Who Made Them The Boss?

For all the good that the PWHL has done in establishing a professional women's hockey league where women are paid handsomely for their efforts, I find myself disliking the people who run the league more and more each day. That includes the woman to the left, Jayna Hefford, as she has become the unofficial spokesperson for the league in her role as PWHL executive vice-president of hockey operations, and her comments often leave me puzzled as to why she's in charge of anything. I get that she was at the forefront when it came to establishing one unified league, but that hardly qualifies her to be an executive VP of anything in any manner.

Jayna's most recent comments that had my brow furrowed came Friday as The Canadian Press's Donna Spencer reported that the IIHF and the PWHL aren't seeing eye-to-eye on a 2026 IIHF tournament schedule that would include both the Olympics and a Women's World Championship. Having two major IIHF tournaments in one year already seems ludicrous to me, but I don't make the rules. I'll leave that up to the IIHF who decided in 2022 that running a women's championship in the same year as an Olympic Games was a good idea.

In that regard, the PWHL is unhappy that they'll have two long breaks in their season to accommodate the two tournaments within weeks of one another as the IIHF has in its bylaws that the annual Women's World Championship is to be played in the timeframe from March to early April. Just for reference, the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy run from February 6 to 22, 2026.

Again, allow me to remind you that the PWHL has known about this scheduling quirk since 2022 and neither did nor said anything about it before this year. They didn't adjust their scheduling in Year One to accommodate the annual tournament in March or April, they didn't make any changes this season for the scheduling from what's being said, and it doesn't sound like they're real happy about having the two tournaments in the same year. So what is the PWHL to do?

"We've had ongoing discussions with the IIHF," Hefford said Friday during a conference call about expansion. "We do not have a date for that event, location for that event. We do know the Olympics are happening in February, but anything beyond that is not confirmed. So that's the information we have today, and we'll continue to work closely with the IIHF and various national federations."

Excuse me, but did you say you'll "work closely with the IIHF and various national federations"? Who, pray tell, put you in charge?

Let me make this very clear for the PWHL and Jayna Hefford:

• The SDHL finishes its season in mid-March so the top players can play in the IIHF Women's World Championship.
• The Auroraliiga finishes its season at the end of March so the top players can play in the IIHF Women's World Championship.
• The Extraliga finishes its season at the end of March so the top players can play in the IIHF Women's World Championship.
• The Swiss League finishes its season at the end of March so the top players can play in the IIHF Women's World Championship.
• The EWHL finishes its season in late March so the top players can play in the IIHF Women's World Championship.
• The NCAA finishes its season in late March so the top players can play in the IIHF Women's World Championship.
• U SPORTS finishes its season in late March the top players can play in the IIHF Women's World Championship.

Can anyone see which league is missing from those leagues who schedule the end of their seasons to ensure their best players are able to go to the IIHF Women's World Championship?

No one forced the PWHL to have its playoff in May, so this would be a problem that's exclusive to the PWHL. In saying that, it's time for Jayna Hefford to put her big-girl pants on and figure out what's more important here: the Olympics or the IIHF World Championship.

On one hand, she can try to "have her cake and eat it too" by having PWHL players at both events. On the other hand, her league can act like the NHL where contracted players compete in league play while those who have been eliminated can join their national teams once the season is over. Let's not forget that there was a week in December and a week in February where no games were played this season. That was on top of the near-month that players were given for the 2025 IIHF Women's World Championship, so cutting those breaks would end the season in mid-April. Seems reasonable, right?

I don't know if those weeks off were mandated in the CBA, but here's the easiest solution: maybe start the season before December? The first games in the 2024-25 season were on November 30! Why can't the PWHL season start in mid-October to accomodate the IIHF Women's World Championship? What is preventing any of the teams from playing regular season games after Canadian Thanksgiving?

Of course, that means the month-long break for the Olympics could stay in and the PWHL playoffs would still start mid-April, but those teams who missed the playoffs could send players to the IIHF Women's World Championship just like the NHL does when its playoffs start at nearly the same time as the IIHF Men's World Championship. As teams get eliminated, those players could be added to the national squads just as the men's teams do. Why couldn't this work for everyone since this could be an annual problem for the PWHL?

Frankly, the IIHF needs to stand its ground here since every other league on the planet has coordinated their schedules to work with the IIHF's schedule. If the PWHL can't or won't do that, it's not up to the IIHF to accommodate them. Just as we see at the men's tournament, not all the best players are able to go for a variety of reasons, and no one seems to complain about that.

You're not the be-all and end-all for women's hockey, PWHL. There are a number of excellent leagues out there doing phenomenal work and you don't get to stop that work because the IIHF tournaments don't align with your schedule. That's a YOU problem that doesn't require the IIHF to solve, and there's nothing professional about whining about a schedule you knew about in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Be professional, accept that you can't always get what you want, and get your season aligned with the IIHF schedule.

That's how professional leagues and institutions work together.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!