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Montreal Canadiens Partner With CWHL To Grow The Game

By Kate Cimini

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The future of women’s professional hockey took a huge step forward today when the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens and the Canadian Women’s Hockey League announced a partnership between the Montreal Canadiens and the Montreal Stars.

The Stars, the Canadiens’ counterpoint pro hockey team in Montreal, belong to the CWHL and feature Olympians on their roster such as Julie Chu, Charline Labonté, Caroline Oulette, and league founder Lisa-Marie Breton-Lebreux.

CBC reporter Andie Bennet, was first to announce the partnership via Twitter and her statement was later confirmed by the press release published by the Canadiens and the CWHL.

The release itself states that the Canadiens will assist the Stars via marketing, branding, advertising, and sponsorships, the latter two of which are tremendously important if the women’s game is to grow at the professional level.

The players on the CWHL’s roster are not paid to play, and, in fact are asked to pay their own way to the Clarkson Cup finals. As this article from ESPNW’s Kate Fagan explains, the league requires all teams to raise $35,000 dollars if they wish to compete for the Cup.

On the Boston Blades, part of that responsibility fell on the shoulders of the athletes; each was asked to raise $350 for the club, be that via ticket sales, a donation out of their own pocket, or via a sponsor. Blades forward Hilary Knight landed herself in some hot water when she created and posted a comic about the situation to social media.

Fagan quoted Knight as saying,

"“The truth is we don’t have the same resources as our counterparts on the men’s side. Our sport is growing, but things like paying for gas to drive to games and practice, paying for parking and equipment — even taking days off work to go play hockey — these are all just part of the daily grind for us,” Knight said. “And the comic was about raising awareness and drawing attention to these issues, just in a playful way.”"

Playing the game at a professional level comes at a cost for these women, and not simply financially. It takes time away from everything else they might accomplish in their lives; they are putting everything they have into their careers as professional hockey players.

CWHL Commissioner Brenda Andress has said before that she wants the NHL’s assistance in marketing the CWHL to current and potential fans. The CWHL has little to no budget for marketing, and is caught in a difficult trap: it has no money to advertise to fans, but needs fans to buy tickets if it wants to expand its budget.

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In light of this situation, the Montreal Canadiens stepping up and partnering themselves with the Stars seems to be only good news for the CWHL. While the press release doesn’t get into specifics, hopefully a player will now be able to afford to donate her winning stick to the Hockey Hall of Fame without worrying about where she will get a replacement stick.

The NHL itself has more or less ignored the CWHL, despite the league slowly but steadily gaining popularity over its short lifetime.  One must assume the opinion at the top of its upper echelons is that the CWHL is a money pit rather than a money-making opportunity. Thankfully the Canadiens do not seem to think so, demonstrating as more and more girls and women sign up to play hockey the NHL can gain fans and dollars by supporting the CWHL.

The press release reads,

"“As a professional hockey organization, we have been closely involved in minor hockey development for many years in Quebec, and with the growing popularity of women’s hockey over the last decade, I think this is the right time to concretely support women who play professional hockey, and, at the same time, promote the sport among up-and-coming players,” said Geoff Molson, President and CEO of the Montreal Canadiens“Entering into a partnership with the Montreal Canadiens affords the CWHL an opportunity to grow women’s hockey hand in hand with one of the most storied franchises in professional sport,” said Brenda Andress, Commissioner of the CWHL. “Female hockey players in Quebec and around the world, along with fans of the CWHL, will be the ultimate beneficiaries of the work we do together.”"

While players likely won’t see the fruits of this partnership until the next season begins, this is a step in the right direction for both leagues, NHL and CWHL alike, and for fans of women’s hockey.

Who will step up next? The Blades’ brother franchise, the Bruins? Calgary? Or perhaps the Toronto Maple Leafs, who hosted some of the Toronto Furies and the rest of the league’s best in the All-Star Game in December? The race is on.

Next: Brampton Thunder Take On Worlds

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