PWHL Contract Details Emerge

PWHL contract reveals promotional period, PWHPA player salary, restriction on player movement to other leagues until August 31, and at-will employment conditions.

The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL), the PWHPA's proposed league, signed players who participated in the Dream Gap Tour last year to "Promotional Period" contracts. According to PWHPA sources, all players who participated in the tour signed, although contracts were not mandatory. 

The 2022-2023 contract, obtained by The Hockey News from a PWHPA member, confirms previous reports including the prospective PWHL name for the league, which was incorporated under PWHL Holdings, LLC in Delaware, USA in March of 2022.

Jayna Hefford, the PWHPA's lead operations consultant believes the contracts were a positive for players on the tour. 

"We are excited that our players signed contracts this season and were compensated during the Dream Gap tour and to be part of the journey as we build the future of women’s hockey with partners we trust and who have the experience to make it a success," Hefford wrote in an email.

The contract offers payment of $24,000 to players for "promotional activities and certain related tasks" from the date of signing, until August 31, 2023.

One aspect of the contract, which states players will receive bi-weekly payments until August 31, 2023, restricts player movement from the PWHL to other leagues including the PHF and in Europe. The stipulation reads that members cannot play for, or commit to playing for, "any other league, governing body, tour or exhibitor during the Inaugural Season, other than your national team."

Hefford also stated the PWHPA has officially formed a union to negotiate a new collective agreement for the proposed league. 

"We recently formed a player union (the PWHLPA) and we are currently negotiating a first contract Collective Bargaining Agreement," she wrote. "We have put player rights and protections at the heart of the PWHPA’s mission and we are working to enshrine these standards in a CBA from day one."

Despite future assurances, employment, as defined in the current contact is "at-will employment." 

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at-will employment "means that an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any reason, except an illegal one, or for no reason without incurring legal liability. Likewise, an employee is free to leave a job at any time for any or no reason with no adverse legal consequences."

"At-will also means that an employer can change the terms of the employment relationship with no notice and no consequences." 

The contract itself reads as such, stating employment can be ended at any time "without serious reason or cause."

According to the PWHL document, the league intends to launch their "Inaugural Season" in the Fall of 2023, ending in the Spring of 2024 "dependent on, among other factors, if we are able to secure agreements on terms acceptable to us for (i) the promotional and playing services of a sufficient number of elite players, (ii) all necessary playing and practice facilities and coaching, training, medical and other necessary services and support, and (iii) a sufficient number of sponsorships and telecast exposures."

While the contract states the league "expects to offer" the signee a position as a professional hockey player in the PWHL, employment as a player is not guaranteed, and is conditional on the players' "ability to satisfy certain terms and conditions, including without limitation your ability to play well enough to make a competitive roster."

The PWHPA was founded following the cessation of operations of the Canadian Women's Hockey League in 2019, and since has been playing showcase tours across North America while preparing to launch a professional women's hockey league. The 2022-2023 edition of the PWHPA tour featured four teams named for corporate sponsors.

Ten days after PWHL Holdings, LLC was incorporated in Delaware, the group announced a partnership with Billie Jean King Enterprises and The Mark Walter Group to aid in the planning stages for a new league, which was originally intended to launch in January 2023.

While players under contract are "free to resign at any time, for any reason or no reason," it's unclear if this would also stop payments prior to the August 31 promotional period ending. It's a stipulation that places a potential financial consequence on players who move to other leagues, despite the PWHPA season ending in early March.

As the stipulation reads, signees may not "play hockey for any other league, governing body, tour or exhibitor other than (i) playing activities as part of your promotional activities, (ii) exhibition games and tours organized by the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (“PWHPA”) and (iii) if applicable, playing activities for your national team."

When the PWHPA does finalize plans for the proposed PWHL, this contract identifies the potential for continued at-will employment.

According to the document, "If, as expected, the League chooses to move forward with the Inaugural Season," the PWHL could subsequently provide players with the "anticipated offer of at-will employment" to play this coming season in the PWHL.

Currently, the PHF is the only professional women's hockey league in North America. The proposed contract for the PWHL's Promotional Period would deter players from signing in the PHF, or European leagues including the SDHL, Naisten Liiga, or SWHL A.

According to April 2022 reports, the PWHPA board voted unanimously to not move forward with any collaboration between the PWHPA and PHF.

This season, Team Harvey's, paced by Canadian national team members including Marie-Philip Poulin and Ann-Renee Desbiens, won the Secret Dream Gap Tour title. It was a season Hefford called the PWHPA's "biggest and best yet."