The New York Rangers are helping grow women’s hockey

The New York Rangers are doing their part for gender equality in hockey.

The world over, there are social equality movements to bring more diversity into the fold. Professional sports are no different. Matt Dumba of the Minnesota Wild was awarded this years King Clancy Memorial Trophy for his work off the ice attempting to bridge the racial, cultural and ethnic divide in hockey by co-founding the Hockey Diversity Alliance.  But what about the gender divide? When will women play in the NHL and for the New York Rangers?

With NHL support, the bridging of the gender gap can begin to occur at grass root levels and the New York Rangers are doing their part by supporting the Junior Rangers Girls Hockey platform. The initiative is set to introduce young girls to the game of hockey via a girls hockey league for middle school aged girls (11-14) and an feeder program for those 10 and younger.  The program kicks off in early October at more than 10 rinks across the Tri-State area.

United States Olympic Gold Medalist Amanda Kessel will be joining the all female staff as the Girls Youth Hockey Ambassador. Her achievements as a player will be used in the hopes to inspire the young girls participating in the program. With the support of the New York Rangers, she, and the stories of the pioneering women before her will make the program a success.

September 23rd marked the 28th anniversary that Manon Rheaume suited up in goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The only woman to play in the NHL. She backstopped the new expansion team in two exhibition games over consecutive pre-seasons in 1992 and 1993. She would also play in the ECHL, WCHL and IHL men’s leagues during her professional career.

Following in her footsteps, some 27 years later, Kendall Coyne Schofield participated in the 2019 All-Star Game Skill Competition. She beat out Clayton Keller for seventh place in the fastest skater competition. Her lap time of 14.346 was impressively less than a second off Connor McDavid’s winning pace of 13.378.

Women’s hockey, since its introduction at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano has become as exciting, and sometimes more so, than the men’s international product. Players such as Hilary Knight and Amanda Kessel have carried the torch that Cammi Granato carried before them. But no matter the medals, acclaim, recognition, nor prestige they have garnered, the women of hockey have not been able to make a jump into the men’s professional ranks, why?

One of the main reason would be that the media focus of women entering into the professional ranks with men is at its highest level leagues. Is it possible that players like Knight, Kessel or Schofield are skilled enough to play at the NHL level? sure, but how would anyone know since once departing from youth hockey, the game is no longer co-ed, at least not wide spread enough to garner attention.

The NHL needs to be the voice of change to provide the necessary trickle down effect of support through its teams and associated affiliates. The NHL and its teams need to provide the required leadership to ensure that women’s hockey, in all its forms is supported. Issues that led the 2019 NWHL strike cannot be allowed to continue to occur.

However, if making it to the NHL is the end goal, meaningful change and inclusion must start with the higher level youth leagues, at high school, juniors and collegiate levels. Until female athletes are permitted to play with their male counterparts in higher level developmental leagues and made eligible for the draft, they will never have a real chance at making it to the NHL.

Today’s initiatives will provide legitimacy towards tomorrow’s inclusion.