Taylor Heise has gone from the PWHL’s first-ever first overall pick to turning heads in her native Minnesota. If she keeps it up, the league has a superstar-in-the-making.
Taylor Heise has gone from the PWHL’s first-ever first overall pick to turning heads in her native Minnesota. If she keeps it up, the league has a superstar-in-the-making.
By Tyler Procyk
A great hockey player has mastered the fundamentals. A great player can shoot and pass, they can skate and defend and do all these things necessary to be an effective teammate while on the ice.
The PWHL has a lot of great hockey players, and the league's first few weeks have been filled with excitement and optimism for the future of women's professional hockey.
Taylor Heise, the first-ever No. 1 overall pick in the PWHL draft, is making a lot of noise with her hometown team, PWHL Minnesota. Heise is a great hockey player and it doesn’t take more than a few games of watching her play to know there’s something more there.
PWHL Minnesota GM Natalie Darwitz had Heise fall into the team's lap when they were awarded the first overall selection in the league's inaugural draft.
“She makes everyone on the ice look better, play better, and she supports and enhances their game,” Darwitz said. “Sometimes, you know, with some superstars, it's a one-person show. I think Taylor enhances and brings up the level of play among her teammates.”
Heise's ability to improve the play of her teammates is one of the biggest keys as to why she’s on another level. Great hockey players can pull off the fundamentals of the game consistently, and Heise is beyond that level of play.
Her hands and skating ability are remarkable, and the power behind the 23-year-old’s shot is really eye-opening. Her former head coach at the University of Minnesota, Brad Frost, had a lot to say regarding her growth over her five seasons with the Golden Gophers.
“She comes from a basketball family so she was kind of a tall, lanky kid and really put on some great, great muscle with her strength,” Frost said. “Her hands continued to get better and better. She was always out before and after practice working on her hands, shooting off the pass, one-timing the puck, things like that.”
That work ethic is one of the many factors that sets Heise apart from her peers. Frost describes his former captain as a winner and someone who is respected by her teammates not only because of what she does on the ice but her passion and dedication off-ice.
Both Darwitz and Frost said that they recognize the PWHL has many skilled players, but Heise is on another level.
“What I love about her is her competitive level, she’s just got an innate compete level, I mean all of the players do at this level, but she just doesn’t back down. She’s scary,” Darwitz said.
The moment Heise caught many eyes was in Minnesota’s first win against PWHL Toronto. Heise scored two remarkable goals. The first came off the rush after a forced turnover in the neutral zone, with Heise rushing up the side and cutting toward the goalie, beating the two defenders in front of the net and burying a goal past Toronto netminder Kristen Campbell. The second was a loose puck that left Heise all alone against Campbell, and her finesse with just a little time and space is amongst the best in all of hockey.
Her hands and ability to do so much with such little space is among the reasons why Heise will continue building a reputation as one of the best women's players in the world. But what good players and coaches will tell you is there is always something more, and Darwitz – being a former player herself – knows that as well.
“She had a lot of opportunities against New York but, you know, is there that consistent factor game-in and game-out that she’s presenting being a threat and being the best player on the ice,” Darwitz said.
Apart from being talented on the ice, to be a superstar you have to have supporters behind you. For the native of Lake City, Minn., finding support from the fan base hasn’t been an issue and now that the PWHL has such a great outreach for its fans with things like its YouTube broadcasts, it’s easy for fans to tune in and watch professional women’s hockey at no cost.
“Other people around the world are starting to take notice of what a dynamic player she is and how special she is,” Darwitz said.
Darwitz couldn’t have said it any better. The PWHL has given women a platform to show the world what we’ve been missing all this time. An easily accessible professional league with some of the most exciting hockey players in the world with so much action, big hits, timely saves and jaw-dropping goals.
The PWHL has set itself up to be a long-lasting, exciting league and if Heise is at the center of it as one of the faces of women’s hockey, the sport is in great hands.