The sale and subsequent shuttering of the Premier Hockey Federation had a seismic impact on women’s hockey — and on PHF players.

Investors in the rival Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association bought out the PHF. While the move cleared the way for a singular professional women’s hockey league in North America, PHF players were left without a home.

More than 120 players already had signed with the PHF for the 2023-24 season, but those contracts have been voided, and the players are not guaranteed a spot in the new league. Many already had started to prepare for the upcoming season, from relocating to their teams’ cities to finding housing, before they learned of the sale Thursday via Zoom call.

Mikyla Grant-Mentis was training on the ice when the news broke. She knew about the scheduled call but expected it to be uneventful, so she counted on teammates to catch her up on the details. Instead, less than five minutes after the start of the meeting, they were texting her to tell her their league was finished.

“I got off the ice and was like, ‘Holy crap, I need to get on this call to see what’s happening,’” Grant-Mentis told SportsNet. “It didn’t really last much longer than that, because I feel like everyone was honestly pretty blindsided and didn’t really have much to say. We didn’t really know what was happening at that point.”

Grant-Mentis already had signed with the Buffalo Beauts for the upcoming season, at a price tag of $100,000.

“The first few days were definitely very tough, because we were expecting to make a certain amount of money next year, have our plans set — pretty much getting ready to move back to Buffalo, for me,” she said. “And then in a very short Zoom call, it was kind of all just torn down.”

Veteran leaders from the PHF have told their fellow players to funnel all media requests to them “until further notice,” according to a message reviewed by Just Women’s Sports. The hope is to ensure “PHF players are unified and consistent with our message across all communication channels.”

A group of 11 players issued a public statement Sunday that expressed optimism about women’s hockey moving forward. But 2021 MVP Grant-Mentis is not one of them.

“I hope this group that was put together is able to benefit us and make waves, so the PHF players are not just left in the dust, so that we are taken care of in this new league,” Grant-Mentis said. “I’m hoping they’ll be able to do something for us in the long run. But, you know, it’s all up in the air. We don’t really know what’s going on.”

Just one year ago, Grant-Mentis signed a historic deal with Buffalo that made her the highest-paid professional women’s hockey player in history. Now, she told Sportsnet, she’ll have to find a part-time job to help pay the bills.

While she’ll join PWHPA and PHF players in vying for roster spots in the new six-team league, there are only so many roster spots to go around. Grant-Mentis should be well-positioned among PHF players, but even if she signs with the new league, she will be taking a pay cut.

Player salaries in the new league will range from $35,000 to $80,000, The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian reported. At least six players on each roster must be signed to deals worth at least $80,000 a year, and no more than nine can be signed to contracts worth $35,000 a year.

“I don’t really have any input, because no one really asked us what we think about it,” Grant-Mentis said. PHF players did not get to vote on the PWHPA’s newly ratified collective bargaining agreement, though they will be able to join the union if they sign with the new league.

“So, we kind of just have to go with what’s going on,” she continued. “And hopefully in a couple of years, we’ll be back up to making $100,000 and everyone being able to survive off the money that they’ll be paid.”

Grant-Mentis also is worried about the friends and teammates who could have a hard time making the new league, saying that people are “kind of missing the whole story.” While the best women’s hockey players will convene in one league, there is a downside for a group of players who “don’t really have a voice,” she said.

“It kind of did ruin a lot of people’s lives in a very quick, 10-minute Zoom call,” she said. “I think people should really see the other side of it. You know, all the people in the PHF that signed contracts were relying on this money, relying on the job for next year. And now there’s a very big (sense of) uncertainty.

“With the limited amount of teams [in the new league], that means not everyone’s going to get a spot. … It sucks. Because a lot of people did put their whole life on pause thinking that we would survive for another five, six years playing hockey, and then start their lives. But that kind of came a little bit quicker than many of us were thinking.”

Aryna Sabalenka won her first Grand Slam of the 2025 WTA season on Saturday, with the world No. 1 defeating then-No. 9 Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-6(3) to claim the US Open trophy — the final Slam of the year.

"To bring the fight and be able to handle my emotions the way I did in this final, it means a lot," Sabalenka said following the match. "I'm super proud right now of myself."

After successfully defending her 2024 US Open title — and claiming tennis's top 2025 paycheck in the process — Sabalenka is now the tournament's first repeat champion since 2014, when Serena Williams claimed a third straight trophy at the New York Slam.

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The 27-year-old narrowly avoided a Slam-less year, going without a trophy despite reaching both the Australian Open and French Open finals as well as the Wimbledon semifinals.

"I think because of the finals earlier this season, this one felt different," Sabalenka said. "All of those lessons are making me tougher, tougher, and tougher."

As for Anisimova, the US rising star added a new career-high WTA ranking alongside her second straight Grand Slam final appearance on her 2025 resume, rising to world No. 4 in Monday's update.

Also earning a noticeable bump on Monday was Japanese star Naomi Osaka, who clocked in at No. 14 after a stellar Grand Slam comeback run to the 2025 US Open semifinals.

The Golden State Valkyries have made WNBA history yet again, setting a new league attendance record by selling out all 22 of the 2025 expansion team's home games this year — and doing so in their debut season.

Even more, the WNBA surpassed the 3 million-fan mark over the weekend, an historic first for the 29-year-old league.

A hit from the very first tip-off, the Valkyries have seen unprecedented support while becoming the first-ever expansion team to make the WNBA playoffs in their inaugural year.

Making the announcement in their final 2025 regular-season home stand against the Minnesota Lynx on Saturday, the Valkyries have officially seen fans fill every one of the Chase Center's maximum 18,064 seats all season — claiming a WNBA all-time record for any team's per-game average along the way.

With those season-long record crowds, Golden State also now owns the WNBA total attendance mark at 397,408 fans on the year.

Just behind Golden State are the Indiana Fever and New York Liberty — the only other WNBA teams that will close out the 2025 regular-season with average crowds over 16,000 and totals breaking the 300,000-fan mark.

With one home game still left to play for each team, Indiana has welcomed 349,313 total fans so far, while New York currently sits at a 341,575 total attendance for the 2025 WNBA season.

Attendance has skyrocketed across the WNBA year, thanks in part to the league adding both a 13th franchise as well as two more home games to each team's 2025 schedule.

As a result, the league demolished the previous season-high attendance of 2.36 million set in 2002 and, with 11 games still on the 2025 regular-season schedule, the WNBA is currently on track to push past the 3.1 million mark before the postseason tips off.

Three retired WNBA icons received their flowers over the weekend, as Minnesota Lynx legends Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore and Seattle Storm great Sue Bird took their places in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday — making the 2025 WNBA class arguably the most dominant in HOF history.

"Now that I'm in the Hall, I believe I have become Auntie Maya," Moore said in her enshrinement speech. "I want to challenge you up-and-comers to learn to love and seek out joy and connection as your biggest motivator."

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With 11 Olympic gold medals — more than any other HOF group — and 10 league championships between them, plus countless individual honors, Fowles, Bird, and Moore comprise the strongest women's basketball Hall of Fame class in history.

Even more, this is the first year that the Naismith has added a full trio of WNBA players to its hallowed halls — a testament to the unmatched careers of Bird, Moore, and Fowles.

"Put us on a 3×3 team, you'd have some problems — we'd be pretty good," Bird joked. "It is pretty special to go in with people who aren't just amazing players, having impact on and off the court, but these are players that I got to experience life with."

"I think that would be fair to say that they would have the title of best class ever," Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve said.

The 2025 NWSL season for the No. 5 Orlando Pride has taken a sharp downturn, as the reigning league champions are now winless in their last seven games following Sunday's 5-2 loss to the No. 13 Chicago Stars at Northwestern University's Martin Stadium.

While left back Carson Pickett and defensive midfielder Haley McCutcheon each managed to take a goal back for the Pride, a leaky Orlando back line saw five different Stars players hit the back of the net — including a 10th goal on the season for Chicago star striker Ludmila.

"I apologize to the fans that were watching at home, and I apologize to the fans that were here with their support. That was not us today and we have to get it right," Pride head coach Seb Hines said following the match.

Orlando have continued to slide down the NWSL standings since their last win on June 13th, most recently logging three straight losses as the team struggles to find their form following MVP candidate Barbra Banda's season-ending injury on August 16th.

One of the Pride's rare bright spots on Sunday was record-breaking signee Lizbeth Ovalle, with the Mexican international subbing in at the half to make her NWSL debut.

Chicago, on the other hand, hasn't dropped a match since returning from the midseason summer break, with the surging Stars putting on a Sunday show in their impending lakefront home.

"I feel like it's just a really cool atmosphere, a lot more people can come now, and it's really good vibes," midfielder Julia Grosso said after the match.