Zoe Boyd and Kristin Della Rovere were best friends since they were four, now almost 20 years later, they've been drafted by, and will be reunited with PWHL Ottawa.
Zoe Boyd and Kristin Della Rovere were best friends since they were four, now almost 20 years later, they've been drafted by, and will be reunited with PWHL Ottawa.
On snow days, Zoe Boyd would put on her boots and walk to her best friend's house to play pond hockey. That rink was in the yard of Kristin Della Rovere. Boyd and Della Rovere, both from Caledon East, Ontario, have been best friends since they were four years old, and now the duo who grew up playing hockey together will suit up with PWHL Ottawa.
Boyd was picked in the ninth round, 53rd overall by Ottawa in the PWHL Draft. Immediately following the selection, she was flooded with congratulatory calls and texts. One of those came from Kristin Della Rovere, who while celebrating the moment of her childhood friend, heard her own name called only three picks later, 56th overall by Ottawa as well.
"She was the reason I started playing hockey," said Della Rovere of Boyd.
Della Rovere asked her father if she could start playing hockey in order to spend more time with her best friend Zoe Boyd. With that, the duo began playing together from the time they were five years old until 2014-2015 in Bantam 'AA' with the North Halton Twisters. From that moment forward the duo went their own ways in Ontario's Provincial Women's Hockey League, and then later Della Rovere at Harvard and Boyd at Quinnipiac in the NCAA.
"I'm really excited to play together again, I think it is kind of a full circle moment," said Della Rovere of being drafted by Ottawa. "It's been really exciting for both our families, I know our parents are excited as well."
"We definitely go way back," added Boyd, It's definitely better to play with her than against her, but we're both really excited."
That full circle moment from backyard rinks in Caledon East, to the North Halton Twisters, to becoming consecutive draft picks of PWHL Ottawa will be complete when the puck drops on the inaugural PWHL season in January 2024.