Marie-Philip Poulin (left) celebrates with teammates Laura Stacey and Maggie Flaherty after a goal against the Minnesota Frost on Sunday, March 1, 2026, at Place Bell in Laval. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

By The Canadian Press

PWHLPA president Stacey says salary leak ‘a shock’ but may help players push for more

Mar 31, 2026 | 3:02 PM

MONTREAL — Laura Stacey was caught off guard when PWHL player salaries leaked last week.

Now she hopes the added transparency helps players seek better contracts moving forward.

Stacey, the president of the Professional Women’s Hockey League Players’ Association, addressed the situation Tuesday after The Hockey News published salaries from the 2024-25 season, despite the union voting last summer to make that information available only to players and agents.

“It is amazing for the players that our salaries are public so that one another can help each other, especially in terms of expansion and signing new contracts and free agency,” the Montreal Victoire forward said after practice at Verdun Auditorium. “With that being said, we voted on it to be public for our eyes and for our agent’s eyes only, so I think that was a bit of a shock for us and not something that we necessarily wanted, or the way we wanted it to come out.

“But with that being said, ultimately at the end of the day, we want the players to be able to push for more and ask for more based on what other people are doing around them.”

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The Hockey News revealed the 2024-25 salaries — and contracts signed during last summer’s exclusive window for the Vancouver and Seattle expansion franchises — in a series of articles citing sources “involved in the PWHL.”

The reports sparked debate on social media about salary transparency, and the popular NHL podcast “32 Thoughts” weighed in on the issue during its March 27 episode.

In the NHL, players voted to implement salary disclosure in January 1990, with the Montreal Gazette publishing all wages that month — a move widely credited with creating a competitive market and driving up pay.

The PWHL has publicly disclosed only minimum and average salaries, set at US$37,131.50 and $58,349.50 for the 2025-26 season.

The league’s collective bargaining agreement, ratified in July 2023, also required at least six players per team to sign three-year contracts worth $80,000 or more annually ahead of the league’s inaugural season in 2024.

So why were full figures shared only internally?

“Especially early on in this process, I think we just felt it was important for the players to know, but it wasn’t necessarily at the stage that we needed everybody to know what our salaries, what our contracts look like,” Stacey said.

“With that being said, that was because it was Year 1, 2, 3 of the league. Our league is growing. We’re now at Year 3, the buildings are getting sold out, so I think at some point here we’re going to have to come up with a new vote.”

Stacey added she’s had “a lot of talks” about salary disclosure recently and expects discussions to continue about how the players’ union can take ownership of sharing that information.

“It is on us, and I think we will talk about how we can change this, how it can become our voice and our words and our information,” she said. “Some of it is already out, so that’s on us as players now to regroup and say, ‘Hey, what do we want now? What’s next because of where we’re at?’

“I think the early decision was, ‘Hey, we’re early on here in this league, let’s keep this to us as a group who fought for this, and then let’s see where we can go from there.'”

Izzy Daniel, the PWHLPA player representative for the Vancouver Goldeneyes, called the release “disappointing” but said it could also highlight how little some players earn.

“I think it’s just a matter of time before they came out, I guess,” Daniel said after Vancouver’s 3-2 win at Toronto on Sunday. “I think transparency could be good to show how a lot of players in our league are underpaid and the product on the ice … just continues to grow. But definitely was a little disappointing to see.”

Victoire forward Catherine Dubois, who — according to The Hockey News — made the minimum of $36,050 in 2024-25, also believed the transparency was important.

“I think there are people who think that we’re making millions,” she said. “I think that maybe this will make people realize that we’re not doing this for the money, and maybe they’re going to understand our reality a little more.”

Many PWHL players spent years making “zero dollars” before the league’s inception, Stacey said, and the fact that people can now earn a living playing women’s hockey is significant.

But she acknowledged there’s still progress to be made — especially with the league filling arenas across North America.

“This is incredible that we’ve reached this level, that we’re already at a level that people are able to play for a living, where we don’t have to have side jobs anymore,” she said. “(But) it does open some of our eyes to say, we gotta continue to push for more, we gotta keep growing, we gotta keep raising the standards of women’s hockey, because it is working.

“Arenas are selling out, the growth of this game is incredible, and I think as players we want to keep that momentum moving forward.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2026.

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press