Izzy Daniel ‘19 always dreamt of playing a professional sport. After a decorated college career, this dream came true when she was drafted by the Toronto Sceptres in the third round of the second PWHL draft in June 2024. The PWHL played its inaugural season in 2023-2024, and before this she never believed playing hockey professionally would be an option for her. She explained, “Even when I was in college playing hockey, I didn’t think there would be an opportunity for me to continue playing post-college. And then, luckily the PWHL started up last season and it kind of was perfect timing for me coming out of college to join the league.”

The league currently has six teams, three of which play in the US and three in Canada. Daniel has nothing but good things to say about Toronto, describing the team as “one of the top-notch organizations in the league” and explaining that “they do a really good job making sure that we feel like we are professional athletes.” The culture shock of moving from Minnesota to Canada hasn’t been too much either – she said “the weirdest thing is probably the currency difference or the metric system difference, little things like that.” She even claimed:  “It’s colder in Minnesota.”

With only six teams in the league, the level of competition is very high. As Daniel put it, “You’re playing with the best.” She explained, “In college or high school, you could take a little bit of a game off. Maybe the team you’re playing you knew wasn’t as good, but in this league, everyone is so good and the parity is so high.” This year, three teams, one of which was Toronto, finished with 12 wins, and all six teams finished with between 8 and 12 wins.

The level of competition is so high because of the talent on every roster. Every team has Olympic gold medalists on its roster. The experience of playing with and against these players has been incredible for Daniel. She explained, “Growing up, I watched some of them play and now I’m sitting next to them in the locker room, which is kind of a surreal feeling.” However, the most unexpected part of being in the pros has been the bonds and friendships she has formed: “They’re all such amazing women and I’ve made a lot of great friends… we’re all super close,” she said. She continued, “I wasn’t expecting that as a professional because, you know, now it’s a job and you don’t necessarily have to foster that camaraderie or that culture that I think you aim to do in high school or college.”

The jump from college to the pros has been a bigger step up than she had experienced going from high school to college, “especially in terms of speed and physicality.” Another difference has been the shift in rules – checking, which is not allowed at the high school or college level, is allowed in the PWHL. She explained, “Lot[s]of us are coming from a league that taught us how to do that. So it’s kind of just learning how to dodge hits or learning how to throw hits.” Although these aspects of the game are new, she can trace some of her success back to high school. The roster during her time at Blake was very strong, with many players going on to play at various college levels, and she says “I think going up against those players in practice really set me up for success at the next level.”

The PWHL is only continuing to grow from here. Next year, two more teams will be added, in Vancouver and Seattle. This year, the league played a ‘Takeover Tour’ game in Vancouver, where two teams face off in a location that does not currently have a team, which Daniel notes as one of the highlights of her season. Both games sold out and drew almost 19,000 fans, which was previously unheard of in women’s sports, but is particularly impressive for such a new league. After seeing this many fans, Daniel says that “the fans out West really deserve a team.” She believes that new fans would be “surprised at the level and the pace.” She adds, “I think a lot of people watch hockey because of the physicality on the men’s side… but I think they’d be surprised at how physical our game is and how exciting it is.”