The one thing a women's pro hockey league needs to succeed

A recent reports suggested there will be a new women's professional hockey league by the end of 2022, including support from select NHL teams but Yahoo Sports Justin Cuthbert says the biggest investment needs to come from the big league itself.

Video Transcript

JULIAN MCKENZIE: With regards to women's hockey and a report that surfaced around the internet, I think Chris Botta was the one who did, suggesting that there may be an announcement to come finally about a best on best women's hockey league announcement to come at some point this year. Some people have talked about it. There have been some rumblings.

A lot of people have at least advocated for this to happen. We're at a point where we're just kind of speculating here, but I'd like to get into a discussion on, beyond the fact that you need the best players in the league, what could actually-- what does the league need for it to work? I mean, exposure is the very first thing that comes to mind.

This is something that should be seen on legacy media outlets like SportsNet or TSN or if they want to tap into digital platforms like Twitch, for example, like the PHF has done with streaming games. That's an idea. But Cuth, I'd like to know just starting with you, like, what else needs to be done if a women's league with best players and the world comes to fruition. What needs to be done for it to be successful?

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Unfortunately, I think it's NHL backing. And I think Chris Botta had in that tweet that it's select teams will be backing this league, which is good. I mean, NHL representation is probably important here. The meshing of both the men's and women's game is important because you're selling it and providing it to a bigger audience.

But unless the NHL is going to try and make these two leagues, and one being their league and one being a hypothetical league, like, they need to be intertwined probably for both of them to be at their best. So I just-- the NHL ignoring women's hockey, I mean, it's just ridiculous how long it's gone and the misplaced priorities. And we see it all across sports. We're seeing it in baseball right now with their inability to do what's best.

The NHL has shown an inability to do what's best for so long now. But this game, the women's game, is at the peak of its powers. It had been at the peak of its powers before, but it is as strong as it's ever been.

What we saw over the Olympics was as good as hockey is you're going to see. And for the NHL to not get behind this with the opportunity potentially there and only have select backing? Well, let's hope it's not reduced to that because it should be full backing.

The full power and might of the NHL should be behind the women's game, and they should be involved. And I hate to say that they need to be involved for it to hit, to be as powerful as it should be. But that's probably the reality right now. And once that happens, then it can take off to new heights by itself.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Mm-hmm. Omar, what do you think?

OMAR: Yeah, I think just, like, along the lines of what Justin said. And I remember when the initial talk about a women's professional league, like a single women's professional league, being brought up, they asked Gary Bettman about it. And he just-- you know, he went into full on lawyer mode and said like, oh, you know, well-- that's, I guess, my Gary Bettman voice.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: It was good. Keep going with it.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You need to boggle your head a little bit too.

OMAR: If, um, you know, like, if there is a plan that's made and we're-- it's presented to us, and we think that it's something that we can help with or that is something that's concrete, then, you know, then we'll put in our-- we'll make a decision there. But until then, we'll have to wait. And yeah, I think when it comes to women's games as a whole, I think the main way to get eyes on these games is to not make it a journey to watch them, right?

And like, I remember when-- like, when they first started being played on Twitch, like, people were like, do I need an account? What's the link? What time do I watch? What can I do here and so on and so forth.

It's just like-- it's just like this huge task. But when you're watching an NHL game or any men's professional game, you just turn on the TV. You change the channel, and then there it is.

So I think to Justin's point, that's where the NHL can really step in by giving a televised platform where these games can be shown because if you have eyes on it, then you can, you know, draw further interest. Now again, do we need justification of women's games having interest? No, because we saw what will happen at the Olympics.

Millions of people watched, and millions of people were excited and supported what was going on. So I just think they need the support of the NHL. And yeah, to Justin's point, It sucks that we have to say that the women's league or the professional women's league needs the NHL, but full support from the NHL, I think, will go a long way.

SAM CHANG: I totally agree with Omar, and I think you nailed it. I think the key is making it accessible. The idea that you need to be able to justify putting it on mainstream TV is, to me, ridiculous.

Like, I think the statistics from that gold medal game, Canada-US in the Olympics, were-- the ratings were higher than all but one NHL game from the entire last season. So the notion that people won't watch women's hockey because it's somehow inferior is absurd. Like, the numbers actually prove otherwise. The reason people don't watch it is because you have things like two years ago, the world championships, they were broadcasting from like a nest. It was like a security camera quality.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, come on.

SAM CHANG: It was awful. And so any time it's been made available, people watch it. So the idea that people aren't interested is ridiculous.

The idea that you need to be financially successful to televise it is ridiculous. Like, sorry, I'm looking at the Arizona Coyotes. There's somehow still playing.

The Florida Panthers are somehow still playing. You're telling me that you need to somehow have some kind of minimum level of quality or financial success to be broadcast? That doesn't make any sense. Like, the NHL has garbage teams all the time that they just dump money into. So why don't you dump money into some hockey that's actually good played by women?

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: And I should say the NHL involvement would bring in companies like MLSE. MLSE should have a women's hockey team under its banner. Its logo should be on the side of Scotiabank Arena with the Leafs and the Raptors and maybe the Toronto Rock before it.

I don't know if they're still around. But it's important, if you have NHL backing, you have the backing of everyone that the NHL is affiliated with. And having-- MLSE will want to have a franchise. I can guarantee that.

OMAR: Yep.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: I can guarantee that. But it has to come under the right circumstances and the right partnerships. And of course, MLSE is tied up in the NHL.

So it all needs to come together. It all is to be in one ecosystem for it to work as good as it should work. And of course, what Sam was saying, it outdrawing all but one hockey game in the NHL tells you all you need to know.

OMAR: Literally. Sam, like, you brought up-- that's such a funny point. Like, the fact that we have to see fricking Bettman justify why it's OK to have an NHL franchise in an arena with 2,000 people, but then when it comes to backing a professional women's league, oh, we have to see the numbers and the data, and we have to see if it's viable. Like, they're out there. They exist.

SAM CHANG: But also, how much money has he dumped into the Arizona Coyotes? Like, come on.

OMAR: Right?

SAM CHANG: They owned the team for a while. This is ridiculous.

OMAR: Oh my God.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: And because of the support that, like, you know, we're seeing for women's players and the fact that so many more of them are, like, household names like Hilary Knight and Marie-Philip Poulin and Sarah Nurse among those, we're almost at a point where, like, you don't even need, like, the men's players directly to prop up a league and try to help them be popular. You don't need to do that. I think, though it would be good on them to at least support it.

Like, I'm wearing a WNBA sweater now, and the league itself is very good. And the players and personalities are good but not even just for the help of promoting it. It's just cool to see solidarity and support between both the men and the women's leagues. I would hope that there is something of the sort if a women's league is established and you see men's players there.

But the cool thing is is that some of those women's players you might actually like better than some of the men's players anyway, and they're just cool enough to support. Like, I don't need some dude to be like, hey, man. You should go watch Marie-Philip Poulin.

If she signed that deal with that ECHL team in Trois-Rivieres, me and a couple of friends, we were ready to make that drive to, like, go see her. We're like 90 minutes away from Montreal. We were going to go see her.

That's easy. That's easy. And I bet that arena would have sold out too.

I think it's like 5,000, that capacity. I bet that would have sold out too. It doesn't matter if it's like 90 minutes away.

It's Marie-Philip Poulin. And I understand her reasons for-- the reasons why she would not want to play in that league and just stay on the women's side. But man, I would have watched.

Come on. I think there are some players who, like, it's must watch. Like, Hilary Knight, you have a game with Poulin and Knight, that should be marketed the whole country over in Canada and parts of the United States as well-- all throughout the United States too.

Like, there are household names that are building themselves up through women's hockey, that, you know, yes, having the backing of the NHL and then players should help. But there's an audience that just wants to see those players. And you might not have to work as hard to market those players.

OMAR: Yeah, man. Like, Mikyla Grant-Mentis Like--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah.

OMAR: --oh, love her as a player. Like, that's, like-- oh, I could see it. She's wicked to watch.

And again, when I started watching woman hockey more on the Toronto Six, she's just an electric player. And there are a lot of players that are on that Toronto Six team. So it's like, yeah, we don't need-- I don't know, who would they ask-- Connor McDavid to say, hey, everyone, I'm--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Oh yeah, great, because if I want someone to sell me something, it's Connor McDavid. I really want--

OMAR: You know they would ask him. You know they would ask him.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I know they would, but like-- and no disrespect to Connor McDavid. We all know how great of a player he is. But he is one of the last people I want selling me anything.

OMAR: It would be him and Crosby. They'd be like, hey, Sidney.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Sidney Crosby at least has a little bit of personality.

OMAR: What are you doing on Saturday? Oh, you know, just hanging out. Well, you should actually go and watch the professional women's game. The professional women's game?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Women's game?

OMAR: Yeah, go watch the professional women's game.

SAM CHANG: I don't know. I'm with Julian. I think Crosby's better than-- Crosby has, like, more personality.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: He's gotten better.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah.

SAM CHANG: Look at those Tim Hortons commercials he does [INAUDIBLE].

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Exactly.

OMAR: That's true.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Those are actually cute. Those are fun.

OMAR: That is true.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Like, that wouldn't be so bad. But Connor McDavid? I still think that he's trying, but he's still a little bit of a stick in the mud.

SAM CHANG: He's the human version of his house.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: It shouldn't be on the players, though. Like, Julian, you showed off the sweater? That brand, it's the WNBA logo, if I'm not mistaken. I didn't see all of it.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, W--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: But it's unmistakably NBA. It's unmistakably the pinnacle of basketball. It's-- the synergy is there, right? You know it means something because it's--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: It's the brand, right?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: This is one of the hottest pieces of apparel in, like, what, like 2019? 2020? People were, like, fighting to get this sweater. Like--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Sell that on [INAUDIBLE]. Can't do that.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: No, no, I'm keeping this. You crazy? I bought this off Fanatics, though.

But like, no, this is-- man, and like, there's such an opportunity if they announce this. Like, relatively soon still in the glow of the Olympics, they could capitalize off people watching, as many as they did. And I mean, look.

I'm sure, what-- did any of you guys have that blue PWHPA hoodie? Or I don't know if they have other colors of it. That was awesome. I got one. I think I wore it on the very first episode of this show.

OMAR: Yeah.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's a clean hoodie. That is a golden opportunity for them to make some marketing off some clothes. It's a clean hoodie.

It's dope. Look, the clothes, the apparel, the style, that's another huge part of this too. This is such an opportunity for the women's game. And--

SAM CHANG: If we're shouting out cool jerseys for women's, can we shout out notafan_jo's Black Rosie Riveter's jersey? Because that was sick.

OMAR: That's cool. That's cool.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: It is a good jersey.

OMAR: That's cool as hell. And I remember that was something, like, when the initial jersey came out, that was something that was talked about a lot. So when it happened, I openly said, holy shit, they actually did it.

SAM CHANG: Yeah.

OMAR: So yeah, that was cool as hell. Well deserved of a shout out.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That is very much well-deserving of a shout out. Is there any other final thoughts on this topic before we go home and watch hockey I guess? Because that's what we're all trained to do in our respective markets?

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: I was just going to say, like, with respect to that town you were going to drive to, Marie-Philip Poulin should be selling out the Bell Centre, not--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: --the rink in the town that you're going to.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yes, that is very true. She absolutely should be.