Canada’s Meaghan Mikkelson, left, and Marie-Philip Poulin, right, defends against the United States’ Hilary Knight during the third period of a game in Hartford, Conn. on Dec. 14, 2019. (AP file photo)

Jason Spezza would have jumped at the opportunity to voice his support for women’s hockey even if he didn’t have four daughters growing up at home.

The veteran Maple Leafs forward was a big fan of the women’s game long before he was married, dating to years ago when Spezza attended a pre-Winter Games tune-up between Canada and the United States at a rink in suburban Toronto.

“It was one of the best hockey games I’ve watched,” he recalled this week. “There were 6,000 people packed in the building. And it didn’t matter that it was males or females. It was just a great hockey game.”

That memory, coupled with the invested personal interest he has for his children, helped prompt Spezza to be one of numerous NHL players to participate in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association’s latest campaign promoting the need to establish a new North American women’s league.

Titled “Stick In The Ground,” a one-minute video released last week features U.S. and Canadian women’s national team players, NHL players, tennis great Billie Jean King and even Toronto Mayor John Tory discussing the importance of planting a stick to benefit the future of women’s hockey.

As PWHPA executive and Hockey Hall of Fame member Jayna Hefford says in the video: “Every young girl deserves to have the same visible hockey role models as every young boy.”

Founded in May 2019 following the demise of the Canadian Hockey League, the PWHPA is made up of the world’s top female players united in a bid to establish a single North American professional league — ideally backed by the NHL — with a long-term sustainable economic model.