With the cost of pursuing a masters degree, and the career earning benefits of higher education compared to what PWHL rookies can make, the option to stay in the NCAA for a fifth season that is now available may keep more prospects out of the PWHL next year and in the future.
With the 2027 PWHL Draft class facing major decisions regarding declaring for the PWHL Draft or remaining in the NCAA to utilize their newly given fifth year of eligibility under the NCAA's new age-based eligibility model, players will be weighing all options.
At the moment, for almost all prospects, it's financially more beneficial to stay in college compared to turning pro, now and for their future.
According to the Education Data Initiative, the average cost of a master’s degree is $62,820. Only the top six picks in the 2026 PWHL Draft will receive that level of pay for playing in the PWHL this season as the minimum for the top six selections is $65,000. The salary drops below that threshold to $55,000 for picks 7-12, $50,000 for picks 13-18, $45,000 for picks 19-24, and the only minimum beyond that is the league minimum of $38,245 this season.
The decision for these athletes spans well beyond their playing careers however. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, those with a masters dergee earn roughly 20% more per year than those with a bachelor's degree. In 2022 the agency reported that the median earnings for both levels of education differed from $80,200 with a masters degree to $66,600 with a bachelor's.
In the PWHL, where in the inaugural season, only 36 players across six teams made $80,000 or more, career earning expectations for most will sit under a million dollars even with a decade long career or longer, which in professional sport is not guaranteed. And without a pension plan equivalent to other professional sports leagues , most players will need to work a second career after hockey.
In the opening years of the PWHL, some players like Montreal's Maureen Murphy, Vancouver's Abby Boreen, and Toronto's Blayre Turnbull continued their education while playing in the PWHL, but for those players, the continued education does not come as part of their former full-ride scholarships. Others like Claire Thompson and Victoria Bach postponed the start of their PWHL careers to continue schooling. Bach has since retired to begin her career in teaching, while Thompson, one of the higher paid players in the league, continues to contemplate her own future this offseason regarding whether to return to the PWHL or begin her career in medicine. Boston veteran Hannah Brandt retired following this season to complete her training and begin a career as a physician assistant.
The opportunity for NCAA women's hockey players now to complete or even to begin a masters program that will cost them a year's salary now, and earn them significantly more post-hockey, will be hard for players to pass up, and will likely result in most prospects projected outside the top round or two, at most, to defer their PWHL dreams until after their fifth season of collegiate eligibility has expired.
