Courtesy of Mallory Souliotis
Since its Olympic debut in 1998, women’s hockey has been on the rise. Women were finally able to play professionally in the United States with the founding of the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) in 2015. At the beginning of the 2021-22 season, the NWHL rebranded as the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) with gender inclusion in mind.
Yale leads the Ancient Eight in the number of alumnae currently competing in the PHF with five: Mallory Souliotis ’17 with the Boston Pride, Taylor Marchin ’17 and Emma Vlasic ’19 with the Connecticut Whale and Saroya Tinker ’20 and Tera Hofmann ’20 with the Toronto Six.
Tinker, who was the first black player to ever play hockey for Yale, found motivation to play professional hockey from her own experiences in the hockey community.
“It’s great for me to continue to play because it’s opening up these doors for these little black girls behind me,” Tinker said in UNINTERRUPTED’s Breaking Ice series on YouTube.
Tinker is involved in the Black Girl Hockey Club, a scholarship and mentorship program aimed at growing the white and male-dominated game. She has also started her own mentorship program, Saroya Strong, where she mentors and inspires around 55 girls across North America within the hockey world, providing BIPOC girls with guidance and direction both in the world of sports and feminism.
Despite Tinker’s hard work to advance the future of women’s hockey, the lack of money in women’s professional hockey still limits players.
“Unfortunately it’s very hard to make a living solely off of playing professional women’s hockey so salary is a big factor in people’s decision on entering the draft or not,” senior captain Greta Skarzynski ’22 said.
Coming into the 2021-22 season, the PHF maintained a $300,000 salary cap. With a 20-player minimum roster, each player would average $15,000 per season. The NHL’s salary cap in the 2021-22 season is $82.5 million.
On Tuesday, Jan. 18, the PHF announced a revolutionary $25 million investment into women’s professional hockey, marking it the largest one-time independent investment in the history of women’s professional hockey. The $25 million will be used to more than double the salary cap from $300,000 this season to $750,000 along with benefits.
“In the past, a player would have to have a separate job in order to afford to play hockey in the PHF, but this salary cap increase will help in making that second form of income unnecessary,” Skarzynski said.
The average salary on the 20-player minimum roster will be increased to $37,500. The average salary on a 25-player maximum roster will be increased to $30,000. Comparatively, the average starting salary of Yale graduates working in the United States was $71,030 as of 2020.
The Board of Governors will also be using the money to provide better facilities as well as expand the league to a total of eight franchises. Currently, the PHF consists of six teams including the Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale, Metropolitan Riveters, Minnesota Whitecaps and Toronto Six.
“The salary cap increase is amazing news for the PHF and womens hockey,” Souliotis wrote. “Along with the salary cap we will be adding two new teams next season which is awesome! More teams mean more players continuing to play after college.”
According to Skarzynski, no senior players on the Yale women’s hockey team currently plan to put their names forward for the PHF draft upon graduation. However, she does not count out the possibility of other Bulldogs entering the draft in the years to come.
The women’s hockey community hopes to capitalize on the momentum from the 2022 Beijing Olympics in order to generate and sustain greater interest in high-level women’s hockey.
“It’s an exciting time here at the PHF and I’m really looking forward to seeing the league continue to grow, watch the salary caps increase, and the overall player experience improve dramatically during my future playing years as well as after I hang them up,” Souliotis said.
The PHF has made crucial strides in recent years. The league previously doubled its salary cap from $150,000 to $300,000 last year while adding the Toronto Six franchise as well as increasing exposure by broadcasting games on ESPN+ and TSN.
Souliotis and the Boston Pride won the Isobel Cup — the PHF championships — for the 2020-21 season.