It’s the traditional Canadian childhood story – my dad would build an ice rink in our backyard in Kingston, Ontario, and as long as I can remember, I wanted to be on the ice. I loved the speed. I dreamt of playing in the NHL and winning a Stanley Cup. 

After playing for the University of Toronto, I began competing internationally, playing in 12 world championships, winning gold seven times. I played in my first Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan in 1998. This was a turning point for women’s hockey–it was our first Olympic tournament and led to a boost in young girls enrolling in hockey.  

In the last few years of my hockey career, I started to think about next steps. I knew I wanted to stay involved in sport, but I didn’t know exactly how. I went back to U of T, taking continuing education classes on project management, marketing, and effective negotiations. I also took executive education courses at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business through the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Game Plan program, which supports national team athletes. The courses allowed me to explore the business of sport, including strategic decision making, accounting and finance, and leadership. When I eventually retired from playing hockey in 2015, these courses had given me the confidence to transition from player to the business side of the game. 

In 2018—the same year I was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame after winning five Olympic medals—I became the Interim Commissioner of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL). It ended up being the final year of that league due to lack of revenue, but I got a crash course in running sports leagues, their unique business structures, and the sponsorship landscape in women’s sports. Telling the players that the CWHL was ceasing operations was very difficult. It took a lot of work and commitment to build that league and we were coming off one of the league’s most successful seasons. It was a challenging time, but I was optimistic the best was yet to come. 

After the CWHL dissolved, I became the lead operations consultant of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA): they advocate for the promotion of professional women’s hockey by raising awareness for the sport. There, I led a small group working on a business plan with Deloitte to create a new league. We secured sponsorships, planned events and spoke with investors. We also helped advocate for a single professional league that had fair salaries and professional caliber facilities.

The PWHPA had already been working with trailblazers and women’s sports advocates Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss to establish a new league. King and Kloss acted as advisors, offering advice and support. Through their networks and experience, they helped build the business plan and eventually secured investment from Mark Walter, owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. His team agreed to finance a league. 

His ownership group, the Mark Walter Group started working on a collective bargaining agreement for the players. Dodgers president Stan Kasten, who ran the operation on behalf of Mark Walter, soon after offered me the role of senior vice president of hockey operations for the PWHL. I officially joined in July 2023. The league’s first game day was set: New Year’s Day 2024.   

The six months prior to puck drop was controlled chaos. We built everything from the ground up–hiring general managers, figuring out training facilities for practices and off-ice programs, securing game venues, and creating player safety programs. We worked closely with NHL and AHL officiating managers to get referees and linespersons on board. We refined the on-ice rulebook, modeled off the NHL’s and the International Ice Hockey Federation’s guidelines. 

When that first game finally arrived on New Year’s Day, it felt surreal. It was so special to see it all come to life, because it had been a vision for so long, for all of us. However we weren’t surprised by the sold-out arenas or recording the largest attendance ever for a women’s hockey game worldwide. Our research said it was possible, and we always believed it was possible. But it’s different to live it. 

There’s more work ahead as we approach the PWHL’s second season. Last year we had 24 regular season games for each team, and this year there are 30. This season, we are bringing the PWHL experience to more cities to reach new fans, building on successful visiting games last year in Pittsburgh and Detroit, with nine neutral-site games beginning in January. It’ll be exciting to see how brands and logos debuted in September come to life in each of our inaugural six markets when season two launches on November 30. 

As a former player, I know how important it is to do what’s right for the league and what’s right for the players. As an athlete, I learned teamwork and collaboration, and I bring those skills to my position at the PWHL. Our players have resilience and grit from playing as young girls in what was a very male-dominated sport. 

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We are thrilled with the success the league has seen so far, which has happened a lot faster than we projected. The financial investment made in this league, and the experience of its leadership, sets the PWHL apart from previous leagues. We have all the best players in one league, which means we can gain more recognition and visibility through media partners and more revenue through sponsorship. We’ve built a larger platform to tell the stories of our players. We’ve attracted more people with great experience to work behind the scenes in the league. 

With more investment in women’s sports comes more visibility and a new generation of fans. We at the PWHL expect a societal shift around achieving closer gender equity in sports. Since my first Olympic games more than 20 years ago, we have continued to see a constant growth in girls and women’s hockey and a surge in enrolment after each Olympics. And although I wish I had a league to play in like this when I was still on the ice, I’m excited it’s happening now.