Perspective: Rasmus Dahlin and Women's Hockey

Rasmus Dahlin signed for eight years. The PWHL signed an eight year CBA. But Dahlin will make more than the entire PWHL this season highlighting the inequity in sport.

Rasmus Dahlin is a sublime talent on the blueline. The Buffalo Sabres defender was rewarded for his performance on the ice with an eight year, $11 million per season contract extension this week.

At a time when the PWHL is beginning their inaugural season, the first in an eight year collective bargaining agreement, it serves as a stark comparison, and another example of the inequity that remains in professional sport between men and women.

The team salary cap for a PWHL team this season is $1.265 million based on a $55,000 average salary for 23 players. If you multiply that figure by eight years, it totals $10,120,000, less than a single year of Dahlin's contract (not factoring in the 3% annual raise in the PWHL's CBA). If you factor in the 3% annual growth, at the completion of the eight year CBA, a PWHL team will have made roughly $11,248,805 million, finally surpassing Dahlin in the final months of the season in year eight.

With six teams in the PWHL, that means Rasmus Dahlin, a 23-year-old rising star, will make more than all 138 players in the PWHL combined over all but a few months of his eight year contract, and the PWHL's eight year collective bargaining agreement.

It's not to say Dahlin deserves less, it's to say women's hockey has earned far more. And it's to highlight the importance of the PWHL getting year one, and two, and three right, so that the current salary level is only temporary. On most teams, the six guaranteed contracts paying a minimum of $80,000 will be well over that figure, with the majority of players on each roster making between $35,000-$50,000. In many cities, it's unliveable. Some clubs are already seeking staff, players, friends, and family who may have extra rooms in their homes and apartments or available basements to billet players, much like junior hockey clubs have done for decades.

The inequity exists for a plethora of reasons. Entertainment value is not one. Many of the top viewed sporting events from recent years have been women's sports. From the women's World Cup, to Olympic gold medal games, to tennis, it's clear fans value and crave the coverage of women's sports.

But still, the pay lags drastically.

The PWHL, in part, has the power to change this. The league has stated many times over they intend to earn the viewership and the fan base, that nothing is owed. And that translates to a significant investment in marketing. 

As long time WNBA player Elena Delle Donne said, “We absolutely do not get promoted as our male counterparts do. When you put millions of dollars into marketing athletes and allowing fans to get to know a player, they develop a connection with someone.”

This week the PWHL is releasing a documentary examining the draft experience of four players - Alina Muller, Sophie Jaques, Taylor Heise, and Erin Ambrose. This type of high quality player centred production is a start to allowing fans to get to know those players. 

For pay to increase, a significant investment in marketing must occur. Without it, outside revenue from sponsorship, endorsements, memorabilia, and media rights can't increase. Sadly, the PWHL did not give revenue sharing rights to the PWHLPA in their collective bargaining agreement, which will keep league wide salaries low regardless of growth in these areas. Still, the investment must occur, so the next negotiation can feature a large increase for the players, indicative of a large increase in profit for ownership.

If the PWHL delivers on their promise for professional training staff, fitness facilities, medical care, and other aspects to support athlete development, the on-ice product, which is already sky-high, will increase even more. With this, the off-ice media coverage will need to continue to evolve, which the league itself can help with. The PWHL Draft was a prime example of what's possible, with analysis, camera coverage, post draft interviews, and the all around spectacle that's become the norm in professional sport. But sexism in media coverage is still rampant. At times it exists in referring to the players as 'girls' or not adapting to say 'powerplay' instead of 'man advantage,' or 'defender' instead of 'defenseman', or even the overuse of a players' first name rather than last name. The PWHL will have a role in guiding media outlets to make these simple changes, on top of the more overt forms of sexism and misogyny in sport and sport media. 

For coverage itself, one thing is for sure, the league won't accept the bare bones streaming that leagues have seen before with amateur camera operation including blind spots and bad angles in arenas, and there will certainly be no pinhole cameras. Ideally, highlights will appear online and on SportsCenter the way top plays from men's leagues have for decades. And if they're wise, major media outlets in every city will begin dedicating space to the league, because the market is there.

There are many items that will need to be addressed as this league continues to grow, but as the WNBA and NWSL have proven, the PWHL is entering a market ripe for exponential growth. 

As for Rasmus Dahlin, his eight year deal signed only months after the PWHLPA's eight year CBA shows the canyon that exists in equitable pay for women's hockey players. When one 23-year-old defender makes more each season than an entire league of world class athletes, a group including future Hockey Hall of Famers like Marie-Philip Poulin, Hilary Knight, and Kendall Coyne Schofield, and future stars identical to Dahlin in their stature within the game like Alina Muller and Taylor Heise, it shines a light on the issue at hand.

The NHL itself could help solve this issue through a financial commitment, but under the single entity ownership model with the Mark Walter Group owning the entire PWHL, the NHL isn't going to hand a billionaire millions more, regardless of how much it would help the women of the league. Even a league minimum salary commitment of $775,000 from each of the league's 32 teams, would more than triple the current salary cap infusing $24,800,000 to the league each year, which would raise the average team salary to $4,133,333, and average player salary to a very liveable wage of $179,710. That kind of investment however, won't occur until the PWHL divides ownership. Even then, it seems unlikely, although the league could contribute financially to supporting a development league, marketing, and conditions for players.

With the puck dropping on the NHL season this week, and the inaugural PWHL season this January, one can hope this will be one of, if not the last season any player in the NHL can claim to make more than an entire league of elite, groundbreaking, talented women's hockey players.