Alleged NWHL employee leaks missed payment emails, league responds
On Wednesday morning, many members of the media who cover women’s hockey received an email titled “NWHL LIES.”
From the body of the email, completely unedited:
I work for the NWHL and this was hard for me to write because I believe in women’s hockey, but I have to tell someone because so many people can get hurt because of what is going on behind closed doors at the league office. Please don’t share my name I want this to be anonymous
Why is it that every time the NWHL Commissioner Dani Rylan says something its a lie?
Kate cimini’s article below asks why the players didn’t receive the gear they were promised. Dani’s response doesn’t answer the question she politically skirts the question, and lies about the relationship with her and Bauer Hockey. The fact is that Bauer Hockey at the time of the Article had the NWHL in collections and was threatening a law suit. See the emails below as proof.
Everyday I hear that the league has no money to pay its bills, While the players have been paid, and that is great but every payday is a struggle the only reason the players were paid this year was because of Joel Leonoff and George Speirs, no one else has ever helped.
Anyone unlucky enough to have entered into a business deal with Dani and the NWHL have been stiffed. All of our vendors the Arena’s, Equipment companies, clothing vendors, people who have given loans no one has been paid. The league owes hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the companies are lining up to sue
Dani says the investors want anonymity that is a lie, she has one main investor Joel Leonoff. Dani scrambles to get money to pay the players every payday, some paydays are late and she blames holiday’s or the general managers the truth is she didn’t have any money to pay them. she has no money for next week let alone next season, her and Skillan laugh about it “if we can pull it off were good if not there is always vegas,”
Now we find out that Chad Wiseman was denied access to the country a week ago because he was here illegally he never had a visa for the whole season and Dani has been paying him cash no taxes, now Immigration and IRS is investigating us, how are we going to expand into Canada? when is this all going to stop?
This isn’t right there are a lot of people counting on this league and she lies about everything, she tells investors that she has other investors and its a lie.
I have included emails to back up what I’m saying.
All of the vendors are lining up to sue the league. And she doesn’t seem to care she has not paid anyone in full.
The person who sent the emails – from a non-NWHL account – attached screen caps of correspondence between Bauer and individuals at the NWHL, including Commissioner Dani Rylan, regarding past due balances on gear. The emails range in dates from December 15 to January 28.
We’re not posting them because we cannot verify their authenticity, and don’t feel like getting sued. We don’t know what was left out of the chain, either. Happy Yahoo!-ing.
The equipment part circles back to an article (referenced in the email above), “NWHL Players Missing Bauer Equipment” by Kate Cimini on Today’s Slapshot from Feb. 18. Here’s the statement from Rylan:
“Bauer Hockey has gone above and beyond what is outlined in our official partnership to ensure we meet the equipment needs of our elite athletes,” Rylan said. “They have been a great partner and supporter of the NWHL in its inaugural season, and we thank them for their continued support of our league as well as women’s hockey in general. We continue to work closely with Bauer to ensure our players continue to receive the equipment they need to play at the highest level possible.”
What the disgruntled “employee” fails to realize is that the statement Rylan made was on behalf of both the NWHL and Bauer.
Both worked together a second time to respond to the anonymous emails leaked with surprising, and welcomed, candor from the NWHL commissioner:
“Bauer Hockey has been a great partner and supporter of the NWHL in our inaugural season. From the beginning, the NWHL was founded on the principle of paying women to play hockey. In our dedication to pay our players first, we missed a payment with Bauer. We have since paid them and are looking forward to working with Bauer Hockey again this season.”
Yes, the commissioner admits to missing payments in order to fulfill obligations to players. This opens up a Pandora’s Box of questions the start-up league is prepared to answer,
As for the illegal immigration and under the table payments of New York Riveters head coach Chad Wiseman, the anonymous truther did not include any emails to back that statement up.
This whole situation is just weird.
This isn’t the first time the media is being played to make the NWHL look bad. We’ve received emails on the Puck Daddy account that are trying to point us in a certain direction in the hopes we’ll go to press without checking our sources. Some websites did that today with the emails.
We don’t know and aren’t going to speculate on who is attacking the NWHL. But as we’ve said multiple times, the kid gloves are off, and both women’s leagues have to be prepared for the fall out.
(And no, this isn’t to imply the CWHL had anything to do with it. Take your tinfoil hats off.)
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Jen Neale is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter! Follow @MsJenNeale_PD.
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