The deal is done and it's time for international hockey to commence once again.
The United States Women's National hockey team is in Plymouth, Michigan for IIHF Women's World Championships, and they're ready to compete.
After a discrepancy between USA Hockey and the women's national team over wages--among other concerns--the two agreed upon new terms for the next four years, avoiding a boycott of the tournament on Tuesday, March 28.
According to NBC Sports, the women who once received around $1,000 a month in an Olympic year will now receive around $3,000 to $4,000 per player each month. In terms of annual earnings, each player could reach $70,000 and could even earn as much as $129,000 in 2018 around the Pyeongchang, South Korea Winter Olympics if the team wins an Olympic gold medal.
Kendall Coyne, a forward on the US Women's National Team, told 9NEWS that USA hockey pays the women's team nothing. The little wages they had received prior to their boycott (up to $2,000 a month) were paid by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Along with their increase in pay, the team will also receive the same traveling accommodations as the men's team (business-class) and insurance protection-- which they had asked for in the negotiations.
NHL Network will televise all Team USA games, and NHL.com will stream all their games live.
The tournament begins on Friday, March 31, when eight of the nation's top teams face off in a fight for the gold medal. The U.S. has won three of the last six gold medals in the world championships and six of the last seven titles at the Olympics.
The team begins the tournament against rival Team Canada at 5:30pm MT.
Team USA has fallen to Canada in the last four Winter Olympic games; however, the Americans defeated Canada 1-0 in overtime during the last IIHF World Championships in 2016.
The women's national team will attempt to claim its championship title starting tomorrow evening.
