Wait, There Are TWO Professional Hockey Leagues For Women?

Puck Daddy- The National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), a rival of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), completed its first free agency period last Monday. As the first league in the modern era to pay women for playing hockey professionally, the NWHL easily filled all 72 spots available.

Yet, when the clock struck midnight on the east coast, only 61 players had officially been announced as joining the league.

The league quickly released a statement to clarify the variance:

“Out of respect for the players, the NWHL has agreed to not announce the remaining players' intent to play in the league until they receive official releases from other leagues ... The NWHL still plans to announce the final team rosters and contract details as soon as the players are ready.”

According to multiple sources, the remaining 11 "mystery" women are players who participated in the CWHL this past year. The players are unable to officially sign contracts with the NWHL because they have not been granted a termination of their player agreement by the CWHL -- despite following the steps laid out by the league to earn their release, and in some cases having asked for one as far back as May.



Okay, so I know I blogged it when I found out about the formation of the NWHL. To save myself the time of going back through the archives, I am going to go out on a limb and say I sarcastically poked fun at the legitimacy of female professional sports. Again, just a hunch. Regardless, how did it not get mentioned in that previous article that there is ALREADY a professional hockey league for women? Ladies, you can't be this stupid, right? Only women could create their own league that is doomed to fail when a superior league that is doomed to fail already exists. This is the most female move of all time. The way I picture these two leagues is like the way I view two cliques of girls in middle school. I know in my school we had the 'Fab 5' and the 'Sexy 6'. Having two women's hockey leagues is the equivalent of both of them throwing a huge party on the same night and battling over which cool boys would go to which party. We are talking about a limited handful of talent as is, and now they are going to split that talent down the middle for no rational reason I can think of other than ego? Not to be too forward, but the NHL seems to be doing just fine using a formula that features Canadians and Americans. Girls, take note from Kim Kardashian's husband on this one. There's leaders, and there's followers, and not to be a dick, but in this case you should probably all be swallowers. Swallowers of your pride, that is. God forbid women put the bigger picture in front of their dignity for once. 

Isn't it females that are always talking about how they are marginalized in sports, and on a larger scale, society? Yet, they have a chance to merge into a formidable league, relatively speaking, and they decide to segregate themselves? I don't want to get racial here, but the similarities are far too glaring. This would be like Jackie Robinson just saying "nah, I'm good", and letting Major League Baseball and The Negro League continue to exist separately. At least they had something tangible, like a difference in skin color during a time of racial unrest, to worry about. These gals are shooting the potential growth of their sport directly in the foot over a preference of Tim Horton's over Dunkin' Donuts. Why don't they just take a league wide field trip to Susan B. Anthony's grave, that she undoubtedly already rolled over in, and spit all over it. Women didn't overcome suffrage just to let an arbitrary border and an obnoxiously long line at customs get in the way of progression. I think this whole feminism thing is becoming too much about pride and it's getting in the way of common sense. Oh well, to each their own. I wish the best of luck to both business models. Divide and conquer, or something like that. Maybe next we can start an all white professional basketball league. The less talent the better.