The past 13 months have brought great momentum for women's hockey in America. Last February, the United States defeated Canada in an epic Olympic final to capture the Americans' first Olympic gold in two decades. In January, Kendall Coyne Schofield became the first woman to participate in the NHL All-Star Weekend skills competition. As a replacement for NHL star Nathan MacKinnon in the fastest skater competition, Coyne Schofield said it was a moment she knew would "break a lot of barriers."
The NHL is trying to keep that momentum going.
The NHL and NHLPA made a joint announcement Friday -- on International Women's Day -- that they would be launching a Female Hockey Advisory Committee, which is "dedicated to accelerating the growth of female hockey in North America while also ensuring more women and girls have the opportunity to experience the benefits that hockey offers."
The 11 women on the inaugural committee are Michele Amidon, Annie Camins, Maria Dennis, Mandi Duhamel, Lyndsey Fry, Angela James, Tarasai Karega, Kelsey Koelzer, AJ Mleczko Griswold, Caroline Popilchak and Kristen Wright.
According to an NHL spokesperson, the whole point of the committee is to get strong voices across hockey -- from all parties, in the U.S. and Canada, in the NWHL and the CWHL -- together to hash out ideas. They are expected to meet regularly.
Dennis, who is the NHLPA director of player health and safety and associate counsel, is serving as the committee chairperson.
There's a blend of perspective in the group, ranging from the 54-year-old James, one of the first superstars in women's hockey, to 23-year-old Koelzer, a current NWHL player who is the first African-American drafted No. 1 overall in any North American professional hockey league. Fry, who also has begun working with the Arizona Coyotes this season, is the first person from Arizona -- male or female -- to play ice hockey in the Olympics. Last spring, Mleczko became the first woman to work as an in-booth analyst in an NHL postseason game for NBC.
Dennis says the goal of the group "is to ultimately help grow the game, and we are looking forward to working together on this meaningful endeavor." James, who was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010, called it "a great opportunity for women on both sides of the border to come together in an effort to keep women's hockey on an upward trend."
Last July, the IIHF shared that there are now nearly 200,000 women playing hockey across the world -- up from 170,000 (a 17.6 percent increase) in 2010. It's especially noticeable in the U.S. USA Hockey's membership statistics suggest a hugely growing demand. In 2017-18, the growth of women's registration for USA hockey was nearly 6.5 times greater than the growth in men's registrations. There were 79,355 registered hockey players in the U.S. 2017-18, which is more than 3,500 from the previous season.
The biggest goal for women's hockey right now is to create one professional sports league -- which would likely include some kind of merger of the CWHL and NWHL -- to pool the resources and talent for something sustainable. It is believed the NHL will eventually get involved with a women's professional league in North America but will not get involved as long as both leagues are in their current iteration because, it does not want to choose sides or swoop in to fix the situation.