The Professional Hockey Player's Association was founded in 1967 in Portland, Oregon, when members of the Portland Buckaroos (of the now defunct Western Hockey League) recognized that Canadians playing hockey in the United States who were starting families had to send their wives home to Canada to give birth to their babies as there was no health plan (Medicare) at the time in the United States to cover the medical expenses. A number of Portland Buckaroos players including Doug Messier and Arlo Goodwin hired Portland attorney Curt Leichner as their legal counsel to legally form a WHL Players Association to allow WHL players to take advantage of group pension and healthcare plans, gaining better benefits through strength in numbers.
Over the course of the 1967-68 season, players from the American Hockey League saw the benefit of forming a benevolent society of their own and approached their WHL counterparts with the vision of creating one Players Association which would represent all professional hockey players outside of the National Hockey League (NHL).
On May 20, 1968, WHL and AHL players voted to form the “Professional Hockey Players’ Association”.
Since then, the PHPA has expanded to include representation of players in the former Central Hockey League (CHL) from 1974-1984 and 2008-2014, the former International Hockey League (IHL) from 1985-2001 and the ECHL since the 1995-96 season.
The PHPA is now recognized as one of the oldest and largest Players' Associations in professional sports, representing over 1,800 Members situated across 60 teams throughout the AHL and ECHL which are the premier player development leagues for the National Hockey League (NHL). The PHPA also boasts an Alumni Network of over 10,000 former PHPA Members.
Headquartered in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, the PHPA has a staff of 8 full-time employees and retains various external assistance such as legal counsel, financial advisors, insurance professionals, information technology, and other requirements as needed. The daily management and leadership of the PHPA is overseen by its Executive Director while general oversight is administered by the PHPA Executive Committee.
Click Here for a short video on how the PHPA was formed and what some of the most influential names in hockey had to say about the PHPA.