Montreal Victoire player Laura Stacey discusses the decision to renegotiate her contract, how she feels write at home in Montreal and how much she wants to win for this city.
As the Olympics and the PWHL season approach, training is ramping up for all athletes, especially for national team members. Since they last trained for an Olympic tournament, the landscape of the women’s game has completely changed, and Team Canada had to adapt to the arrival of the PWHL. As a result, the athletes are no longer centralizing in Calgary for six months. Instead, they’ve taken part in three blocks of training in Calgary, Toronto, and this week in Montreal.
Watching practice on Monday, I couldn’t help but notice the intensity with which Laura Stacey worked on the ice. Part of the second practice group, she skated with only six of her teammates and worked on net-front exercises —picking off rebounds, tipping pucks, and battling for position. Teammate Sarah Nurse said it was great to work on that with Stacey, given how great she is at that part of the game, and one can only agree.
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In the PWHL, Stacey plays for the Montreal Victoire, and she’s fully committed not only to the team but also to the city and the province. This Summer, she held a Montreal edition of her popular Sticks in for Charity event, and across the two events (in Montreal and Toronto), she was able to raise $107,000.
The Kleinburg, Ontario native didn’t stop there in her integration into Quebec; on September 29, she appeared on Quebec’s TV channel ICI Télé’s Saturday night show En direct de l’univers. She surprised her wife, Marie-Philip Poulin, by singing a special song to her, but she confesses it took some convincing to accept doing it:
It took a lot of convincing and a lot of help. The chorists, the singers, and the guitarists were amazing during rehearsals because they knew I was so nervous. I had no idea what I was doing, but they were very helpful, and I knew that even if I missed a note, they would be there to lift me. You would never have noticed, so it was definitely a nerve-racking experience, but also an amazing one.-
Poulin knew she was going to be a part of the show as she had to tell her what she was doing when she was missing a lot of stuff for rehearsing, and Poulin got curious as to where she was going:
I tried not to tell her too much, so she had no idea of the song of what I was doing or what I was a part of and who was there, but she knew that in some capacity, I was going to be on the show. I could have [sang something else], but I knew she would have loved to hear me sing that song because she always jokes around with me about that song, so I thought I’d give it a try.-
It was a daring choice, but one that impressed many people throughout the province. Fans were even more impressed when the Victoire announced that its three original players had signed contract extensions and had renegotiated their deals to give GM Daniele Sauvageau more flexibility and cap space. Asked how that decision came about between the three players (Stacey, Poulin, and goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens), the winger explained:
That’s a good question. I’m not really sure how it started. I think the three of us were talking and thinking about the expansion draft being tough and how to go forward from here. What can we do? We all wanted to be here long-term, and we want to win. I think that was a key one for all three of us. It came down to: How can we help this team win? That was by renegotiating our contracts, extending them further, and wanting to help, to help our team win and have the best possible team on the ice. The three of us wanted to do that.-
At that stage, I couldn’t help but tell her that was an admirable move, considering their salaries are not as high as NHLers' and yet someone like Lane Hutson gets celebrated for perhaps taking $250,000 to $500,000 off his contract. As humble as ever, she replied:
Honestly, I appreciate that a lot, but for the past eight years, before the last two, we played and trained full-time and received almost zero throughout that period. So you’re right, but it’s all relative — for them, taking a little bit doesn’t seem like very much because of how significant their number is —but it is relative. Obviously, we do want to push for more and bigger contracts. Still, we also know that some of our teammates are doing a hell of a lot of work and without making nearly as much as we are, either, so it is a delicate balance, it is a fine line in pushing for more amongst all players across the league, but also that determination to want to win here in Montreal.-
What was clear throughout the interview was just how good the communication was between the players and their GM, so I asked if they got a heads up at the draft when Sauvageau traded Kristin O’Neill to the New York Sirens for Abby Roque:
No heads up at all. Honestly, we were obviously very surprised. Kristin is one of our good friends, so seeing her leave was sad. Still, on the flip side of that, it’s a professional league now; that’s how sports work, and people are traded, contracts are changed, all of those things that aren’t easy anymore. If we wanted to be professionals, that’s what we had to expect. We were surprised, but also very appreciative that she [Sauvageau] didn’t tell us in advance because it would have been a really tough conversation for us to have, and we’re just players. At the end of the day, she’s the one making those decisions and trying to put the best possible team on the ice. We are really supportive and trust what she’s doing. Usually, we do have conversations, but because she knew how close we were to Kristin, it was smart that we didn’t know. We’re very excited to have Abby, too, because of what she can bring to this team, so at the end of the day, it’s professional sport now, and that’s the exciting part.-
Stacey has lived in Montreal for a few years now, and when I asked her if she felt like a veteran who can now tour the rookie around town and show them the ropes, she laughed and said:
I still can’t speak amazing French, so they can’t lean on me for that, but I’m trying, and yeah, for sure. I am getting older for sure, and I think the experiences I’ve had, whether it’s playing pro, whether it’s not playing. Only training, whether it’s being a fourth liner to now having more opportunities, all of those experiences have made me the person and the player I am, and if I can have an impact on some of those younger kids, who may not have had some of those same experiences, then that’s my goal. Hopefully, I’ll leave this team in a better place when I do move on, but Montreal is definitely my home, and I feel supported, like that, and welcomed here.-
Montreal really lucked out when they signed their original players. While most people were sure that Poulin and Desbiens would sign with the Victoire, they weren’t sure Stacey would, and no one foresaw the level of commitment to the city, the province, and the culture. These three players have already done so much for the women’s game, and still to this day, they cannot put their personal interests ahead of the sport. It’s a tricky situation for them to be in; they want to see bigger contracts in the league, but they also don’t want their cap hit to be the reason why their teammates aren’t earning as much or why the Victoire can’t win the Walter Cup.
The question now is, will the Montreal Canadiens' rebuild bring a Stanley Cup to the city before the Victoire brings it its first Walter Cup? Time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: this city will enjoy a lot of exciting hockey in the seasons to come.
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