One of the best female hockey players in the world will be suiting it up for a new team this season, as Hilary Knight has signed with the Montreal Canadiennes of the CWHL for the remainder of the year. Knight is fresh off a gold medal with the US Women’s Olympic team, and will return to the CWHL for the first time since 2015.
Knight has won just about every trophy imaginable in women’s hockey, taking home two NCAA titles during her time at Wisconsin, two Clarkson Cups as a member of the Boston Blades, and an Isobel Cup with the Boston Pride in 2016. She also brings nine World Championship medals (nine gold, two silver) and three Olympic medals (one gold, two silver).
- Speaking of international standouts, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic (subscription required) provided us with an incredible profile of the next UK born-and-trained player that has NHL potential. Liam Kirk, a forward for the Sheffield Steelers, is likely going to play in the CHL next season and could be drafted this June. Kirk has just recently turned 18, but is already playing in the highest level in Great Britain, and doing quite well. The young forward told Wheeler that Buffalo, Detroit, Edmonton, Vancouver, Arizona and Winnipeg have all expressed interest or attended one of his games, while Boston is expected to do so.
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2019, but unlike most players might not be swayed by the biggest monetary offer. Ekman-Larsson spoke with Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet and explained that money isn’t the driving force behind his thought process anymore. “It’s just money. It’s not going to make you happier. It might make your life a little bit easier but it’s not going to make you happier.” Ekman-Larsson explains that he likes it in Arizona and would like to stay, something both sides have maintained all along.
Would love for a NHL team to give Hilary Knight a shot to compete.
…why?
Serena Williams is probably the greatest female athlete in any sport ever and, in her prime, she lost to the #203 ranked man in the world. Soundly.
Fangraphs just had an article asking whether a woman could legally challenge to play in MLB based on gender discrimination. In reality, there is no woman good enough to play in men’s pro league.
But, reversing the logic, the CWHL, WNBA and LPGA could be all male tomorrow based upon such a ruling.
So, might be better to keep things as is.
How would you know this if they have never been given the chance? Please enlighten me.
Ask yourself the question “Why haven’t they been given the chance?”
For the record, you sound like a sexist pig in your comment. Just because it hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Would it reallly hurt the Phoenix Coyotes to try out different personnel?
Whether you agree with it or not, the NHL would never allow a woman to play a non-goalie position in their league(even then I doubt they’d let a woman goalie due to crease-crashing and 100+ mph slapshots). The primary reason being the fact they would not want to be known as the league that allows physicality against women by men. The optics of it would kill the league. It’d be a PR nightmare and an utter disaster that could destroy the league. The only way it’d be feasible is if the NHL completely altered the dynamic of the sport and eliminated all forms of hitting. Doing so would allow women to play but would also alienate the core audience and likely cause a lot of fans to be turned off because of the elimination of the physical aspect of the game.
Hockey and tennis are two completely different games.
They are! Tomorrow we can learn our shapes!