Will National Women's Hockey League Succeed?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The WNBA will celebrate 20 years this coming season – a milestone, trailblazing accomplishment in women's professional sports – but what about women's hockey?

Now, there's a new league trying to provide that answer.

Like your typical millennial, Dani Rylan has a smartphone and a latte close at hand.

One big difference? She's the commissioner of a professional sports league, which the 28-year-old former Northeastern University hockey player started basically out of frustration.

"As a female in the sport, there's really nowhere to go when you're done with college," Rylan said. "And they say women peak athletically when they're 27 years old, but almost every career ends when these players are 21, 22. And a lot of those players were my friends. Seeing that they couldn't continue to play their career or continue to develop or dream of really reaching their peak was something that needed to be addressed and there needed to be a solution for it."

The only thing is she didn't know quite how to address it. So she did what any good millennial would do: She Googled it.

"That's more or less it, yeah," Rylan said with a laugh.

What sprang from her screen is now the National Women's Hockey League. It's in its first season, with four franchises: the New York Riveters, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale and Boston Pride. Boston played an exhibition game at Minnesota's Ridder Arena in December.

"Everybody knows there's a WNBA," Rylan said. "We want everyone to know that there's a National Women's Hockey League."

The league is peppered with Minnesota natives and former Gophers like Gigi Marvin, who plays for Boston.

"It's been an awesome first year," Marvin said.

Marvin is one of the league's highest-paid players. That's right, the players are paid -- the first women's pro hockey league to do so. With salaries ranging from $10,000-$25,000 a year, it's not enough to live on alone. But Rylan says it's at least a good start, and Marvin agrees.

"We understand that women's hockey has been in existence, what, 25 years?" Marvin said. "It's very difficult for someone to compare that to the men's game. They've been around for over 100 years. And when they were 25 years young, they weren't making millions. I bet they weren't even making $300."

Most of Marvin's teammates also have full-time day jobs to make ends meet.

"Being a teacher, or still in grad school, or being an engineer," she said. "There's been many times we came back from Buffalo at 5 a.m., and they go to sleep for an hour and then go to the lab."

Rylan says investors are paying the salaries to get the league off the ground, but securing TV deals and sponsorships will be critical to long-term success.

"Sports run off of broadcast deals and sponsorships," she said.

But it's worth pointing out that this is not nearly the first time someone has tried to launch a women's professional sports league. And thus far, the only one to see long-term sustained success is the WNBA, which had considerable support from the NBA as it grew. So the question is: Can the NWHL succeed where so many others have failed? And how?

"One thing that's really important is the support of the NHL," said former Gophers coach Laura Halldorson. "If women's hockey can do what women's basketball is currently doing, that would be fantastic. But there's no question they needed the NBA, and the owners of those NBA teams, to step up, knowing they weren't going to make a lot of money right off the bat."

The NHL has said it supports women's hockey, but has yet to throw any actual dollars behind it.

"In women's sports, there are a lot of pro leagues that have come and gone," Halldorson said. "It's very hard to sustain a professional women's league these days."

Rylan says it's her blueprint for the league that sets it apart from those who've tried and failed in the past. Besides paying players, games are only scheduled on weekends – to allow players to have other jobs, and to be more accessible to fans. And the league's regional footprint -- all in the Northeast -- was very much on purpose to cut down on travel costs.

Which raises a very interesting question here for us..What about Minnesota? Does the State of Hockey fit into the National Women's Hockey League?

"Oh, I think it's natural," Marvin said. "I mean, I think it's the obvious next step."

Travel is the primary hurdle. But if it can be cleared – such as getting an airline sponsor, Rylan said - it's clear Minnesota is high on the priority list for expansion plans.

"Minnesota's definitely a potential expansion opportunity," Rylan said.

And turns out, there's a ready-made team already here. The Minnesota Whitecaps, which played against Boston in that exhibition in December, have been around since 2004, featuring top former college players who didn't want to stop playing.

"And hopefully someday, we're going to be in a position where a league comes calling, and we can say we're ready to go," said Halldorson, who is now with the Whitecaps.

She believes that's not a question of if, but when.

"Yeah, I do," Halldorson said. "I think it's inevitable that we have something."

The Whitecaps say, at least for now, they're operating under the assumption they'll remain an independent for at least another season.

But the NWHL does have some competition. The Canadian Women's Hockey League has four teams in Canada and one in Boston. It does not pay its players, but has pledged to start doing so next season. It also has expressed an interest in adding Minnesota as an expansion team.

Many would like to see the two leagues merge, and it seems the NHL is waiting for that question to be resolved before committing support.

To have a sustained, long-term successful women's pro hockey league? Marvin knows what that would mean. Not just for girls in Minnesota or Boston, but around the country.

"Huge," Marvin said. "The National Women's Hockey League, like, that's a thing. That's something that I'm going to shoot for.

"It's amazing to think about what are their opportunities going to be when they are in my shoes, and they are coming through the ranks, and what has been paved for them. And it's just really exciting to look and see what the future might hold for those kids."