By announcing plans to raise its salary cap to $1.5 million per team for the 2023–24 season, the Premier Hockey Federation is doubling down on women’s hockey in an effort to expand its talent pool by giving players a chance to make a livable wage.
The hike, which was made public on Wednesday morning, is a part of a three-year, $25 million commitment approved by the league’s board of governors 11 months ago. It would quadruple each team’s current maximum of $750,000 this season.
Hockey salary cap
The Professional Hockey League now has seven franchises. Still, commissioner Reagan Carey told The Associated Press that the league is once more considering growth after adding a team in Montreal this season.
As Carey put it, “This is just another example of us moving forward at full speed with what we know can be a wonderful sport for an even larger audience and do more for the players in it.” “We view this declaration as a victory for everyone who cares about women’s sports, but particularly women’s hockey,”
The decision was made during the league’s winter meetings, and the increase in the wage cap is a 900% increase from 2021–2022 when each team’s salary ceiling was set at $150,000.
Along with expanding its workforce for league operations and enhancing team facilities, the PHF also started offering complete health coverage to players this season.
The size of the commitment “reflects the devotion of everyone working with the PHF and their appreciation of the significance of reaching this record amount,” Carey said.
“I believe this clearly reflects the power of our league and the commercial development plan that we have been working toward and are now constructing,” the author said.
Carey added, “It’s definitely on the docket,” without offering any other information or a timeframe, for expansion.
Due to the salary-cap increase for this season, Mikyla Grant-Mentis signed an $80,000 deal with the Buffalo Beauts, making her the first woman to play women’s hockey in North America. A 20-man squad with a $1.5 million cap would result in an average salary of $75,000 for each player.
When Carey was in charge of women’s hockey at USA Hockey for eight years prior to her appointment as commissioner, she could not have predicted the level of financial support that the sport would get in its inaugural year.
Since they had limited options for continuing their hockey careers after college, it was difficult to keep national team players and prospects involved in the sport.
“It would be difficult to believe that this is where we are, especially in light of how far it has come. Additionally, it is sobering to realize how many people must share in that dedication in order for things to advance,” said Carey. Simply an extraordinary amount of progress and traction in a short period of time.
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