On the eve of the 2019 NHL All-Star Game Skills Competition, Nathan MacKinnon pulled out of the Fastest Skater event due to injury. He also had the perfect replacement in mind. The NHL had asked several members of the US and Canadian women’s national teams to run through the events the day before, and Kendall Coyne Schofield — part of the US team that won the gold medal at the 2018 Olympics, and eventual captain of the national team — put up a time that would have beaten three players from the year prior.
MacKinnon wanted her to take his place, and so Coyne Schofield got a chance to skate what turned out to be the most important lap in women’s hockey history. Her 14.326 was good for seventh out of eight, less than a second off Connor McDavid’s winning time. It was her arrival in the mainstream spotlight — and she brought women’s hockey with her.
It also ended up being a critical time for women’s hockey. In January of 2019, things in North American professional women’s hockey looked healthy – there were two leagues, the CWHL and NWHL. There were top players in both leagues. But the game was damaged.
The CWHL barely paid players. The NWHL paid better, but still not at a point where any player could be considered a full-time professional apart from those on their national teams. There was a tension within the game that was not only bubbling to the surface, it was seeping through into the mainstream. To be frank, it was verging on toxic.
A few months after that lap, the CWHL would fold. Many players in the NWHL – including Coyne Schofield herself – would decide to join those players now without a league in creating the PWHPA, an association that would work towards a sustainable league. The group was the suggestion from Billie Jean King, who was called by Coyne Schofield shortly after the CWHL announced it was folding.
That phone call became not only the start of the PWHPA, but the starting point for what eventually became the PWHL. King and her wife Ilana Kloss are part owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers with Mark Walter. Walter and his wife Kimbra became instrumental in creating the PWHL. King and Kloss are on the board, and were heavily involved in the creation of the league.
The five years that followed were not always easy. The tension between the NWHL (which became the PHF) and PWHPA, who didn’t see it as a viable long-term solution was evident. The sport itself became toxic. New fans, if they decided to jump into it, had to choose sides. Existing fans drew lines in the sand. The NHL and most others stayed away and essentially told the two sides to figure it out on their own.
Eventually, a blueprint was created and funded by the Walters. They did not want to have two leagues, so they entered in talks with the PHF ownership group who obliged.
There was now one league with six teams and a collective bargaining agreement. Coyne Schofield was instrumental in working on the CBA, even surrounding the birth of her son. When the PWHLPA became an official organization, the logo was the iconic image of her lap in San Jose back in 2019.
Despite five of the teams being in cities where the defunct PHF had teams, the teams had no names or logos. Knowing the baggage, the history, Walter wanted a fresh start. It was seen as a clumsy start, but the Walters put their money on the players and knew it would work out in the end.
Did it ever. Within days, even weeks of launching, there were already questions about whether the Walters would sell to individual buyers. They had no interest in it. The PWHL wasn’t created to prove the concept. It was created because the concept had been proven. The sport, like so many other women’s sports, just never had the opportunity created by the investment that the Walters provided. The visibility and, well, just pure money was what was missing. The sport grew almost instantly.
That takes us back to Wednesday night. With the deciding game of the inaugural Walter Cup Final in the dying moments, Minnesota held a 2-0 lead. Boston pulled their goaltender trying to close the gap. A loose puck floated into the neutral zone. It would be a foot race.
It wasn’t any Minnesota player. It was their captain. It was Coyne Schofield. The woman whose speed became known to every hockey fan drove down the ice, she got to the puck first, and the rest is history.
That’ll do it.
— Evan Applebaum (@EvanApplebaum2) May 30, 2024
Kendall Coyne Schofield’s empty-net goal gives Minnesota a 3-0 goal with two minutes remaining.
Minnesota will be raising the Walter Cup trophy tonight.@IanKennedyCK @TheHockeyNewsW pic.twitter.com/nRvWtbct08
There are five teams who are disappointed their season ended, but there was perhaps no more fitting ending. Not only the way the final goal happened, but that Coyne Schofield became the first captain to lift the Cup.
It’s remarkable Minnesota and their captain were even able to be in that position. They were down 0-2 in their best of five series against top-seeded Toronto in the opening round, in the midst of a seven-game losing streak dating back to the end of the regular season. They were one Ottawa regulation win away from missing the playoffs entirely.
The PWHL would not exist in its current form without Coyne Schofield, quite literally. She was instrumental in working towards making the sport a better place. While there have been missteps, and there surely will be more, some ups and downs, some problems that need solving, the PWHL is here. For good.
