The PWHL is placing a “major emphasis on marketing” itself during the Milan Cortina Games, as the event marks the league’s “international coming-out party,” according to John Wawrow of the AP. While NHL players will be competing at the Olympics for the first time since 2014, these Games “mark the debut of true professional women’s hockey players.” The PWHL is represented with 61 players among the 10 competing nations’ rosters, and “most notably filling out a majority of the U.S. and Canadian teams.” The league’s objectives are “introducing PWHL fans to the elite level of Olympic play and luring casual viewers tuning in once every four years to the PWHL.” The Games also serve as the “next launching point of growth” for the PWHL, which began with six franchises and now has eight. More expansion is “on the horizon,” with the league “set to add up to four more teams next season.” The PWHL “lags in international talent” as it attempts to “market itself as the world’s top league.” But PWHL EVP/Hockey Operations Jayna Hefford is “confident expansion, coupled with an Olympic tournament featuring PWHL stars, will be a vehicle to attract more international players.” PWHL Advisory Board Member Stan Kasten previously said that the league is “eying playing exhibition games in Europe and one day establishing teams there” (AP, 2/2).
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