NWHL refutes Cassie Campbell-Pascall's 'absurd lies'

The National Women’s Hockey League fired back at broadcaster and three-time Olympian Cassie Campbell-Pascall for her on-air comments about the league before the NHL All-Star game on Friday.

The 2020 NHL All-Star Game featured a brand new event, Elite Women's 3-on-3, which showcased a team of American all-stars matching up against Canadian all-stars in a 20-minute contest.

All of the players selected for the showcase are members of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) which formed after the folding of the CWHL. The players, approximately 200 strong, pledged not to play in any North American professional league, notably the NWHL, until there is a viable sustainable future.

Campbell-Pascall said the following about players potentially being personally liable to investors in the league:

“Well, I’ve heard different things and I’ve been kind of doing my research, and I’m no lawyer by any means, but I think what a lot of lawyers and agents are saying to these players – that they cannot now sign with the NWHL. And the reason being is that they can potentially be liable to the investors. They don’t know what kind of contracts she has signed with those investors. They don’t know if they would be liable to potentially pay those businesspeople back…I mean, they are investors – they want money back.”

The NWHL addressed the comments in a press statement on Monday.

Campbell-Pascall and Sportsnet used the occasion of a great moment for women’s hockey to float absurd lies about our league, which works every day to build a business and illustrate the value of women’s professional hockey.

So that there is no misunderstanding, the report by Sportsnet is illogical. The statement that players may be personally liable to investors in our league is inaccurate and not in line with laws in either the United States or Canada. So let us be clear: under no circumstances are NWHL players liable to NWHL investors.

The statement then accused Campbell-Pascall of intending to scare current players, and those considering joining or re-joining the league in the future. It’s important to note that Campbell-Pascall holds no role within the PWHPA, thus her opinions do not represent the organization.

Campbell-Pascall has yet to release a statement on the incident, as of this writing.

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