'Our lives were pretty much ripped open': PHF stars in limbo amid unification of women's hockey

Mikyla Grant-Mentis didn't think much of her scheduled Thursday night Zoom meeting.

Instead, the 2021 Premier Hockey Federation MVP coached practice for the U-22 Brampton Canadettes girls hockey team, as she had planned.

That arrangement, however, was soon upended.

"Five minutes after the call started is when I got a bunch of text messages from people from my team last year saying, 'Holy crap, the league's over, they're terminating all our contracts,'" Grant-Mentis said.

The Brampton, Ont., native quickly hopped off the ice to join the call, where she and the rest of the PHF learned that their league was being bought out and folded. Those players are now left to wrestle with the new reality that their hockey careers, successfully entrenched in a solid foundation just last week, are in complete limbo.

"At first, I honestly thought it was a dream because I had no idea what was going on. But then after a couple of other calls, I realized that, 'No, this is for real and the PHF is no longer a thing.'"

In the PHF's place, there will be one professional North American women's hockey league with a collective bargaining agreement ratified by the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association — a group that held out from joining the PHF in its fight for sustainability.

PHF players were informed that next year's contracts were void, and that they would receive severance of either $5,000 US or 1/12th of their salary, whichever is more.

"Our lives were pretty much ripped open in a 10-minute Zoom call," Grant-Mentis told CBC Sports on Tuesday. "People made investments, bought houses, bought cars and stuff, and now we don't even know if we'll be able to have money to pay for it, if we'll have to get another job. There's just so much unknown that it's really disappointing that we're in this position when we've worked so hard to build up the league for the last couple of years."

Lack of information

Salaries in the newly formed league will range from $30,000 to $80,000, not including potential performance bonuses. Grant-Mentis, 24, made $80,000 last year with the PHF's Buffalo Beauts, and had already re-signed with the team for next season at $100,000.

She said she hasn't received any information beyond the initial Zoom call — not even a copy of the CBA. Instead, she's learning about the new league through Twitter and the PHF leadership committee, an 11-woman group formed in the wake of the takeover.

Madison Packer, who served as captain of the PHF's Metropolitan Riveters, is part of that committee. She said she initially learned the news from PHF commissioner Reagan Carey two days before the Thursday Zoom, and that she's reviewed a copy of the CBA.

Packer, the 32-year-old from Birmingham, Mich., said she was excited to find out there would be one unified league. Still, she acknowledged the overwhelming uncertainty, especially surrounding PHF players.

"The best thing that we can do right now is just to be patient and it's super anxiety inducing because we don't really have hard information," she told CBC Sports.

"But no matter what happens going forward, whether you were a part of the PHF or you were a part of the PW, whether you get an opportunity to move on or you do not, you made this happen, right? And that's a cliché that people are just like, 'Yeah, whatever, this is BS,' but it's true."

Grant-Mentis also acknowledged that one unified league may be better for the sport.

"My hope is that having one league will bring all the investments, all the salaries together, which will make us be paid more. But that's only a hope. I have no idea what's actually going to happen."

Packer, whose newly signed two-year, $185,000 contract with the Riveters was among those that went up in smoke, added that there were positives in each the PHF and PWHPA that would now be brought together.

"And there are a lot of athletes that are going to get left out of the mix. And that's the plainest way to put it ... that sucks. But that happens every day in professional sports," she said.

Packer, seen above in February, said she hopes to play in the newly unified league. (Elsa/Getty Images)

'Good problem to have'

Both Grant-Mentis and Packer, who each were among the league-leading scorers with 21 points in 24 games last season, said they want to play in the new league.

Grant-Mentis said she's unaware of potential next steps to making that happen, besides the vagueness of a draft and free agency at some point. Packer, on the other hand, acknowledged that her role in the new league may have to be off the ice.

"If I don't get an opportunity to play in this new league, that'll be hard. But then I've done my job. I've gotten women's hockey to a point that I am no longer relevant. And I think I'm pretty damn good at hockey still," Packer said. "It's tough, but that's a good problem to have."

Still, with most of the North American national teams sitting as PWHPA members, it is likely the new league has little room left over for even the best PHF players.

"I think a lot of us are feeling that way where it's like we kind of did put in a lot of time, a lot of effort really just to be sold to basically start it all over again from scratch, which is not a great feeling," Grant-Mentis said.

Packer was hopeful that the league would expand quickly, and that there would be roles in some capacity for whoever wanted to be part of the league.

"There's definitely going to be people that get left out and that sucks. But without those players, none of this happens. And so I hope as the dust settles we can find a way to actually mean that and show that to those players because that's 100,000-per cent fact."