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October 12, 2023 by Ryan Lotsberg
The Edmonton Oilers announced that they have hired Dani Rylan Kearney as a regional scout. Rylan Kearney is listed as a professional scout on the Oilers official website. She joins Chris Cichocki, Jason Pietrzykowski, and Warren Rychel as professional scouts with the organization.
Rylan Kearney is most known for founding the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), the first North American professional hockey league for women that paid players a salary. The four-team league played its inaugural game on October 11, 2015. In its second season, the league had to cut player salaries by 38%, which drew the ire of the players.
The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) folded on May 1, 2019. Several prominent female hockey players decided to not play in any North American professional women’s hockey league until a league with a sustainable business model that would allow them to play hockey for a career was created. Rylan Kearney had been working towards a potential merger with the CWHL, but those negotiations were clearly unfruitful.
The CWHL folding and those prominent players deciding not to play in any league posed a challenge for Rylan Kearney and the NWHL. The NWHL increased its schedule from 16 to 24 games for the 2019-20 season, and it implemented a 50/50 revenue sharing agreement between the players and the league so that the players would earn more money as league revenue grew. The agreement led to a 26% increase in player salaries in the first season.
Rylan Kearney stepped down as commissioner of the NWHL in October 2020 as part of a change to the league’s governance structure, which included the creation of a board of governors with a representative for each team. Rylan Kearney was the representative for four league run teams. She resigned from that role in 2021.
The NWHL rebranded as the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) ahead of the 2021-22 season. The PHF ceased operations on June 29, 2023 after Mark Walter and Billie Jean King bought the PHF. Walter and King would partner with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) to create the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). The PWHL held its inaugural draft on September 18, 2023, and will drop the puck on its first season in January 2024.
Rylan Kearney’s is truly remarkable. According to Kristina Rutherford of Sportsnet, she grew up in the Tampa Bay area, and got into hockey after the Tampa Bay Lightning entered the NHL when she was five years old. She moved to Massachusetts at the age of fourteen to play high school hockey. Rylan Kearney played on the men’s hockey team at division two Metro State University in Denver, Colorado while studying journalism.
Rylan Kearney got into the Masters in Sports Leadership program at Northeastern University after completing her Bachelor of Journalism degree. She contacted the then coach of the women’s hockey team, David Flint, and asked for an opportunity to try out for the team. Flint had recruited her for a division three team previously, and it wasn’t a certainty that Rylan Kearney was good enough for division one NCAA hockey. She made the team, and became captain in her second year. She also became the first walk on player to earn a scholarship when she earned a scholarship for her final semester.
While attending Northeastern University, she sold water to Boston Red Sox fans walking by her apartment on their way to Fenway Park. She called her water business “Hydration Nation”, and she made about $30,000 in her first summer of business.
After graduating from Northeastern University, she moved to New York for a job with the NHL Network that aligned with her dream of being a sports reporter. That was right before the 2012 NHL lockout, which was poor timing for her. Instead of waiting around, she opened a coffee shop called “Rise & Grind”.
“Rise & Grind” is such a fitting name for a coffee shop opened by Rylan Kearney. She has risen above any challenge she’s faced, and she’s grinded for everything that she has. She earned a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree, and opened two businesses by the age of 25. She founded and became commissioner of a hockey league at 28 years old. She sets her goals high and works incredibly hard to make them realities. Her drive, dedication, and determination are admirable.
Rylan Kearney is the latest on a growing list of women being hired in NHL hockey operations departments. This season, there are over 100 women in NHL hockey operations departments serving in many roles including coaching, player development, and scouting. There are six female assistant general managers in the NHL this season, including Emily Castonguay and Cami Granato of the Vancouver Canucks. It’s great to see the list of women being employed by NHL teams growing at the rate that it is, and it’s great to see the Oilers become a part of that.
Related: Oilers Hire Parkatti as Senior Director, Data and Analytics
The addition of Rylan Kearney is the latest progressive move by Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson. He bolstered the analytics department by hiring Michael Parkatti to run it. Earlier this summer, I suggested that Jackson would likely add to the professional scouting staff because there were only three professional scouts on staff while most teams carry four to six of them. He’s added to it in a big way with the hiring of Rylan Kearney, another exceptional mind that will bring fresh perspective to the organization.
Related: Jackson’s Potential Impact on the Oilers: Part Three – Professional Scouting and Analytics
Rylan Kearney played division one NCAA hockey, and she would have had to have scouted and recruited players for her league. Her knowledge, experience, and work ethic will serve her well as a professional scout for the Oilers, and this role will likely set her up for success in future roles in hockey.
