Sophie Jaques is making hockey history — and just getting started
Already a PWHL champion with her name in the history books, Sophie Jaques is just entering her prime and only getting started.
“DEDICATED TO THE CRAFT”
I
t’s the otherworldly instincts, rather than the outcome of the play itself, that give you a sense of Sophie Jaques’ seemingly limitless potential. It’s February 2024, just past the midway mark of PWHL Minnesota’s inaugural season, and the young defender is floating through the top of the offensive zone, surveying the chaos out on the sheet at the University of Minnesota’s famed 3M Arena, and looking for her opportunity.
As the puck pops out of a scrum, careening into open space near the right circle, Jaques sees her moment. She takes off, sidestepping the first Toronto defender with ease, her purple jersey billowing as she bulldozes through a stick and collects the puck along the right wall. Jaques drops a second defender to one knee as she dances past, carrying the puck deep into enemy territory. But then the walls close in. She rounds the corner to see another white jersey posted up in front of her. The previously felled defender approaches from behind, while more Toronto reinforcements cut towards her from the slot.
It’s here, with little time for logic, that Jaques is at her best, here where she becomes an on-ice supercomputer, calculating in milliseconds an escape route others might not come up with in hours.
It starts with a turn of her wrists, Jaques sweeping the puck forehand to backhand away from the wall, leaving an oncoming defender poking at air. Another opposing stick comes in from the left. Jaques decelerates, pulls the puck back to her right, and now surrounded by three Toronto back-checkers, dishes easily to an open teammate behind the net. Then comes the true brilliance. As every white jersey in the vicinity rushes to the netfront, converging on the puck like moths to a flame, Jaques goes against the grain, floats backwards through them like a ghost, into an open spot just inside the right circle.
By the time everyone else on the ice clocks her, she’s already collecting a rebound. She bats it in with her backhand, fluttering the twine for the first goal of her professional career. Before the night is through, she adds her second, too — a bomb from the point, wired home while every Toronto player on the ice is backing away, bracing for another uncontainable sprint at the cage.
It’s Jaques’ knack for pulling glory out of the tumult, for making the best of what could seem an overwhelming situation, that’s defined her time in the PWHL to this point. It took a rollercoaster of a rookie campaign to get to that breakout night in Minnesota, Jaques’ navigating a historic draft day, a brief and tumultuous run in Boston, and a turn as the centrepiece of her new league’s first-ever trade. That Jaques’ two-goal outburst eventually came under the bright lights of Minnesota’s college hockey haven was perhaps fitting — it was during her own college career that the Toronto product first showed glimpses of greatness, making history during an award-winning, title-clinching run at Ohio State University. All this while breaking barriers for Black players in college and professional women’s hockey along the way, too. Now, just 24 years old and entering the prime of her career a serial winner already, the question isn’t whether Jaques can cut it among the game’s very best — it’s how far she could push herself up that list by the time all is said and done.
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he first time Jaques got a glimpse of Ohio State University, the first time she walked the shaded paths in The Oval, it was as if a missing puzzle piece clicked into place. It just made sense. Preparing to head off to college and already in talks with a few schools, she’d just finished playing in a minor-hockey tournament in Pennsylvania when she got to visit the campus where her name would become unforgettable. “We were playing in a tournament in Erie — it was only a couple hours out of the way, so on the way home, me and my dad decided we would go for an official visit,” Jaques remembers. “Once I stepped foot on campus, I fell in love with the school. I loved everything about it — the environment and atmosphere there was just unlike anything else I’d ever experienced before.
“Once we got home, my parents asked me where I wanted to go. I told them Ohio State. I didn’t even really have a reason — it just felt right. That’s where I wanted to be.”
Jaques knew to trust that kind of gut feeling. On her earliest spins out on the sheet in Toronto’s West End, she’d felt something similarly moving. “My first memories of hockey were just playing at the outdoor rink,” she says. “It was called Rennie Park — that’s where I first started. The skating rink was kind of like a big loop, with some trees in the middle, and I just remember skating on there and then getting to jump in the snowbanks after.
“That’s where I started to fall in love with the game.”
As a teenager, she split time between Etobicoke, Ont.’s Silverthorn Collegiate and the Provincial Women’s Hockey League’s Toronto Aeros, winning a pair of minor-hockey championships with her hometown club — an early run of success that steeled her for the quick ascent that followed. “I just think it really helped with my confidence heading into the next level,” she says.
In 2018, Jaques was off to Columbus to come face-to-face with that next level, joining one of the most prominent athletic programs in North America. But the squad she found herself on wasn’t particularly illustrious, Ohio State’s women’s hockey team at the time sitting unranked, with a tendency to lose as many games as it won. Still, her first year was an eye-opening one, Jaques beginning her engineering degree off the ice and getting a taste of NCAA glory on it. “Playing the Wisconsins and Minnesotas, that was the first time I actually played in front of a big crowd,” she says. “My first time in LeBahn [Arena at the University of Wisconsin], I’ll never forget it. It was just a really cool experience. I was just trying to enjoy every moment of it.”
In her second year with the program, Jaques’ Buckeyes started to make some noise. For the first time in the program’s history, the team claimed the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) title, Jaques finishing as the fifth-highest scorer on her club, second among its defenders. But it was in her fourth season, in 2022, that something truly shifted for her.
“It was a month or two into the season when I started to realize things were just clicking,” she says. “Pucks were going in the net for me, I was connecting on a lot of my passes. And we had a great team that year — it was like I would make a breakout pass, and it would end in a goal.”
Earning a place atop the national rankings for the first time, the Buckeyes marched into the playoffs looking to make history again. This time, Jaques was front and centre — the defender finished the year as Ohio State’s leading scorer, collecting 21 goals and 59 points in 38 games from the back end, more than doubling her previous career best. The sterling campaign culminated in an afternoon tilt with the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs under the lights at Penn State’s Pegula Ice Arena — on the line: the chance to win the first national championship in Ohio State women’s hockey history.
Jaques remembers the thoughts that spun through her mind on the morning of that game, to that point the biggest test she’d ever faced. They weren’t of making her name, or cementing her ticket to the pros. “I was just thinking about all the girls that had come before us at Ohio State, and just doing it for the school,” she says. “We had the confidence. We’d been the No. 1-ranked team for a while, and I think we all had a lot of confidence in each other. We were all playing our best hockey at the right time.”
Battling through a back-and-forth affair, the tilt finally gave way, the final buzzer sounding on a 3-2 Ohio State win. Jaques and her teammates sent the net skittering back towards the end-boards as they rushed netminder Amanda Thiele in raucous celebration. But looking back on it now, what’s stayed with Jaques most isn’t the win itself, the feeling of the clocking winding down, the weight of the trophy — instead, it’s the same thing that stood out to her on the cusp of that all-or-nothing tilt: what it meant to all those who’d come before.
“We came a long way,” Jaques says. “When I committed there, Ohio State was unranked and was maybe a .500 team — growing to be a national championship contender I think was really cool. I think that’s something all of us are really proud of. … It just makes it even more special. And now reflecting on it, just looking back at how hard it truly is to win one of those, with how many NCAA teams there are and how competitive every single team is, it’s not something everybody gets to be a part of.
“So, it’s really just [about] cherishing that special moment, the time spent with teammates celebrating. And just getting there.”
Jaques returned to Ohio State for a fifth campaign the next year, hoping to keep the glory rolling. “I think it gave me more time to come to terms with the fact that my college hockey career was coming to an end,” she says. The season wound up a bittersweet one — the Buckeyes reached the finals for the WCHA and national titles yet again, and fell in both.
But in March, a silver lining emerged when Jaques won the 2023 Patty Kazmaier Award, the trophy given to the top player in women’s college hockey. In doing so, the young defender rewrote the history books yet again, becoming not only the first Ohio State player and just the second defender to claim the award, but the first Black player to ever win it, too.
“I honestly was kind of in shock when I won. Like, I didn’t think it would actually happen,” Jaques says, reflecting on the honour. “Just what that award means and who it represents, it’s truly incredible. I’m very honoured to have won it. And to be the first Black woman to have won that award, I think that was very special — it just goes to show how much the game is continuing to grow.”
“She just does all the little things right,” Buckeyes head coach, Nadine Muzerall, said of her star defender at the award ceremony. “And more importantly, she’s an unbelievable human being. You can see how humble [she is], and how much she hates all of this. But it’s really good for her. I’m just super proud of how far she’s come over the last five years.”
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he arrival of the Professional Women’s Hockey League couldn’t have come at a better time for Jaques. Wrapping up her Master’s degree in civil engineering, she stuck around in Columbus until August 2023 to finish writing her thesis. By the time she emerged from that cloud, the wait for the league’s details to come into focus was over, the inaugural draft only a month away. Even better, the historic first draft brought Jaques full-circle, her step into the professional ranks coming just a half-hour away from the rink where she took her first spins.
“To attend the draft in my hometown, in Toronto, where it kind of all started, it was really, really special,” she says of that night at the CBC headquarters.
More history came her way, as Jaques became the first Black player and the first Buckeyes alum drafted to the new league. But even after a college career that saw her rack up that historic national title, even after her nod as the best player in college hockey, the ever-humble Jaques still found herself stunned as the moment arrived, her name called out at 10th overall, her parents by her side.
“I honestly think I was once again in shock hearing my name actually get called,” she says. “I had no idea when I was going to be drafted, so hearing my name called 10th overall by Boston was really special to me. I was just so excited to have been selected, to get started.”
Jaques’ first foray into pro hockey wasn’t quite as seamless, though. After signing on with Boston and suiting up for seven games with the club, Jaques was acquired by Minnesota in a three-player deal in mid-February, with forward Susanna Tapani and defender Abby Cook going the other way. It was the PWHL’s first-ever trade.
“I found out late on the [day before the trade was announced] — it was probably around like 4 or 5 o’clock, and I got a call from my GM,” Jaques says. “I was like, ‘Oh no’ — I didn’t know what it could be. And then I found out I got traded.
“I had no idea. Like, at that point, I didn’t even realize trades were possible. I had no idea it was coming.”
The nature of a mid-season swap meant there was little time to mull what exactly had happened — only what had to happen next.
“I was just kind of in shock initially. And then I realized Minnesota had a game in a couple of days, so I had to pack up all my stuff and get on a plane,” Jaques remembers. Amid the chaos, though, came an early sign that the change of scenery might do her some good — waiting on the other side of that flight were a couple former Buckeyes teammates, Clair DeGeorge and Liz Schepers, the latter of whom was quick to offer up a place to stay.
“She had a spare bedroom in her house, so I was fortunate just to move right in with her and didn’t have to go live in a hotel. I just brought a suitcase with me, but luckily my parents were able to go and move me out completely from Boston — there were a lot of moving parts,” Jaques says. “I don’t think it even fully set in that I had been traded, or felt real that it all had happened. It all happened too quickly for me to even be thinking about it.”
Minnesota knew the calibre of player they were getting. There was no mystery surrounding Jaques’ talent. Still, head coach Ken Klee remembers clearly the first time he got on the ice with Jaques and witnessed her skillset up close.
“It was just what a powerful player she is,” he says of what struck him first. “I mean, she’s a big, strong player and she takes charge of the puck. She’s very offensively gifted. So that really jumped out to me right away, you know, just her overall [game]. … I think coming to us, it was kind of a fresh start. We were just trying to make sure that she knew that we valued her as a player, and knew the potential she had to get back to the kind of player she was in college.”
A weekend road trip came soon after Jaques’ Minnesota debut, allowing a chance to bond with the rest of her new teammates, to settle into the squad. And in her third game in front of her new fans, she took the ice at 3M Arena, trusted her instincts, and showed them what she could do.
“When she gets the puck and heads on the rush, I mean, it kind of electrifies our team, and the game too,” Klee says. “You know something good’s going to happen.”
Jaques racked up 10 points through the 15 regular-season games that followed the trade. But her steady improvement didn’t change the fact her club stumbled into the post-season with little fanfare. By the year’s end, Minnesota arrived at the playoffs as the fourth-ranked of four post-season teams, fresh off a five-game losing streak. The squad’s blue-line X-factor provided a glimmer of hope, though, a boost of confidence. And for Jaques, the playoff run was even more special because of the two opposing teams they faced.
First came a return to her hometown, Minnesota meeting No. 1-ranked Toronto with Jaques’ friends and family dotted among the crowd. After dropping the opening two games, Minnesota stormed back, took three straight, and booked an unlikely trip to the Finals. Jaques put up three points over the final two tilts — assisting on a double-overtime winner that pulled Minnesota level and adding another pair in the series clincher.
Then came the Finals. Waiting there was Boston, the club that traded Jaques away, with the stakes as high as they could be.
“With the way the trade worked out, Minnesota had already played all their games at Boston, so actually playoffs was the first time I returned to that rink,” Jaques says of Boston’s Tsongas Center. “It was definitely a little bit weird being [back] there for the first time — but obviously it was a lot of fun getting to play against them.”
In Game 2, Jaques got her moment against Boston, hanging two goals on her former club to seal Minnesota’s first win of the Finals — precisely the type of performance she’d been brought to town to author.
“She just shoots the puck well, gets pucks to the net, makes really good offensive reads. You know, I think her game just kept growing, and she was definitely a great weapon for us,” Klee says of his star defender’s impact over the course of the series.
By the final game of the post-season, Jaques ranked as the highest-scoring defender in the league, and the third-highest scorer overall. And her club, the lowest seed entering the dance, wound up clinching the crown, taking down Boston in Game 5 to become the first-ever PWHL champions.
The weight of it all wasn’t lost on those who hoisted the Walter Cup for the very first time.
“It was a really historic moment,” Jaques says, reflecting on that final game. “To get to see Kendall [Coyne Schofield] lift that trophy was really, really cool. And then all of us getting to celebrate together and having a lot of fun. … The playoffs were grueling on the body, with 10 games in that short span of time. I think we were all exhausted physically. But we just had a special group, and were having a lot of fun together.”
Like she did in the moments after claiming her previous championship, the one that came in an Ohio State sweater, Jaques’ thoughts drifted to the bigger picture.
“With how competitive the league is, anyone can win on any given night,” she says. “To get to hoist that trophy was just so much fun, and a moment I’ll never forget. And for us to be part of history I think is just really special.
“Something we’ll be able to hold on to for the rest of our lives.”
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ow 24, and only in her second professional season, the kid from Rennie Park has already collected four championships, spread across three different levels, and made history on more than a few occasions — and she only seems to be getting better.
“She’s had a great start to the season,” says Minnesota Frost general manager, Melissa Caruso. “We lost her for a couple of weeks with an upper-body injury [in late December], and there was certainly a void there. We had a number of players step up in her absence, and I think they knew they had big shoes to fill.”
Through 10 games, Jaques has eight points to her name already, her scoring pace fourth-best in the league among defenders. But beyond her continued impact on the ice, it’s the growth off the ice that’s stood out most to those around her in Saint Paul.
“She’s a really big presence on our team, obviously physically, but also emotionally,” says Caruso. “She leads by example in the locker room. I think she’s really got this professionalism thing down. … There’s kind of an air about how she carries herself, and how she comes to the rink every day. She’s not the loudest player on our team by any means — and we have some really strong leadership as well — but her preparation and commitment to the game definitely translates to her on-ice performance. We’re hoping that the younger girls on our team are paying close attention to how Sophie operates.”
Her coach echoes the sentiment.
“She’s a great kid, she’s a great person — she wants to get better,” Klee says. “She knows that the game is ever-evolving, ever-changing, and she’s looking to keep growing her game. You know, she wants to keep getting better, and be known as one of the top defenders in our league — if not in the world.”
The next frontier for Jaques seems clear. The international stage beckons. Called up to the national team for the Canadian leg of the 2024-25 Rivalry Series, she’ll get her chance to impress later this week, with a shot at earning a place on the roster for the upcoming women’s worlds. The trajectory of her career to this point suggests she’ll come out on the winning side of that challenge, too — not because it’s fated, not because of luck, but because it’s a fair bet she’ll give every bit of herself to get there.
“It’s the work ethic,” says Caruso of what’s carried Jaques this far, and what will continue to carry her moving forward. “I mean, she’s a really talented hockey player. She’s very skilled, and she’s got a lot of potential to continue to grow.
“She’s dedicated. She’s dedicated to the craft. She’s dedicated to making herself a better player every day.”
Case in point, put the question of what she hopes the next chapter of her career looks like to Jaques and her answer is as simple as the path she sees ahead of her: “Continue to get better as a player, and just grow my game overall,” she says. “Just continuing to build confidence, and develop the small areas of my game that allow me to be successful. And just to have success in this league.”
Growth and progress and results aside, though, Jaques holds close a bigger picture, too. She understands the impact she can have on the fans on the other side of the glass, the piece of her legacy that will be defined by all the young girls she lifts up along the way — the ones who look at her and are given that fundamental, all-important gift of seeing themselves in the game.
“I think it’s really important,” Jaques says. “And I think it’s really helpful to have that as another aspect of things. Because sometimes things don’t go your way in hockey. But as long as you’re out there on the ice, being a good person, there’s a young girl looking up to you. And just knowing that, in the back of my mind, I think really helps a lot.
“Getting to give back, getting to work with Black Girl Hockey Club to hopefully help break down some of the barriers associated with getting into the sport, I think it’s truly incredible. Because all those young girls are so special.”
Troy Parla/Getty Images; Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images; Justin Berl/NCAA Photos via Getty Images; Elsa/Getty Images.
