For a hockey player from Quebec, settling in Montreal is not specifically a return home. But after six years playing in the United States, it’s pretty much the closest thing to it.
After spending the last season with the Boston Pride, Élizabeth Giguère, one of the most prolific forwards in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), has signed with the Montreal Force. His hiring was confirmed by the team on Wednesday along with that of goaltender Corinne Schroeder, also a former Pride player and the league’s goaltender par excellence in 2022-2023.
“I haven’t been this close to my family members for years,” confirms Giguère on the phone. They supported me all this time in the United States, so to return to Quebec and play in front of them, it will be very special. »
The Quebecer was indeed exiled in 2017 to play at Clarkson University, in the NCAA. She played her last campaign on the circuit in Minnesota-Duluth, in 2021-2022.
She has enjoyed astonishing success in the university ranks, to the point of finding herself four times among the 10 athletes nominated for the Patty-Kazmaier Trophy, which rewards the most valuable player in the country. She won it in 2020, after collecting 66 points, including 37 goals, in 37 games.
Her 295 career points still rank her sixth in NCAA Division 1 history.
Despite its successes in recent years, it has only relatively recently joined the national program (we will come back to this later). At the end of her university career, she joined the Boston Pride, of the PHF, last season. While the Professional Women’s Players Association (PWHPA) has yet to establish a full-fledged circuit, the PHF remains the premier women’s hockey league in North America.
Boosted
Although she enjoyed her experience in Boston and considered the possibility of playing another season there, she seems overexcited that she chose to join La Force instead.
In recent months, she has seen, even as an opponent, how “organized” the Montreal club is. The player testimonials she heard were nothing but positive. The team’s tour of Quebec arenas impressed her. She pays tribute to Kevin Raphaël, president of the team, “who always wanted to make women’s hockey grow”.
“I’ve only been here a week, and I understand why I signed. I get really good treatment,” she says.
This last remark is not trivial. For several years, especially under its former NWHL acronym, the league did not get good press. The wages were starving and the conditions imposed on the players, sometimes pitiful. We were light years away from a so-called professional circuit.
The PHF, however, has restored its image. The disparity between the organizations is “less and less important”, estimates Élizabeth Giguère, who also believes that La Force is “in the top” with regard to the treatment of its athletes.
The league announced last December that the salary cap would increase to $1.5 million per team in 2023-24. We can therefore assume an average salary of some $75,000, which would allow the players to no longer have any additional employment during the season. Élizabeth Giguère says she is “lucky” to find herself in this situation from the start, and impatient for it to be the norm in women’s hockey.
Disappointment
This good news comes particularly at the right time for Giguère.
Last March, after spending a few months with the Canadian team in the Rivalry Series against the United States, she learned that she would not be part of the team that would participate in the World Championship.
“I played all seven games against the United States, and it was an honor for me,” she recalls. Therefore, not going to the World Cup, “it was very disappointing”.
” [Or] the coaches told me very positive things,” she says. Her experience “taught her a lot” and she knows what she needs to improve for the next selection camp at the end of the summer. “We start again for next year. I just need to prove myself. »
Some 10 months after getting married, she will be flying out in the next few days for her honeymoon – “we just haven’t had time yet! – after which she will return to Montreal to train there full time all summer.
“I will be ready,” she promises.
Ann-Sophie Bettez back
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Ann-Sophie Bettez
In addition to the hiring of Élizabeth Giguère and Corinne Schroeder, La Force confirmed the return of its captain Ann-Sophie Bettez on Wednesday. His name is added to those of Alexandra Labelle, Jade Downie-Landry and Brigitte Laganière, who have recommitted to the team for the next season. Audrey-Anne Veillette and Rosalie Bégin-Cyr, who played respectively for the Université de Montréal Carabins and the Concordia University Stingers, will make their PHF debuts in 2023-2024.