TORONTO, ON (September 5, 2023) – The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) today announced the first three players to sign free agent contracts with the league’s Ottawa franchise are forwards Emily Clark, Brianne Jenner, and goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer.
The trio of Canadian Olympians have all agreed to terms on three-year deals for the 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26 PWHL seasons. Salary terms will not be disclosed, as per the PWHL Players’ Association.
“We are thrilled with the three players we have signed as the inaugural players for the Ottawa franchise,” said Mike Hirshfeld, General Manager of PWHL Ottawa.
“We truly believe that we have signed three incredible hockey players. As important to us, we are focused on making Ottawa a best-in-class organization in the PWHL, a place where players want to come and play. Building a culture is important to us and we believe these three players are incredibly well-respected and will help us to lay the foundation of the type of organization we aspire to be.”
Mike Hirshfeld, GM of PWHL Ottawa
Emily Clark
Has been an important fixture for Hockey Canada since 2011, when she made her U18 debut. Since then, the PWHL Ottawa signee’s impressive international résumé includes two Olympic medals (Gold, Silver), seven IIHF Women’s World Championship medals (2 Gold, 4 Silver, 1 Bronze), two 4 Nations Cup medals (1 Gold, 1 Silver), and a pair of U18 gold medals.
Clark played NCAA hockey for the University of Wisconsin from 2014-19—with a one-year break to play in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games— and helped the Badgers make it to the Frozen Four in all four seasons capped by a National Championship as a senior.
Born in Saskatoon, SK, the 27-year-old played in the PWHPA from 2019-21 and during the 2022-23 season where she finished second in scoring with 23 points in 20 games.
“I couldn’t be happier to be a part of the PWHL Ottawa franchise and I am looking forward to building on the strong women’s hockey history in the nation’s capital,” said Clark. “Having played there before, it was evident that the fans are passionate and that this is a hockey city. This is a dream come true and I cannot wait to get things started in Ottawa!”
Emily Clark
“We are absolutely delighted to have Emily join Ottawa as one of our inaugural franchise players,” said Hirshfeld.
“We love her complete 200-foot hockey game and strongly believe she is only getting better as a player and is heading into the prime years of her career. As important to us, in performing our due diligence, everyone we talked to raved about her as a teammate and a leader and we believe she will be an integral part of the culture we are trying to build in our locker room.”
Brianne Jenner
Joins Ottawa with an extensive list of accomplishments in international, NCAA, and professional hockey.
The 32-year-old from Oakville, ON debuted with Team Canada in 2008 as part of the U18 team and has amassed more than a dozen international competition medals, including three Olympic medals (2 Gold, 1 Silver) and nine World Championship medals (3 Gold, 5 Silver, 1 Bronze), among others.
Jenner was named MVP at the 2022 Olympics where she tied the Olympic record for goals scored in a single tournament (9) en route to winning gold.
Her collegiate career began in 2013 at Cornell University where she set the program’s all-time scoring record and became a two-time top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award.
Upon graduation, she played professionally in the CWHL and captured the Clarkson Cup title in 2016 and 2019, and later, with the PWHPA, where she has served as a board member.
“This is a dream come true,” said Jenner.
“I’m thrilled and honoured with the opportunity to help build a franchise in Ottawa and help establish a culture and atmosphere here that will be a foundation for years to come. I couldn’t be more excited to get to Ottawa and become a part of the community. I would like to thank my family for their support through this process and throughout my career. This is truly a dream come true for all of us. I am grateful for this opportunity from the Ottawa organization, and I cannot wait to get started in November.”
Brianne Jenner
“It is an honour to welcome one of this generation’s greatest players to Ottawa and we are thrilled that she will be joining us as an inaugural member of our franchise,” said Hirshfeld.
“Her accomplishments to date are incredibly impressive, and we are excited to watch her lead our team over the next few seasons. We strongly believe her leadership and work ethic will lay a foundation for all of our players and our entire franchise and create the type of team culture and commitment that we believe is extremely important.”
Emerance Maschmeyer
Joins Ottawa by way of Bruderheim, AB, where her development into one of Canada’s top goaltenders included a unique stint playing boys Jr. A hockey with the AJHL’s Lloydminster Bobcats.
She would go on to spend four years at Harvard University from 2012-16, where she was recognized as a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award as a sophomore and graduated as the program’s all-time leader in saves.
Maschmeyer’s international career began at the U18 level in 2012, where she backstopped Team Canada to gold.
Her notable list of international success also includes an Olympic gold medal and seven World Championship medals (2 Gold, 4 Silver, 1 Bronze).
Her professional career began in 2016 in the CWHL, where she was a two-time Clarkson Cup finalist and the 2018-19 Goaltender of the Year. Most recently, the 28-year-old played for the PWHPA from 2019-21 and 2022-23.
“It is an absolute honour and privilege to be one of the first-ever players signed to the PWHL,” said Maschmeyer. “It’s important to recognize that I wouldn’t have reached this point of signing a professional contract without all the determination of the women and pioneers of the game who came before me. I am thrilled to be joining the Ottawa organization as we build a strong-charactered, Championship caliber team.”
Emerance Maschmeyer
“We believe Emerance is one of the top goalies in the world and believe she is heading into the best years of her career,” said Hirshfeld.
“We are excited to have her on our team. In doing our research, people around the game were unanimous about all the intangibles she brings to the table like a positive, infectious personality, an amazing teammate, and a leader. She will be an important part of the culture we are trying to build in Ottawa.”
The PWHL player selection process officially opened on September 1 with an initial free agency period that continues through Sept. 10. Teams are permitted to sign three players to Standard Player Agreements during this time. The 2023 PWHL Draft is scheduled for Sept. 18 where Ottawa holds the fifth overall pick.
BEIJING (AP) — Speaking less than 24 hours apart over the final two days of the women’s Olympic hockey tournament, the two captains’ messages were emphatic, emotional and similar in their desire to grow the sport.
Kendall Coyne Schofield choked back tears following the United States’ gold-medal loss to Canada at the Beijing Games by saying: “We need to continue to push for visibility. We need to continue to fight for women’s hockey because (the status quo) is not good enough. It can’t end after the Olympic Games.”
Switzerland’s Lara Stalder voiced a similar theme directed at her nation’s hockey federation after losing the bronze-medal game to Finland.
“My message is to build a league in Switzerland. Make the best league in Europe,” Stalder said, noting she and 13 of her teammates play professionally in other countries.
“Obviously, there should be one league, like the NHL, for all of us to compete against the best players,” she added, suggesting Swiss league men’s teams should consider sponsoring women’s teams. “But I think we’re far away from that in Switzerland, and that needs to change.”
Another Olympic tournament is over, and little appears to have changed. Canada and the United States met in the final for the sixth time in seven Winter Games, and the issue of how to improve the sport globally remains.
At a time when everyone agrees changes are required, there’s little concrete consensus on what needs to be done other than private or public entities making larger investments.
Such is the case in North America, where there are few signs of a thaw between the continent’s only pro women’s hockey league, the recently renamed Premier Hockey Federation, and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, whose membership is largely made up of U.S. and Canadian national team players.
Based on player responses, the PHF remains mostly off their radar despite the league announcing last month it is expanding from six to eight teams and more than doubling the salary cap for each team from $300,000 this year to $750,000 for next season.
In one breath, Canada forward Brianne Jenner said: “That’s a really exciting thing, and I think we want to see the success of that league.”
In the next breath, however, she added: “But we also want to see something that is going to stand the test of time.”
”We have to make women’s hockey a priority.”
Asked who needs to come to the table if it’s not the PHF, Jenner said: “That’s a good question.”
The NHL was supposed to be that entity, before it backed off after the coronavirus pandemic blew a major hole in its budget.
American star Hilary Knight essentially shut the door on the PHF by reiterating the PWHPA’s mission statement to establish a player-driven league with a sustainable economic model.
The responses are a setback for the PHF, which has spent the past two years restructuring its governing model by bringing in private ownership groups. The league hoped its decision to invest $25 million over the next three years to increase salaries, provide health care and improve facilities would help lure the PWHPA members into joining.
If there was a bright side in Beijing, criticism that the world was falling behind the U.S. and Canada after several lopsided wins seemed premature.
The Americans briefly trailed the Czech Republic before pulling out a 4-1 win in the quarterfinals. Canada, meantime, was on its heels in allowing the Swiss to cut their lead to 5-2 before rallying to an eventual 10-3 win in the semifinals.
What became evident was the U.S. and Canada benefitting in the early stages after spending the previous four months playing and practicing together. Most of the other nations didn’t have that advantage. Their players didn’t have much time to be together because they have professional commitments and had to deal with COVID-19 travel restrictions. They used the preliminary round games to find their chemistry.
The Beijing Games were the first of seven Olympic women’s hockey tournaments in which every team registered a win, and with the field expanded from eight to 10 teams.
At the International Ice Hockey Federation level, newly elected president Luc Tardif attempted to fix a credibility gap, with the governing body criticized for favoring the men’s game over women. The latest example came a few months ago, when the IIHF canceled the Under-18 women’s tournament for COVID-19 reasons while pressing ahead with its men’s world junior championship.
The world juniors were eventually stopped a few days into the tournament because of COVID-19, and have been rescheduled for August. The Under-18 women’s tournament will also be rescheduled this year.
Tardif noted the IIHF added $5.4 million to its women’s hockey budget to increase its prize purse for players in both the qualifying tournaments and Olympics.
“I’m not the guy who doesn’t believe in women’s hockey. I think Zsuzsanna by my side, she’s always there to remind me, but she doesn’t have to push me a lot,” Tardif said, referring to women’s tournament organizer Zsuzsanna Kolbenheyer. “I’m convinced, and I believe in women’s hockey.”
Tardif spoke at a news conference originally scheduled to start at 10 a.m., two hours before the women’s gold-medal final. The news conference was moved to 9 a.m. after the IIHF realized it could conflict with the game.
Stalder shook her head in dismay when informed of the potential scheduling conflict.
“Find your answer yourself in that,” Stalder said, sarcastically. ”We have to make women’s hockey a priority.”
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AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.
