Determined Hilary Knight Wants to Spearhead Growth of Women's Hockey

Hilary Knight wrapped up her fourth Olympic Games a few weeks ago with some mixed feelings. 

The winger added a silver medal to her collection, which wasn't the desired outcome as Team USA fell to Canada 3-2 in the gold-medal game in Beijing.

Heading into the Games, there were issues with COVID-19 that led to altered training for some athletes and questions about the coaching. The U.S. team also lost one of its biggest stars in Brianna Decker to a gruesome injury after their first preliminary round game.

There was also some debate as to whether or not women's hockey should even be in the Olympics, though that debate was mostly limited to one columnist in Toronto.

It's true that there is not a lot of parity in international women's ice hockey. The United States and Canada are the juggernauts, and the European teams are good but typically not good enough to keep up in international competition.

Yet Knight is coming away from the Olympics more motivated than ever to help bring parity to the women's game by fueling its growth. The sport has some serious momentum following the Olympics, and Knight plans to capitalize on that.

"It's growing, right?" Knight told Bleacher Report. "And I think that's what's so important and critical, is not discovering women's hockey every four years, but having that daily acknowledgment that this is an incredible team sport."

However, Knight has a few things she wants to do first that don't involve hockey. While she ponders the state of her career and decompresses from the competition high of Beijing, she wants to do it near her Sun Valley, Idaho, home with her dogs.

"Especially with this [tournament], and how unique it was given COVID and all the stresses and the anxiety of just trying to get to the Olympics and then compete there. It'll definitely I'll definitely take some time to myself," Knight said. "I'm really excited to just get home and hang out with my dogs and just take a little breather. I also like to stay active. I like to hike. In the summer I whitewater raft or float, get out of the boat a bit. It's kind of cool that different things are endless in the mountains." 

The break is necessary before she gears back up to continue her efforts to promote women's hockey. The game pulled in record ratings, with 3.54 million viewers tuning in, making it the second-most-watched hockey telecast since October 2019—the start of the 2019-20 NHL season. 

"It's one of those things where internally, we're not surprised," Knight said. "We know how good we are, we know how fanatic our fans are in the best way. But to have more eyes on the sport and increase the visibility is something that we always try to do. And to be able to sit back and say, 'You know, that many millions of people watching is a pretty incredible feat.' And my hope for the sport is that it only continues to grow."

So, how does a sport in such a precarious position continue this upward trajectory? It's tricky given the state of the sport. The Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) is trying to establish a sustainable league.  

The first item of their mission statement reads, "To promote, advance, and support a single, viable professional women's ice hockey league in North America that showcases the greatest product of women's professional ice hockey in the world."

But there is already another league.

The Premier Hockey Federation, formerly the National Women's Hockey League, just announced a $25 million investment that will facilitate an increased salary cap, full health benefits, facilities upgrades, expansion plans and a 28-game schedule.

But the player's association also parted ways with executive director Alex Sinatra less than a month after bringing her in, and commissioner Ty Tumminia has announced her intent to resign following the conclusion of the season.

There have been whispers about a new organization, and those whispers have grown louder in recent days, as reports have confirmed the blueprint of a new PWHPA-led league with NHL support.

Knight, who played college hockey at Wisconsin before playing in the now-defunct CWHL and then the Boston Pride of the NWHL, would not confirm the creation of a new league, nor did she comment on the PHF. However, she believes that a strong and stable pro women's league would help grow the game in a top-down structure.

"Figuring things out at the pro level would will be important and critical for the sport," she said. "Obviously, it solves a lot of issues at the elite level. But when you consider having something that's sustainable for the elite level, it definitely impacts the grassroots level significantly."

Accessibility and visibility are the keys to growth. The investments in women's sports won't come without the participation numbers, but to encourage young girls to play hockey there has to be a mechanism in place that allows them to play.

Knight doesn't downplay how expensive ice time can be. The hope is that the PWHPA Dream Gap Tour and other PWHPA events will aid accessibility, especially as people continue to invest in the league.

As for visibility, Knight is joining ESPN as an NHL analyst. It's a new role for her, though it's something that had been in the back of her mind for years as she became a more prominent and more popular figure in the sport.

She's gotten advice from teammate Kendall Coyne-Schofield, who has worked as an analyst for NBC Sports and ESPN broadcasts and former teammate Gigi Marvin, who is doing similar work for Bally Sports.

"[Coyne-Schofield] has been a tremendous role model for me in that space. It's really cool to see all the success that she's had off the ice. It's inspiring," Knight said. "Gigi Marvin is probably another one. She's got a great voice and explanation for TV. She's got a great hockey mind. She just sees the game, and she's so skilled as a player, and then as a person, she's just got this calming presence."

It's the calming demeanor that Knight is trying to emulate in the broadcast booth. 

"It wasn't until recently that I realized, like how complicated hockey was because we've been in it our whole lives," Knight said. "So you forget how intricate the game can be in many ways, and to be able to explain that to someone who is new, or might not necessarily know in-depth like where the puck is going or things like that, it's really important to be able to have that common language."

Knight is also looking to other women around sports for inspiration, citing the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team and their battle for equal pay. Looking at what the women of soccer have accomplished with a growing league and a more equitable pay structure at the national level gives Knight a reason to believe that women's hockey can make tangible strides as well. 

Knight isn't done yet. She might be taking a break to figure out what, exactly, comes next in her hockey career, but it's pretty clear that her job as an advocate for the game is far from done. 

"Women's sports has the greatest potential growth because it is an untapped market," she said. "It's wonderful to finally see people take that step and see the business aspect of it, and not necessarily bring just a savior complex to it."