Women’s hockey can benefit from NHL’s Olympic absence

The NHL’s refusal to send its players to the Pyeongchang 2018 games could be an unexpected boon to the growth of women’s hockey.

To the outrage of hockey fans, the NHL has confirmed they’ll be skipping the 2018 Olympics in South Korea. Despite expressing a desire to grow their brand in Asia, especially in China, they’ve ruled themselves out of playing Olympic hockey in either of the next two games (in South Korea and China).

This all pretty much guarantees a weak North American presence in the men’s hockey tournament in 2018, with the U.S. and Canada restricted to the best of junior, college, and European hockey leagues. The only major hockey power that can still ice a competitive team without NHL players is Russia, with a decent number of KHL players available.

Thankfully, though, there will still be a competitive ice hockey tournament at the 2018 Olympics.

Women’s hockey has made headlines recently as the U.S. Women’s National Team threatened to boycott this year’s World Championships (underway now in Plymouth, Mich.). With a deal now in place to promote the growth of women’s hockey over the next four years, USA Hockey has a golden opportunity to deliver on their promise leading up to Pyeongchang 2018.

In North America, at least, interest in women’s hockey spikes dramatically in Olympic years:

That’s totally understandable, too; the Olympics are the only stage where the women’s game gets international broadcast attention. In 2014, interest surged even higher as the dramatic gold medal game between Canada and the U.S. (paired with a relatively lackluster men’s final) put the sport into the spotlight across North America.

In Canada, at least, the groundwork has already been laid. Most hockey fans across the country know Hayley Wickenheiser and 2014 hero Marie-Philip Poulin. Even in the U.S., the gold medal game in Sochi was one of the top moments of the games.

With the 2018 Olympics, the NHL’s loss is women’s hockey’s gain. A boring, watered-down men’s tournament is unlikely to satisfy demand for high-level international hockey (and frankly, neither is the gimmicky World Cup of Hockey).

If rights-holding networks are smart, especially in North America, they’ll focus their energies on promoting women’s Olympic hockey next February.

Some of the Canada-USA games at recent Olympics have been more entertaining than many of the men’s games, even with top NHL talent participating. At Pyeongchang, surely a bitter rivalry between the best female hockey players in the world is the better TV product than a Matt Hendricks-led Team USA on the men’s side?

With the new agreement in place with USA Hockey, the future looks extremely bright for the women’s game now. Two up-and-coming leagues, the CWHL and NWHL, both chock-full of Olympic superstars, are beginning to establish themselves as they find sponsorships and broadcast deals.

Although the NWHL will lose many of its stars (like Hilary Knight and Amanda Kessel) to national team training camps next year, an Olympic year where the women will take sole control of the spotlight could do wonders for growth.

Even without the NHL news, the 2018 women’s tournament is shaping up to be one of the most exciting ever, with this year’s World Championship already buoyed by the emergence of new contenders like Finland.

Women’s hockey certainly stands to benefit from this NHL decision, as long as broadcasters give the Olympic tournament the coverage it deserves. Any fan who watches it in relation to the likely disastrous men’s competition will surely see it as a superior product.

Next: NHL players will not play in 2018 Olympics

If USA Hockey comes through on their commitment to the women’s national team, American fans will have much more to cheer about in the women’s tournament than the men’s.

Pyeongchang 2018 could be a hugely influential moment in the growth of women’s hockey if the stars align for it. Where the NHL will fail to grow their brand, the women’s game will thrive.