women hold the bulk of PWHL general manager roles, but when it comes time to hiring staff who will stand behind the bench as head coaches in the league, men still hold favour, although recent hires have started to move the needle.
It hasn't been difficult to notice a distinct trend in the hiring of PWHL head coaches. Early, most were men. This offseason the PWHL hired Troy Ryan, Josh Sciba, Francois Methot, Kris Sparre and Pascal Rheaume as head coaches to fill vacancies.
Two women have been hired so far this offseason in Kim Weiss, who will join as a head coach in Las Vegas, and Christine Bumstead who Seattle hired to replace Steven O'Rourke. But with two women hired to three men this offseason, the scales continue to tip in favor of men taking more head coaching roles in the PWHL than women.
This comes despite the fact the only two women serving as head coaches in the PWHL last season met in the 2026 Walter Cup final as Kori Cheverie guided the Montreal Victoire to a Walter Cup title, while Carla MacLeod and the Ottawa Charge saw their second straight result as finalists.
Leading into playoffs, with MacLeod absent for cancer treatments, her assistant coach Haley Irwin helped get the Charge into the playoffs. Irwin is one of several women within the PWHL, and from outside, who have sought head coaching roles in the league, only to be passed over by men for the roles.
It's a stark contrast to the general manager roles in the league where next season only three of those roles, in New York, Ottawa, and San Jose, will be filled by men, while the remainder of the PWHL's GM jobs are held by women.
But behind the bench, the difference remains.
Irwin has served as Ottawa's top assistant for three seasons, and before that served as an assistant for three seasons at the U SPORTS level. She's not alone in her hunt for a head coaching job.
Rachel Flanagan, an assistant for the PWHL's Toronto Sceptres is another candidate who has interviewed, and been turned down. Flanagan served as head coach for the University of Guelph for 16 seasons, winning OUA Coach of the Year five times, was Hockey Canada's BFL Female Coach of the Year in 2021, and has served on the bench with Canada's national development team, and also as head coach for Canada at the Universaide. She also led Guelph to their first ever national title. In short, Flanagan has more head coaching experience and accolades than many of the men who are being hired.
Caroline Ouellette helped guide the Montreal Victoire as an assistant to a Walter Cup, is a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, and longtime assistant for Team Canada and associate coach at Concordia prior to joining the PWHL. Ouellette must not want to be a head coach outside of Montreal, because otherwise there is no conceivable answer for why she isn't already a head coach in the PWHL.
In Minnesota, Brianna Decker spent the last three seasons at Shattuck St. Mary's, and has worked with USA's U-18 national team. The Hockey Hall of Fame inductee's playing career is another realm of valuable experience, and she's well respected across the league.
New York assistant Valerie Bois was an assistant coach in the CWHL with the Montreal Canadiennes and joined Bishop's University as an assistant when the CWHL folded. She took over as Bishop's head coach leading them to their first ever U SPORTS national title in 2025 before joining New York.
Stefanie McKeough has been an assistant with Boston since day one. She's also currently an assistant with Canada's U-18 national team and was named the head coach at the University of Ottawa before she jumped to the PWHL.
And when you look outside the PWHL, the list of women at the helm, or who could serve as head coaches in the PWHL swells further.
Still, the hires leaned toward men, including some with less experience than women in the pool.
Last season the PWHL's two expansion teams hired Steven O'Rourke and Brian Idalski as head coaches. Before contracts even expired for the offseason, both had been fired. Idalski had a wealth of women's hockey head coaching experience, while O'Rourke brought primarily men's junior hockey coaching experience to the league. Neither however, lasted, and both allegedly didn't have the favor of their players.
While gender isn't the deciding factor of hiring a coach in the PWHL, the league has touted itself as not only a groundbreaking organization for players, but for women working roles off the ice as well. To date however, that has not materialized at the head coaching role.
Vancouver is the last team to make a hire, and it's believed they still have women, including those from around the PWHL internally, in the mix. Hiring a woman in Vancouver would make the new additions to the league this offseason an even three men and three women, and move the overall totals to seven men and five women in the PWHL head coaching ranks.