Is NHL strictly a men's league?

[gdsmack267]

HF Boards in July just hits different

 

[GOilers88]

Again, my stance is that the circles of the Venn Diagram overlap. They aren't completely separate. My stance is not that they fully overlap and become one circle.

924 men played in the NHL this past season. I'm not convinced that every single one of them is a better hockey player than every single woman that played hockey in the past year. How wholly unreasonable.

It's not even about being "better". It's about the ability to hold up to the massively physical rigors of playing against men.

Women play non contact. That alone should tell you plenty.

 

[Il Stugotz]

I doubt a woman will ever be able to make the NHL due to the physical advantages of being male. There’s too big a gap between optimal male and female bodies.

But I also hate how dismissive people are towards women athletes. Like their accomplishments are still valid regardless of how they compare to men. Maximizing human potential is the objective, not just the highest number.

 

[Joe Zanussi]

I don’t believe there will be any woman who could compete in the NHL anytime soon. But I won’t say “never”. The fact that teams full of women lose to teams full of boys isn’t real relevant to this discussion in my opinion. We aren’t wondering if there could be a team of women in the nhl….we’re wondering about one, singular super-woman. Which also means comparing average heights and weights isn’t relevant….we’re not talking about the abpverage woman; we’re just wondering if there could be one woman who could have the necessary size, skill, mental makeup, coaching, etc…I don’t know the details of Serena playing the 200th ranked man but, if she lost 6-1, 6-0 then that gives me hope that a woman could someday make the tour….not be great…not win a tourney….just make the tour. There’s still a huge jump from that to a comparison w the nhl but at least it’s a start. So I’ll say it won’t happen in my lifetime but maybe my grandkids’ lifetime lightning will strike. As a father of girls, I’d be a fan.

 

[joestevens29]

Me too… now…. and I’m old.

Have you seen some of those UFC women fight? I’d run away… hoping praying I can out run her.

Can you jump and climb fast? Because being in a cage you'll corner yourself rather quickly

HF Boards in July just hits different

I am thankful the Oilers went far this year. It really has prolonged the insanity.

Still haven't even fully caught up with the draft and free agency, so it might not be until August that our boards go completely crazy.

Hopefully Jackson recognizes this and just slowly makes more AHL/prospect trades here and there to give us things to actually discuss.

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

Ryan Arcidiacono played 20 games in the NBA last season. 45 minutes total for the season. 8 total rebounds. 4 assists. 2 steals. 5 personal fouls. He attempted 6 shots (all 3 point attempts) and missed every single one. Didn't score a point.

So your point is that there was a bad player on a NBA roster for 20 games last year? If your point is a women could also do terribly, I think you are missing the point.

 

[Neil Racki]

One day there will be a legit female player.

 

[winnipegger]

A prerequisite would be that women's junior leagues would need to be full contact. The reason they aren't ought to tell you everything you need to know.

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

It's always funny when guys act like men being generally stronger is some sort of achievement on their part versus biology.

In terms of level of competitiveness of mens versus women's game in sports, the size of the talent pool is often overlooked. The number of women playing hockey in a serious competitive sense today is probably still smaller than the number of men in the early original 6 days.

It's always funny when people just making a purely factual statement is portayed as bragging. I respect the hell out of women who play hockey. Just not crazy enough to think they could play at the NHL level against the best players on the planet.

 

[beachcomber]

What victim complex? What am I a victim of? There are dozens of NHLers that are just warm bodies. Guys that don't PK, don't run around hitting, aren't doing anything with the puck or without. They are just there and can't keep up with the speed or physicality of the NHL either. Any one of them could have just as easily been a woman and no one would have noticed. But that opinion is outrageous apparently...

That is completely ridiculous. Put the worlds best female player in an NHL game and you would notice the difference right away. They wouldn't even make a junior A team in Canada let alone the NHL. If you have ever played hockey, which I doubt, skate in a beer league game with a retired AHL'er and you'll see the difference right off the bat.

 

[Gnome17]

People get all up in arms and start discussing and laughing about women playing in the NHL when all OP did was ask a technical question. Funny.

 

[Zirakzigil]

We are done here.