All the Queer Hockey Players in the PWHL

As a queer woman dating a Canadian, it was inevitable that I’d care about the first season of the PWHL (professional women’s hockey league). After all, women’s sports are as gay as hockey is Canadian.

While my girlfriend’s local team Toronto didn’t make it to the finals, we did enjoy watching their five game series against Minnesota. And while Minnesota plays Boston in the finals, I felt like it was a good time to highlight the queer players in the league. We’ve done this for the WNBA and now we’re doing it for the PWHL!

Because this is the first year of the PWHL, there’s not a ton of personal information on the internet about most of the players. So instead I had to scroll through Instagram and play the ultimate game of siblings or dating or besties.

I tried to only include people who were obviously out, but that definitely prioritizes people in relationships. So if you’re a queer and single professional hockey player who doesn’t have engagement photos on your IG but wants in on this list DM me! Or if you posted pictures of yourself platonically kissing another woman and I misread, let me know that too.

Without further ado, here are the queer players of the PWHL! Including two teammate couples and a lot of goalies! Also a lot of really cute dogs!

Boston

Emily Brown (D)

Jess Healey (D)

Hilary Knight (RW)

dating Olympic speed skater Brittany Bowe

Amanda Pelkey (RW)

married to hockey coach Venla Hovi

Jamie Lee Rattray (F)

Minnesota

Emma Greco (D)

dating teammate Michela Cava

Michela Cava (C)

dating teammate Emma Greco

Liz Schepers (C/LW)

Montreal

Elaine Chuli (G)

Erin Ambrose (D)

Amanda Boulier (D)

Brigette Laganière (D)

Sarah Bujold (F)

Mélodie Daoust (F)

Kennedy Marchment (RW)

dating fellow player Allie Munroe

Marie-Philip Poulin (C)

engaged to teammate Laura Stacey

Alex Posnikoff (F)

Laura Stacey (F)

engaged to teammate

Marie-Philip Poulin (C)

New York

Abbey Levy (G)

Johanna Fällman (D)

Micah Zandee-Hart (D)

Chloé Aurard (LW)

Alex Carpenter (C)

Jade Downie-Landry (F)

Élizabeth Giguère (F)

Savannah Norcross (F)

Madison Packer (F)

Jill Saulnier (F)

Ottawa

Emerance Maschmeyer (G)

Zoe Boyd (D)

Emily Clark (C)

Shiann Darkangelo (LW)

Brianne Jenner (C)

Toronto

Kristen Campbell (G)

dating Olympian softball player Emma Entzminger!

Erica Howe (G)

Allie Munroe (D)

dating fellow player Kennedy Marchment

Hannah Miller (F)

Carly Jackson (G)

And don’t forget to watch game three of the PWHL finals this Friday!

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Drew Burnett Gregory

Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Drew Burnett has written 617 articles for us.

17 Comments

  1. Still shocks the hell out of me, that the league just started now…when women have been part of hockey for so much longer?? Like, what the heck? Doesn’t seem right, but better late than never I guess?

    I also think it’s hella adorable how some players are dating or engaged to fellow players! <3

    Reply to This Comment

    • There have been a bunch of iterations of women’s professional hockey in the US and Canada, but they were semi-pro at best. A lot of the best players formed the PWHPA and boycotted the existing leagues to work on building a new league. I’m sure there are others, but Julie Foudy’s Laughter Permitted podcast with Hillary Knight and Kendall Coyne Scholfield did a great job discussing the origins of the league.

      Reply to This Comment

    • Yay PWHL content! This leagaue got me and my partner into hockey. I was rooting for Montréal cause I liked their colors lol. My partner rooted for Toronto. We are both so sad with how playoffs went for each team but it’s been fun learning a new sport! Very excited for Finals and next season!

      Reply to This Comment

    • I could be wrong (I am a lot) but I think they consolidated various regional leagues into one big Pro league for the sake of getting funding, national ad revenue, etc., so if I’m not completely making this up then it actually is a big step in the right direction!

      Reply to This Comment

  2. Thank you for your service and for covering the league!

    Wearing knives on your feet while passing frozen hamburgers around and slamming people into boards is lesbian culture

    Reply to This Comment

  3. Thank you!!! I’ve never played/watched hockey before, but live close enough to the “Boston” teams’ home rink so I could get to most games and I became obsessed!! So fun, hoping for more PWHL coverage next season!

    Reply to This Comment

  4. Yes! Thank you for this! I actually learned a few things. My partner and I had seasons tickets for Toronto and were at every home game – including the game 5 heartbreaker loss to Minnesota. It’s been really great to follow the PWHL this season.

    A couple pieces of trivia:
    – all three of Toronto’s goalies are queer!
    – as far as I know, CJ (aka Carly Jackson) is the only player in the league who uses they/them pronouns (in addition to she/her)
    – Emerance Maschmeyer’s wife is ALSO a Team Canada goalie, Genevieve Lacasse, who didn’t join the PWHL presumably because she is pregnant with their son!
    – every team in the league held a Pride Night this year!
    – follow the teams on IG to see some really great fashion content in the pre-game walk-ins!

    Reply to This Comment

  5. Yay PWHL content! This leagaue got me and my partner into hockey. I was rooting for Montréal cause I liked their colors lol. My partner rooted for Toronto. We are both so sad with how playoffs went for each team but it’s been fun learning a new sport! Very excited for Finals and next season!

    Reply to This Comment

  8. OK so 37 that’s the exact same number of queer out players as the WNBA! But half as many teams. So i’m gonna go ahead and declare that hockey is the gayest sport ever. Cause it really seems like it is, but now we have proof!

    Reply to This Comment

    • At some point, we’ll have to do an updated count on out players but, if we accept 37 as the number, the W is still technically gayer league…because even though the PWHL has fewer teams, it actually has more players: 157 to the WNBA’s 144.

      Reply to This Comment

      • Natalie, I am glad to see this important issue is being taken seriously! I guess numbers don’t lie. But it’s a tight contest– 24% vs 26%. I hope you will continue to update us on this very crucial stat, but more importantly I will eagerly await any upcoming PWHL and WNBA articles, or really anything about sports!! Thank you!

        Reply to This Comment

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