Stan Kasten discusses NHL involvement in the new professional women's hockey league. Since the NHL sat down with the PHF and PWHPA in April 2022, the conversation of formal support from the National Hockey League has disappeared...until now. At that meeting, the PWHPA decided they would be moving forward without the PHF [https://thehockeynews.com/news/report-pwhpa-to-not-move-forward-with-phf-collaborations]. It was a meeting the PHF called "constructive," but did not achieve the singular league parties were hoping for. In the past, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has stated the NHL would offer support only when one league existed, and that time could be here. According to Los Angeles Dodgers president and part owner Stan Kasten, NHL support is a "wildcard" moving forward. Kasten, who works with the Mark Walter Group, the organization who alongside Billie Jean King Enterprises acquired the PHF and has been guiding the development of a future league for the PWHPA, his first call was to PWHPA lead Jayna Hefford, his second call following the acquisition of the PHF was to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. "My second call was to Gary [Bettman] because I did not want to be the guy as so many had in the past to say 'here's what I'm going to do', 'here's what we're planning to do', I didn't call him until we had something that we had done already, and [Bettman] could not have been better, he could not have been more positive, offering immediate help," said Kasten. Kasten stated the new professional women's hockey league welcomes NHL assistance, and since the acquisition of the PHF, the groups have been in communication daily. "I can tell you [the NHL] have reached out to us every day since," said Kasten. "Any help they could give us would save us steps and time, but also in the quality of what we put out there to the public and our fans."
