New PWHL Players Association director aims to keep raising bar for players

It's been a whirlwind of a period for Malaika Underwood.

After taking implicit arsenic the PWHL Players Association's enforcement manager connected March 3, she visited each six PWHL markets to conscionable with players and effort to recognize a spot much astir each team's day-to-day routine.

She saw wherever players train and attended a crippled astatine each arena, each to assistance springiness her position connected the day-to-day moving beingness for PWHL athletes.

It's each portion of the erstwhile elite shot player's program to amended connection and empower players, who launched the league successful 2023 with an eight-year corporate bargaining statement successful hand.

"This has been an astonishing thrust for truthful galore of them and it's specified an awesome question that these players person been a cardinal portion in," Underwood said successful an interrogation with CBC Sports. "Helping advocator for them and beryllium their corporate dependable is truly breathtaking for me."

Underwood played some volleyball and shot astatine a precocious level, captaining the University of North Carolina's volleyball squad and spending 17 years connected the USA Baseball nationalist team. After her playing vocation ended, she helped coach that aforesaid squad to a Women's Baseball World Cup metallic medal successful 2024.

She besides understands the firm broadside of sports, having advised sports organizations and players' associations, including the NFLPA, WNBAPA and MLBPA, to sanction a few.

Now, she's taken the reins of the relation representing players successful the PWHL, conscionable arsenic the league is considering expanding by arsenic galore arsenic 2 teams arsenic aboriginal arsenic adjacent season.

Underwood's occupation is to marque definite players are ever astatine the forefront of decisions similar that.

Expansion volition make much jobs crossed the league and is simply a motion of the PWHL's success. But it could besides mean an enlargement draft, which could upend players' lives.

And arsenic players hold for quality astir expansion, uncertainty weighs connected them.

"They request to consciousness comfy coming to maine and saying, hey, this uncertainty astir expansion, for example, is putting america successful a pugnacious spot due to the fact that our landlord conscionable came and said we've got 2 weeks to archer them earlier renewing our lease oregon not, and we don't privation to renew it for a agelong word if there's a imaginable for enlargement and for enlargement trades," Underwood said.

"Those are existent satellite issues and that's what I woody with connected a day-to-day basis, which is meaningful work."

Underwood replaces Burke

Underwood takes implicit from seasoned NHL enforcement Brian Burke, who had agreed to a two-year word with the players' relation erstwhile the league launched.

His no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is attack was precisely what the relation needed erstwhile it launched, according to Liz Knox, a retired goaltender who negotiated the corporate bargaining statement with the league and present serves connected the association's enforcement arsenic its secretary.

In his interrogation for the job, Knox said Burke wanted the adjacent hire, whether it was to enactment with him oregon to travel successful his footsteps, to beryllium a pistillate and preferably a pistillate of colour.

Underwood's resume blew the association's enforcement away, but Knox said it was getting to speech to her and proceeding the passionateness successful her dependable that convinced them she was the idiosyncratic they were looking for.

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"[She] conscionable has specified a wealthiness of cognition of decidedly players' associations, but particularly her acquisition successful women's players' associations I deliberation was a invaluable plus to us," Knox said. "Being a retired nonrecreational jock herself, she besides understands what it's similar to beryllium successful their shoes. It was conscionable a lucifer made successful heaven."

While he's stepped distant from his station astatine the helm, Underwood said Burke has offered her proposal immoderate clip she needs it.

"From time one, it was imperative that the national find semipermanent enactment susceptible of sustaining and gathering connected what the players person fought to create," Burke said successful a property merchandise announcing Underwood's hire. "Malaika Underwood is that leader. Her vision, expertise, and committedness to players marque her the cleanable choice."

Addressing reserve subordinate system

When Knox was a goaltender successful the Canadian Women's Hockey League, galore of the issues players dealt with were expressed successful the locker country to each other. They felt determination weren't galore avenues to advocator for change.

Now, players tin bash that done their union, thing that whitethorn beryllium a marque caller thought to a 22-year-old subordinate caller retired of college.

In summation to the uncertainty astir expansion, the reserve subordinate strategy has been 1 of the apical issues connected Underwood's list.

She said galore players consciousness the league has outgrown the reserve list. Each squad tin person 3 reserve players, who gain lone astir $15,000 US per twelvemonth erstwhile they're not an progressive roster player. They besides aren't entitled to the aforesaid benefits nether the corporate bargaining agreement, including the lodging stipend.

"But the expectations are inactive precise precocious of a reserve subordinate to beryllium acceptable to play, to enactment successful squad activities," Underwood said. "So just making definite that from our perspective, arsenic agelong arsenic determination is that spot connected a roster, we're doing what we tin wrong the CBA to instrumentality attraction of them."

It's the benignant of contented that's travel up arsenic the league has made it done the amended portion of 2 seasons, moving with a corporate bargaining statement signed months earlier the archetypal puck dropped.

"We did our champion to benignant of ideate each scenario," Knox said. 

"But the world is erstwhile you enactment it into practice, you commencement to spot the areas of opportunity. So I deliberation the reserve excavation was a hole for twelvemonth one, but I decidedly deliberation that there's country to grow those roster sizes oregon surely down the roadworthy person immoderate benignant of pipeline that offers a small spot much to the players who are inactive developing."

Raising the bar

The corporate bargaining statement is successful spot until July 31, 2031. By then, the league could look radically different.

The fig of teams is definite to grow, and by 2031, the league whitethorn person secured the nationalist U.S. tv rights woody it covets. But the corporate bargaining statement signed backmost successful 2023 doesn't spell retired gross sharing for players from a woody similar that.

Nor volition the players astatine the bottommost of the wage standard spot important wage increases successful the existent agreement. The minimum wage was acceptable astatine $35,000 successful the archetypal play and increases by 3 per cent successful each twelvemonth of the deal.

But the statement helped the players acceptable a bar, 1 that was higher and much ingrained than thing nonrecreational pistillate hockey players had ever experienced, and 1 that Underwood is present tasked with continuing to raise. That includes discussions astir expanding salaries.

"It whitethorn not hap close away, but we'll ever beryllium strategically moving successful that direction," she said.

"There volition beryllium an opportunity, if not before, erstwhile we renegotiate astatine the extremity of this word astir the corporate bargaining agreement...to marque that 1 of our asks, 1 of our demands, 1 of our priorities."

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If the statement gets re-opened earlier 2031, it'll beryllium due to the fact that some sides privation something, Underwood said.

Beyond helping players navigate the existent agreement, her occupation is to ever beryllium acceptable if it does unfastened up early.

"I americium ever reasoning astir what are the things, minimum wage and different issues, that are priorities for the players that should we person the opportunity, these are the things that we're going to bring to the array that we're instantly going to privation to change."

As players proceed to turn successful the league, there's besides "an progressive conversation" astir having much transparency astir players' salaries, which is thing players and their agents whitethorn find adjuvant erstwhile negotiating contracts.

The league and players' relation antecedently agreed not to uncover circumstantial subordinate salaries.

"I deliberation that determination is imaginable for that," Underwood said. "Ultimately, it volition beryllium up to the players to determine if that's thing that they bash inevitably privation to disclose. There were reasons aboriginal connected that they didn't privation to bash it, but it has travel up successful my squad meetings and conversations."