Although an obvious geographical logic associates Ann-Renée Desbiens with the Montreal team in the new Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF), it is not excluded that the goalkeeper packs her bags. The Quebecer has indeed received offers from four of the six teams on the circuit, learned La Presse.
Two Canadian clubs and two others located in the United States have shown “great interest” in him, confirms his agent, Nicola Riopel, without revealing which ones. LPHF teams will be based in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, New York and St. Paul, Minnesota. The Desbiens clan will make a decision “very, very soon”.
“Very early,” after the market opened last Friday at 1 p.m., Riopel’s phone rang. And this, while “many people thought that there would be few babysitters in demand”. In any case, there is one that catches the eye. Which comes as no surprise: At 29, the Charlevoix native is considered the most dominant player in the world at her position.
To form their team, the general managers have until next Sunday to hire three free agents. We can expect a series of signings to be confirmed over the next few days. A 15-round expansion draft will then be held on September 18.
In terms of salary, the leeway for administrators is not very high. The 23 players on each team will have to pocket an average sum of US$55,000, the equivalent of approximately C$75,000. A maximum of nine athletes will be able to earn the minimum salary of US$35,000 (just under C$48,000), and at least six female players will have to pocket US$80,000 and more (some C$109,000). The Players Association will soon have to decide whether individual salaries will be made public or not.
The free agents will obviously belong to the highest paid group. And the contracts of the upper bracket must be valid for a period of three years.
Without going into details, Nicola Riopel, president of the firm Propulsion, points out that there is a certain disparity between the offers received by his client. However, unsurprisingly, no one has extended an astronomical sum either, given the constraints with which organizations must work.
“What we want is to maximize the compensation, without taking too big a slice of the pie,” the agent continues. With no existing comparable, he and Desbiens are particularly interested in the “structure,” or strategy, that each CEO wants to put in place. For example, would a team want to bet all their marbles on attackers? Or build on a solid defense and goalkeeper right from the start?
These are the types of questions that make Karell Émard, an agent for Quartexx, say that the draft will be “very interesting”.
“It’s going to give a lot of information [about GM philosophy],” she believes. It will be really exciting. »
Her phone hasn’t been ringing the last weekend, she says, and some of her clients already have deals in their pockets. Although she is careful not to reveal their identity, it should be noted that Canadian and American Olympians are among Quartexx’s clients.
Spencer Gillis, who represents a dozen players from the defunct Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), including Quebecers Élizabeth Giguère and Ann-Sophie Bettez, expects to see members of the national selections be hired as a priority. The exchanges he has had so far with the management of the clubs, however, lead him to believe that there is a “great interest” in the alumni of the PHF. “They want the best players, period,” he said.
He too expects the free agent market to offer an idea of the identity that the GMs want to give to their formation.
Despite the challenge of negotiating the first contracts of a nascent league, things are going smoothly here, assures Karell Émard. Particularly because of the clarity of the collective agreement and the fundamental principle of fairness that underpins it: apart from the amounts paid, all players will have an identical agreement in terms of working conditions and benefits. All will be eligible for a housing allowance of up to US$1,500 per month (some $2,000 CDN), the same insurance, the same performance bonuses.
Émard, who has just ended his career on the ice, was involved in the players’ association of the defunct Canadian League, dissolved in 2019, then in the Association of professional players, which led to the creation of the LPHF. So she speaks with knowledge when she talks about the “strong business model” made possible by this “historic” collective agreement, which she uses today on behalf of her clients.
“Not many people believed us when we said that we were finally going to have a professional league worthy of the name,” she recalls. Yet it happened.
“The players are excited, abounds Spencer Gillis. Everyone is optimistic with what is to come. They would like it to start tomorrow. »
However, we will have to wait until January.
