The PWHL's expansion rules were received with mixed reactions. The mix was that fans of the six existing PWHL teams were angered, and fans with a British Columbia or Washington state address were ecstatic.
There was no right or easy way to do this process that wouldn't cause some eyebrows to raise, particularly with the PWHL wanting expansion teams in Seattle and Vancouver to compete immediately. The issue however, is the PWHL sacrificed more than fan favorite players in their plot for parity.
One of the annual events that took the hardest hit to its credibility and utility, was the PWHL's own draft. In professional sport, drafts are moments of recognition for decades of hard work and dedication to a game, and there is prestige that comes with being a high draft pick.
Under the PWHL current expansion rules, 39 of the 42 players selected in the 2024 PWHL Draft were left exposed. The only protected picks were first overall selection Sarah Fillier, and two of Ottawa's first three picks in Ronja Savolainen (8th overall, second round) and Gwyneth Philips (14th overall, third round). The Charge did however, leave second overall pick Danielle Serdachny exposed.
From the inaugural 2023 PWHL Draft, only two amateur players coming out of college were protected from the 26 picked.
In the best interest of the players, keeping a wide-open expansion draft the unlike the NHL, involves all new players, and an entry draft, seems unnecessarily punative.
Given the PWHL's promise that this is only the first wave of multiple expansions, the league has a conundrum. Within two seasons, they've already removed the ability of teams, particularly struggling teams, to build through the draft.
When the draft loses its entire purpose, it may be time to consider following the NWSL and doing away with a draft altogether.
Many Consider Drafts To Be Anti-Labour
There is a long standing argument that entry drafts, a North American creation in sport, are decidedly anti-labour. The vast majority of athletes entering the PWHL Draft are university graduates, many holding masters degrees. They are also elite athletes showing mastery in their future "profession" of hockey. There are no other industries in the world where the absolute best graduates from the best schools in the world are forced to work for the company who ranked worst each year. Similarly, new players are unable to freely negotiate their wages or accept better financial offers. Young players also have no choice of their geographic futures, without any say in what city they go to, who their boss will be, the culture of their coworkers and organization, or how it impacts their family. If you are chosen by a team who does not want to play you, or who ignores your professional development, too bad. They own your rights and you cannot move to another organization. In the PWHL this restriction is a mandatory two-year window. Your only option is to leave the league altogether if things don't work out.
Many leagues in the world, including soccer in Europe, don't utilize drafts. Instead, teams strive to treat players the absolute best, and showcase excellence on and off the field, to attract the best talent. It forces organizations to do better, to get better.
As New York Magazine wrote, "Drafts don’t exist to make leagues more fair. They exist to allow owners more power over players, to grab hold of their rights at under market value for as long as they can."
Fair point.
Or as Vox wrote in an article title Sports drafts are exploitative and would be illegal in any normal industry, "The draft is a ruthless mechanism for the financial exploitation of young people’s labor, and everything else is merely incidental."
The PWHL's Expansion Model Hurts Development
Not all professional sports teams, in any league, have the best interest of individual employees in mind. That's the nature of the business where team success trumps self actualization as an athlete. But it's a chicken or the egg situation where teams must focus on individual professional development including skills coaching, strength training, group cohesion, and perhaps above all else, the mental wellness of individual athletes to experience team success.
Without a development league, and with the PWHL's intent to increase the on-ice product, it's counterintuitive to bounce around young players, forcing them to live in uncertainty year after year. For a group of players in the PWHL, they'll be moving to their third city, and in some cases third country in three years. For example, Maja Nylen Persson and Daniela Pejsova came to North America this season for the first time as 23- and 22-year-old defenders respectively. Should Nylen Persson, who had never played outside of Sweden until this year be selected in the expansion draft, she'll be moving from an eight hour flight home to a 12-15 hour trip depending on layovers (there are no direct flights) home. And she won't be paid more. Oh, and if the PWHL expands again, there's a high probability she could be on the move again.
The stress alone from this process, not to mention the time to uproot your life year after year, is counterproductive to development. Add in that many of these young players can't financially commit themselves to training alone without holding a second job in the offseason, and the league is risking their product by shipping young players around.
Young players should have the chance for stability in their development. And they should have choice in who their coaches, managers, and mentors will be. Many who join the league are stuck in their situation, and without freedom over their careers, it's a situation that could hinder career earnings and personal potential.
It's hard to believe the PWHL will survive a second expansion under similar conditions without the players getting wise and revolting. And for a league, and the women's hockey world, which is seeking stability, nothing could be more important than avoiding this scenario.
The Current Model Is A Deterrent For European Talent
The National Women's Soccer League rid themselves of the draft to improve their ability to attract elite talent from across the globe. If European veterans like Michelle Karvinen, Petra Nieminen, Lara Stalder, Jenni Hiirikoski, Andrea Brandli, Michela Pejzlova, and others were allowed to choose their destination, one that fit their needs, wants, style, perhaps involved connections to former friends and teammates, and also allowed them to freely negotiate contracts, the influx of European talent to the PWHL would skyrocket. As it stands, European veterans, including players like Michelle Karvinen who will be 35 when she enters the draft this year, will have no choice despite being at the peak of their career, and will be limited by the stringent compensation structures of the PWHL forcing many to take pay cuts from playing in lesser leagues in Europe.
As NWSL Players Association president Tori Hustler said, “The draft is an antiquated model that empowers teams to decide for Players instead of Players deciding for themselves. Now, Players can choose the team environment that fits their needs and maximizes their opportunities. Teams will need to step up to create environments that appeal to Players.”
Forced Moves Before Salary Increases Are Punitive
If this were the NHL where players were making millions and teams would take care of their every need in a move, the sharp edges of this conversation would be softened. But some of the players potentially being forced across the country after signing multi-year deals less than 8-months ago to begin their careers, are making less than $40,000 a year. Landing in Vancouver, comes with a cost. In Vancouver, a one-bedroom apartment averages $2,531 CAD a month. In North Vancouver that climbs to $3,431 CAD, or in West Vancouver to $2,709 CAD. Looking at Seattle, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $2,110 USD which towers over the American national average of $1,627 USD. The PWHL housing stipend this season was $1,545 USD, roughly $2,115 CAD. These are for unfurnished apartments, and at times before utilities. And certainly before parking and transportation. In other words, it's a forced move that could cost young players more money without adjustment for cost of living. The PWHL / PWHLPA collective agreement does stipulate compensation for relocation. Still, in a league where the minimum salary many rookies receive remains well below the national averages for Canada and the USA, and drastically below the averages in some PWHL markets, it again means players need to work in the offseason instead of training to be professional athletes. As well, most players almost certainly cannot afford the offseason supports many professional athletes enjoy.
Similarly to the need for salary increase alongside expansion, PWHL players do not, as least to public knowledge, have the ability to add no-movement clauses to their contracts. In the NHL, players who want to guarantee they stay in a market and can put down roots with their family are able to negotiate no-movement clauses protecting them from expansion or trade. In the NWSL, every player has full control over whether or not they can be traded.
What's the solution?
This entire debate could have been avoided had the PWHL followed the path of typical expansion by exempting first and second year rookies from the draft. This group remains in the most precarious position financially, and in terms of career security. Given the league is only two years old, the league likely could have gotten away with exempting 2024 draft picks, or even the top three-rounds of picks that are tied to financial tiers.
But they didn't.
The solution is to either protect young players from what will certainly become a regular deck shuffling in the league, or abolish the entry draft giving players, as the National Women's Soccer League stated when they cancelled their draft, "freedom over their careers."
The NWSL recognized the downfall of an entry draft, but in North America, the allure of fans being allowed to dream and scheme within their imagined communities is a profit-driver for leagues.
As New York Magazine stated, "Fandom has become too team-oriented, with all of us pretending we’re little general managers, to truly ever throw them away entirely. But as players earn more power and search for independence wherever they can find it — and as new leagues sprout up with different incentives for player acquisition than the established ones — the draft looks increasingly draconian."
Still, the NWSL abandoned their draft. Time Magazine called it "a major step forward for player empowerment, especially for female athletes."
If it's a major step forward for women in sports, the PWHL's current model coupling an expansion draft and entry draft is a step backward.
Some will argue that drafts are in place to ensure competitive balance. That may have been true prior to salary caps. In a salary cap era however, including within the PWHL's team average model, teams can't stockpile the highest paid players or top talent for long. In the PWHL, teams initially signed six players to contracts worth at least $80,000. With the PWHL's salary structure, it would be nearly impossible to carry more than 7-8 of these contracts. Once those deals are signed, those teams would not be able to bring in other players on high end contracts, meaning incoming stars would be more inclined to choose teams where more salary is available. And given contracts are currently being signed for a maximum of three years, it already restricts the ability of any one team to hoard talent long term.
If the PWHL is going to continue to operate an expansion process where all players, including the newest to the league have no choice in their pathways, then the league needs to give players choice over their circumstances and financial futures entering the league. The league should also be willing to re-open the CBA to allow players to negotiate no-movement clauses, provide a revenue share to players, and structure a salary cap adjustment with each expansion. The league's single entity ownership model coupled with the length of the CBA that was designed without a single mention of expansion or draft rules, will keep salaries locked at a low level for six more seasons, unless the necessary steps are taken to re-open this agreement. The NWSLPA re-negotiated their CBA, that when signed in 2022 seemed positive, but was quickly seen as overly restrictive. Given the PWHL's inaugural CBA was almost a verbatim copy and paste of the NWSL's since abandoned 2022 CBA, the trail has already been blazed.
It's not to say the players don't understand the need for expansion, and the importance of new teams being competitive. They certainly do. But they also should not be asked to sacrifice individual livelihoods and long term career goals. After all, there is no pension or retirement plan in place for these players. They'll all need second careers when hockey is done.
Until the league can pay higher minimum salaries and give players autonomy and control over career decisions, the dual impact of a draft and lack of protection for players in expansion as we saw in the current iteration will remain a detriment to player attraction, retention, development, and well being.
In short, if the league is going to repeat the same expansion process, the time has already passed to abandon their entry draft and give players freedom over their careers. Everyone wants the PWHL to thrive, but it should not thrive at the expense of the league's most important asset, the players.