PWHLPA President Laura Stacey was surprised PWHL expansion plans were made public as quickly as they were, but spoke on her pride in completing the plan and process on behalf of the players.
A day after a five-page document outlining the expected expansion process, sent by the PWHLPA to its players, was made public, PWHLPA President and Montreal Victoire forward Laura Stacey commented on the expansion process for the first time.
Much like her reaction when the 2024–25 salaries were revealed in March, she admitted she hadn’t expected the process to become public the way it did.
“It’s crazy that it's out publicly just because obviously, we wanted to just share it with the players and have some internal discussion,” she mentioned after the Montreal Victoire practice on Monday. “But obviously, it's pretty out there now which is also I guess beneficial for everybody to see and know.”
The new, more complex process will, according to PWHLPA Executive Director Malaika Underwood, give players greater control over where they want to play. As Underwood noted in an email sent to players on May 1st, “the priority was to protect as much player choice as possible throughout the process.”
Stacey then briefly spoke about what it was like to work with the league on this and expressed how pleased she was with the people involved.
“I'm pretty proud of the players union, Malaika (Underwood) and all the officers and our reps who stood up and fought for some things that obviously we believe in,” she mentioned.
“And obviously, the way we work together with the league, I think it's not easy," Stacey continued. "We obviously go back and forth a lot, but at the end of the day, we have the same goals in mind, and that's to grow this league and also to keep players happy and to put players at the forefront. So, there's always things that you're going to want to tweak or make better the next time. But in general, I guess I would say I'm proud of the group for standing through it all and trying to come up with something that kind of fulfills both parties.”
The league hasn’t confirmed yet the expansion process, but an announcement is expected any day.