Chloe Primerano held her own at the Vancouver Giants' training camp and put up points in an intrasquad game. Carol Schram explains how the hockey world is taking notice.
Chloe Primerano held her own at the Vancouver Giants' training camp and put up points in an intrasquad game. Carol Schram explains how the hockey world is taking notice.
Chloe Primerano didn't get into a pre-season game with the Vancouver Giants. But in her second training camp with the squad that made history in 2022 by making her the first woman ever to be drafted to a CHL team, the 16-year-old showed that she absolutely belongs.
Profiling as a puck-moving defender who cites Quinn Hughes and Duncan Keith as her role models, Primerano held her own through the Giants' four-day camp in Ladner, B.C., earlier this month. The proceedings wrapped up with the annual Legends Cup Game on Sept. 2, where the 5-foot-8 lefty tallied a goal and an assist to help Team Howe demolish Team Quinn by a score of 14-2.
Now in Grade 11, Primerano plans to play NCAA hockey in two years' time. And while the U.S. college administrative body does categorize Canadian major junior as a professional league, it also treats men's and women's ice hockey as separate sports. Women can try out and play for men's pro teams and maintain their NCAA eligibility as long as they do not receive compensation beyond necessary expenses.
A year-and-a-half ago, Eve Gascon became the fourth woman ever to play in the CHL when the goaltender went 1-0-1 for the QMJHL's Gatineau Olympiques. A fifth, 16-year-old Rhyah Stewart, added her name to the list with the Halifax Mooseheads on Aug. 25.
This fall, Gascon will pull on her pads for her first season with the women's team at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
As for Primerano, she's back at the Rink Hockey Academy in Kelowna, for her second season with their U-18 prep team. Last year, turning 16 in January in her first-ever season of playing against girls, she led her team in goals (20) and points (48) and was the top-scoring defender in the 12-team Canadian Sport School Hockey League's U-18 women's division.
RHA Kelowna won 27 of its 30 regular-season games, logged just one regulation loss, and made the Boston Bruins look like slackers with a plus-127 goal differential off 169 goals scored and just 42 allowed.
In March, Kelowna knocked off Shawnigan Lake School to take its second straight CSSHL U18 Female Prep Western Championship with a 4-3 overtime win. In the final game, Primerano logged three primary assists, including one on Janelle Evans' sudden-death winner. She finished the playoffs in a tie for second place in scoring with 11 points in five games.
Barely a week earlier, after returning from a standout showing at the 2023 Canada Winter Games, Primerano selected powerhouse sports and entertainment agency CAA to become her family adviser. The agency opened its women's hockey division in January and has quickly built a client list that includes Brianne Jenner, Blayre Turnbull and Aerin Frankel, who all signed contracts last week as part of the first-ever free-agency period for the new PWHL women's hockey league.
Primerano's summer included a family vacation in Los Angeles. That wrapped up with her becoming the first women's prospect ever to skate at CAA's annual hockey camp. One of her instructors there was Jim Hughes, the father of Quinn, Jack and Luke, who has been CAA's director of player development since 2016.
In August, Primerano was off to Team Canada's U-18 summer showcase, where she finished with seven points in five games for Canada White.
A week later, she added a goal and an assist as Canada swept the U.S. Under-18 team in a three-game series in Lake Placid.
Then, it was back to her hometown for her second Giants camp.
"I think I'm feeling a little bit more comfortable knowing what's going on and knowing the ins and outs a little bit more," she said in an interview with the Giants. "Knowing the staff a bit better, it feels pretty good."
She also sees time on the ice at the WHL level as something that helps her raise her game and enhance her development.
"I think that pace is a bit higher, which is good," she said. "It's always good to be at a higher pace."
With no body-checking allowed in women's hockey, she added that the physicality of the WHL offered solid encouragement for any rearguard to move pucks out of the defensive zone as quickly as possible.
Ever since Primerano was drafted, Giants GM Barclay Parneta has insisted that she was targeted while she was playing on a U-15 boys team because of her talent, not her gender.
"I don’t care what people thought. We have a scouting staff and we assessed her fairly and based on her play,” he told Steve Ewen of The Province. “We want the best hockey players. Period.”
By thinking outside the box, Parneta has landed a potential gem whose ceiling continues to rise — another stellar North Vancouver native who is following ably in the footsteps of Connor Bedard.
No women's skater has ever suited up for a CHL game, even in pre-season. Primerano is knocking at the door of becoming the first.
Last weekend, CSSHL exhibition games got underway and have included opportunities for RHA Kelowna to test itself against older U Sports squads from UBC and Trinity Western University. League play begins later this month, with Kelowna's first games on Sept. 29 and 30 at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton.
Primerano is expected to get her first chance to play for gold with Team Canada at the 2024 women's world U-18 tournament. It runs right after the world juniors, from Jan. 6 to 14 in Zug, Switzerland, and should be appointment viewing for hockey fans looking to catch an early glimpse of Canada's next bright hockey star.