A coffee with… Ann-Renée Desbiens | It’s the beginning of a new era for hockey

It is very moving to hear about the creation of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF) by goalkeeper Ann-Renée Desbiens, nicknamed “The Great Wall of Charlevoix”. She is considered the best goalkeeper of the world at the moment and is crowned with medals, including a gold at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2022.

Although I consider myself a feminist, I haven’t really followed women’s hockey in my life, but I should have, and I intend to make up for it.

Having grown up in a family that had the CH tattooed on its heart, I have hockey fever when the Canadian makes the playoffs, but I have so often been disappointed by the decisions of this team, in addition to waiting for a Cup Stanley, who hasn’t arrived for over 30 years, makes me want to transpose my passion as a living room fan onto the LPHF. Especially after the scandals at Hockey Canada, which almost made me lose my respect for this sport forever.

But after having coffee with Ann-René Desbiens, I feel a big flashback.

We live in hockey country, hockey province, hockey city. Why did it take so long for a professional women’s team to exist here?

Of course, throughout her career she has heard sexist comments, people surprised that female hockey players are good on the ice (!), but the real success of the LPHF, as enthusiastically reported by my Sports colleagues , is changing everything. It’s impossible to get your hands on tickets at the Verdun Auditorium or Place Bell. The audience is diverse and includes as many little boys as little girls. While the first season of the LPHF has barely started, we broke an attendance record on February 16 during the Montreal-Toronto clash at Scotiabank Arena: a full house of nearly 20,000 spectators. If things continue like this, they will end up filling the Bell Center and, have no doubt, it is in the ambitions of the players of the Montreal team.

A path full of obstacles

When Ann-Renée Desbiens explains to me the obstacles that have always undermined the path of female hockey players in the country, I can’t help but think of Maurice Richard, who had a job during the day and played hockey in the evening.

A little girl who was a hockey fanatic and dreamed of making a living from this sport had, until 2024, no professional future apart from the Olympic Games and world championships. “The Olympic Games were the only window, I would say, where we could observe women playing hockey,” notes Ann-Renée Desbiens, who grew up in Charlevoix in a family passionate about the puck.

“It was definitely not a traditional choice for a girl, I was told many times that I needed to change sports, that I had no future in it, to move on to something else,” says the one who almost gave up her career to go into accounting. It’s fun to say that at 29 years old, almost 30 years old, this is how I earn my living, that this is my job. That finally, it was possible! »

Of course, LPHF players do not make the salaries of NHL players. But they can finally devote themselves to hockey full time, they no longer have to manage impossible ice schedules on the sidelines of a job to pay the bills, they can finally build an audience, which already seems impatient to participate in writing a new chapter of our national sport.

And you know why this is happening? Because they showed solidarity and firmly held their end of the stick, while women’s sport is attracting more and more investors, who now see it as a market, rather than charity.

“We worked hard to have this league,” recalls Ann-Renée Desbiens. For several years, we refused to play because we wanted to have good conditions. There were leagues that existed, but the conditions were not ideal. We said: we’re not playing anymore, we’re going to sit down, establish our conditions, we’re going to make a business plan, we surrounded ourselves with lawyers, we put our things in place and that’s how it is that we found our investor. »

In short, they wanted to finally be taken seriously, and to do this, they had to resist the temptations of tempting offers, but not always up to their standards. “I won’t lie about that, for many players, we lost good years of our careers, but we were ready to sacrifice these years for the next generations. We stood together. This is the first time in the industry that a league has started with a collective agreement. It was important for us to protect the rights of players and league employees, to have health insurance, maternity leave, working conditions, meals provided at the arena…”

The main investor, businessman Mark Walter, was also surprised to be asked for meals provided, which for him was obvious, but the hockey players had never been entitled to that!

It’s truly the realization of a dream for female hockey players and Ann-Renée Desbiens of course has a thought for all the pioneers who preceded her: Manon Rhéaume, Danielle Goyette, Kim St-Pierre…

“Without them, we would not be where we are today and we will always be grateful,” she emphasizes. It is now a dream for all female hockey players in the world, it is no longer just the exclusivity of the national team. It will make women’s hockey accessible to more players and allow them to play longer. Growing up, you see guys winning the Stanley Cup, you imagine yourself in Game 7 lifting that cup, but those weren’t the opportunities we had in women’s hockey. Now, it will open more doors, bring more visibility and more chances for girls to have extraordinary memories. »

Ann-Renée Desbiens tells me that the girls have created a book club within the team, which delights me even though I was already won over. But actually, what does a hockey locker room look like?

“I am pampered, I have the chance to work with my best friends, we spend a lot of time together. We all know each other very well, both professionally and personally, and we have a lot of fun. It’s an exceptional, inclusive atmosphere. We are proud of the culture that we have built in the teams we have played in and in our locker room, I think our values ​​are different. We didn’t grow up with the idea that this was given to us, we had to work hard to have it, and we want to have a positive impact on communities. »

It’s already started, and even if the team doesn’t yet have a name and logo, which won’t be long, I’m really looking forward to buying my first jersey from the Montreal women’s club.

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