By Adriana Fallico, Special to The Hockey News
It is no secret that an athlete’s calendar is regularly full, especially when a fresh season is anew. For Canadian hockey forward Brianne Jenner, now is certainly one of those times.
At sundown on Nov. 7, 2023, Jenner was riding an exercise bike following a practice with the Canadian national women’s hockey team in preparation for the 2023-24 Rivalry Series in Tempe, Arizona. Yet, at the crack of dawn eleven days later, she was driving to TD Place Arena, where the second day of training camp for Ottawa of the newly-founded Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was taking place.
While the Ottawa players had yet to hit the ice for an official practice or play a game, it was clear that this is not just another season for Jenner.
“It feels…it’s almost emotional walking into the rink. It's day one of the dream job,” she said.
The birth of the PWHL came from the shutdown of the Premier Hockey League (PHF), which operated from March 2015 to June 2023.
Jenner has been integral in the development of not only the PWHL but women’s hockey both on and off the ice. She signed a three-year contract with PWHL Ottawa back in Sept. 2023—one of the first three players to ever sign with the team.
Since PWHL Ottawa’s inaugural puck drop, she has played three games and is still awaiting her first point.
Jenner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, even being crowned MVP of the women’s hockey tournament at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, where she won her second gold medal.
During the offseason, she hosts her own training program Hockey Academy in her hometown of Oakville, Ont. for aspiring hockey players.
“I love being able to talk about the details of hockey and share that love with young hockey players,” Jenner said. “It’s really fun, I’m so lucky I have so many great coaches, my peers come back and help me run the camp. It’s just a really special week in the summer, and I love giving back to the community that way.”
She got the inspiration to host her own training camps after attending Karen Nystrom and Stephanie Boyd’s individual training camps when she was a kid, which helped fuel her passion for the game.
“I remember when I was a young player and just being in awe of these players and seeing their Olympic medals and how inspiring that was,” she said.
Eric Zweig, a sports writer and historian, spoke about how much of the excitement surrounding the PWHL comes from the Olympic Games, where new fans can identify players from past tournaments.
“The Olympics have a big role to play because if you’re watching a game, you’re like ‘I remember Jenner, she was on the gold medal team,’” Zweig said.
Jenner supported this statement, saying that the PWHL is creating a new stage for not only North American players, but for players across the globe.
“Our international and North American players, they’ve been able to train at high levels because of the Olympics, I think it’ll be so exciting for fans to see these stars in North America,” Jenner said.
Stephen Sheps, a sociology professor at Toronto Metropolitan University spoke about how Jenner’s involvement in the hockey world is so vital to the development of women’s hockey, even if she has to work a little harder to make opportunities happen.
“The fact that she’s taking time in the offseason, and especially in the summer, there’s maybe a little bit less competition for rinks and ice time, but she’s finding a way to fill a vital gap to make sure that young girls are getting opportunities to play and to learn and not just from some random dad in the community, but from someone who has gone and competed at the highest levels,” Sheps said.
Sheps also said that by making herself “so accessible” to these young athletes, Jenner is “both humanizing the elite athletes [...] and providing an incredibly unique opportunity for these kids to grow and develop.”
Jenner echoed his sentiment, but would not take the majority of the credit.
“I don’t think I’m unique in that, one of the amazing things about my peers and professional women hockey players in general is that they’re just great role models and advocates for the game.”
She believes “part of it is that...we had to grow our game and be the ambassadors for the game, but I truly believe that’s something that we as players really take ownership of and take pride in.”
That growth and ownership came with a sizeable medal count for Jenner and Team Canada.
“It was really exciting to get results, but the coolest thing that I’m most proud of is how we changed around our dressing room and made it an amazing environment and an amazing place to go to work,” said Jenner.“I feel really lucky that I was part of that team and apart of that really great, positive culture that we built and hopefully, it’s a legacy that continues.”
Gold medals and world championships aside, what is at the core of Jenner’s activism is her love for the game of hockey and spreading that passion to the next generation.
“It’s just awesome to see how our sport continues to grow,” she said.” Now we’ve got—it’s crazy to believe—we’ve got a pro league that all those young girls can dream about playing in. It’s nuts.”