Women & Sport: Women's pro ice hockey may soon have its moment in North Jersey

Professional women’s hockey may soon have its moment — not only internationally, but also locally.

This week, the Metropolitan Riveters announced that East Rutherford will be their home for the next three seasons. That’s a big win for local hockey fans in Bergen County: They will have access to professional women’s games in their backyards for the first time, well… ever.

It’s also the first time that professional hockey will be played in the borough since the New Jersey Devils left Continental Airlines Arena in 2007 for the then-new Prudential Center. Continental Arena — most recently called Meadowlands Arena — now sits vacant in the shadow of the American Dream megamall, where pro hockey will be making its return.

Having a professional team based in a community has the potential to be a gamechanger for local sports. Exposure alone can go a long way to influence youth athletes to pick up a sport. But having a professional organization in your backyard can also lead to some long-term benefits, like the creation of a youth sports pipeline with a specific team or, more simply, a grassroots effort to develop youth programs.

The latter already exists at American Dream, which is home to the New Jersey Devils Learn to Play program, where young players are taught the fundamentals of hockey at a cost that includes covering the cost of equipment. The program was created in conjunction with the National Hockey League Players’ Association and NHL and is offered at various locations statewide. Though the Riveters and Devils ended their professional partnership in 2019, the two organizations worked together to kickstart this youth program.

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"Recognizing the current landscape, we believe the best way to support the future of women's hockey is by reallocating our resources to focus strategically on grassroots initiatives that positively impact female youth hockey players in our area," the Devils said to ESPN at the time, "while leveraging our resources to help train, support and develop women's hockey players competing at the highest levels."

In November, the Riveters announced the New Jersey Devils Youth Hockey Club and the Ironbound Elite as the team’s official junior affiliates. The goal here is to work with girls in the greater New Jersey area to learn how to play hockey and to grow the sport.

The Riveters are solidifying their roots in Bergen County as the sport is growing rapidly.

Just last month, ESPN and the Premier Hockey Federation announced a two-year extension on their broadcast partnership. The PHF — which rebranded last year from its old identity as the NWHL — is also in the midst of rolling out plans for an new team in Montreal. The expansion team, dubbed The Montreal Force, revealed its name, logo and jersey last month, as it prepares for its debut in the PHF this fall.

This is all happening with another professional women’s league on the verge of being announced. The Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, or PWHPA, signed a letter of intent with Billie Jean King Enterprises and The Mark Walter Group to explore the launch of the new league, The Athletic reported in May.

The history of women’s hockey is complicated. The PWHPA formed in May 2019, just two months after the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folded. When the league folded, 200 players announced they would be sitting out the upcoming season with the National Women’s Hockey League, which is now PHF. The players boycotted the PHF in favor of forming their own league years later that offered players livable wages, full health benefits and treated players professionally, as NBC’s On Her Turf has reported in recent months.

The PWHPA will be kicking off its annual Dream Gap Tour in October, with games running through March 2023. According to On Her Turf, the PWHPA-led league would launch in January 2023, but those plans have since shifted.

“To see how far we’ve come in three years, it’s empowering,” Liz Knox, a PWHPA advisor told On Her Turf in May. “We’re finally at a point where we’re almost able to be like: This is why it mattered then. This is why it was hard, because it has never been done.”

Women & Sport is a NorthJersey.com column devoted to female athletes from the rec league level to those in college and the pros. If you've got a tip on an athlete from North Jersey who should be noted in the column, no matter how young they are or how old, please drop me a line at anzidei@northjersey.com.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Women's pro ice hockey may soon have its moment in NJ