Meet Elizabeth Giguere, the PWHL's rising star

"There was never a moment when I didn't want hockey to be my job one day," says Elizabeth Giguere, who will take the ice for PWHL New York when the puck drops on the league's inaugural season on Jan. 1.

"I always said I wanted to play in the NHL, but I knew that wasn't possible," says Giguere. Instead, she focused on the daily business of earning wins, making two NCAA finals appearances, taking home the 2020 Patty Kazmaier Award, and becoming the sixth all-time scorer in women's Division I hockey. Along the way, Giguere, acutely aware of the changing women's professional hockey landscape, dared to hope there would be a professional opportunity for her after college.

That chance has materialized in the form of the PWHL. Formed in the summer of 2023, the six-team league officially launches Jan. 1 when Toronto hosts New York in a historic season opener. That will kick off a 72-game regular season with each team - Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, New York and Minnesota - taking the ice 24 times.

"I cannot wait for the public to get to watch the games throughout the season. I think it's going to be a lot of fun," says Giguere, who was selected 28th overall by New York in the league's first draft.

Before the PWHL and its forerunners, female athletes like Giguere, a Quebec City native, had to rely on national team opportunities to extend their playing careers beyond college. Despite an outstanding NCAA career, Giguere hasn't been able to establish herself with Team Canada. Her only national team opportunity came at the 2015 under-18 world championship where she had three goals and four assists in five games.

As a freshman at Clarkson in 2018, Giguere led the team to a national title, scoring in overtime to seal the deal. Giguere played four seasons for the Golden Knights and was named captain in her senior year. She set a school record for career points with 233 in 137 games.

Then she transferred to the University of Minnesota Duluth to take advantage of an extra COVID-19 year of eligibility and earned another trip to the Frozen Four. Following college, Giguere signed with the Boston Pride for the 2022-23 PHF season, posting 22 points in 18 games.

Those efforts were enough to attract some attention from Team Canada, Giguere joined the squad for the seven-game Canada-USA Rivalry Series in 2022-23. But the 26-year-old forward feels like she's just scratching the surface of her potential - and her PWHL tenure might be the right platform for her to show the world exactly what she can do.

theScore caught up with Giguere ahead of the PWHL's season opener.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

theScore: How did you first get into hockey?

Giguere: My family is huge into hockey. All my cousins were playing, but I wasn't because we didn't have a lot of money. My parents were like, "No, you can't play." So, I was playing soccer. But when I was about 5 or 6, after the first year that my cousin started, I started saving up my money - my birthday money. One time my mom saw, and she was like, "Why are you keeping all your money?" I told her it was to play hockey. After that, my parents were like, "OK, we have to sign her up."

They signed me up and the funny thing was, I was so bad. I started skating and my mom thought I would quit because I was terrible at skating. So bad. But then I came off the ice and I was like, "Wasn't I so good, mom?" I just loved it so much that I kept playing and playing.

Obviously at some point you stopped being bad at it.

I think around 13, 14, or 15 was when I was really like, "I actually love this." I was going on the ice every single day because I did half school, half hockey since about grade four. I was active in that and I improved by 100 percent.

What career opportunities did you see for yourself in hockey?

I was hoping something would be there after college. I was more hoping I would get to play as long as I possibly could. When I was finishing up college, all of these leagues were happening, and I hoped it would all be figured out by the time I was out of college. That's when my dream became, "Maybe I can actually play after college." But it was never concrete, and I also always felt like I had to find another plan.

I had friends graduating and not knowing where to go. And I did do one year in the PHS and then this summer we got the news that the PWHL was actually happening. It was a shock - we were like, "Actually happening?" We didn't know the process of how it was all going to work, when the season was going to start, where the teams were going to be. It was a big shock, but it was fun.

The draft, to be honest, was a once-in-a-lifetime position to be in. My family was there with me and my first impressions were, "Holy cow, this is actually happening." To be here now is surreal.

How would you characterize your style of play?

I'm an offensive person for sure. I can score or pass - I like to create things and I'm someone that's really patient with the puck. I'm someone that loves to see great plays and I love to make like my teammates score.

This historic season is under a microscope in many ways. Are you feeling that pressure?

I'm not someone who puts pressure on anything like that. It's the first season and just the fact that everyone is so excited to get to play hockey, it's not a pressure. We know what we have and what we can show to the world - how women's hockey is fun to watch and good.

It's a fast-paced game. And it's physical on the boards. Yes, there are no open-ice hits. But it gets very intense. You see a big difference between watching on TV and going to an actual in-person game. I also think there are sometimes nice plays in the women's game because there aren't open-ice hits. You see a lot of dangles and things that are fun for the fans. We make skilled, interesting plays.

Has there been a moment so far where it's started to hit home that you're a professional athlete?

When you're sitting on the bus with your team, in the way you're treated, the way you get all your meals: It's your job. Tonight, I worked out and practiced. That's my job. That's what I got paid for.

Do you and your teammates talk about the greater impact you want to have on women's sports through this experience?

We actually talked about it, some of us on the bus on the way back from our preseason games. Someone said, and it struck me, that we're kind of doing this for the generations coming after us. There's a girl right now who's 10 years old and going to play here in 10 years or 12 years. We want her to have the best possible people around her and conditions. I think all the girls are trying to push it to make the next generation even better.

I could never imagine this when I was a little kid. The fact that now a little girl can say, "I want to play professional hockey in 10 years," that's just crazy.

Jolene Latimer is a feature writer at theScore.