PHF Chairman addresses commissioner search, Digit Murphy hiring, expansion and more

On Tuesday evening, On Her Turf interviewed Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) Board of Governors Chairman John Boynton about a variety of topics, including the timeline for announcing a new commissioner, league expansion, the decision to hire Digit Murphy as the new President of the Metropolitan Riveters, and the role of BTM Partners in league governance.

On Her Turf also asked about Boynton’s role as chairman of Yandex, Russia’s largest tech company, which has reportedly played a role in suppressing factual information and promoting propaganda related to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. He declined to comment.

Here are the biggest takeaways from that conversation.

According to Boynton, Ty Tummunia‘s successor as PHF commissioner will be announced “very soon, and possibly even this week.” Tumminia, who took over as commissioner in October 2020, announced in February that she would be stepping aside after this year’s Isobel Cup Playoffs.

“We are deep into the search process. We started out with a really great set of candidates… and worked down through a list of finalists. And we interviewed the person we believe will be the next commissioner,” Boynton said, going on to clarify that he was not a member of the search committee himself.

According to Boynton, the committee was led by Connecticut Whale owner Tobin Kelly, and there were six people involved in the search process: three members of the Board of Governors and three senior staff members.

Boynton declined to provide names of the hiring committee members or provide a number of how many members of the hiring committee are also members of BTM Partners. “I’m not sure that’s really relevant,” he said.

When the PHF (then NWHL) was founded, the league owned and operated all