PWHL San Jose Players Get An Early Taste Of Their New Home At SAP Center

Brooke Bryant has a pretty good idea of what hockey in Northern California looked like before the PWHL arrived. She grew up playing for the Junior Sharks, watching the team she now gets to share a home with.

Returning to San Jose as a professional hockey player, with a new women's team preparing to take the ice, has made for a different kind of homecoming.

"It's awesome," Bryant said. "I was in town yesterday and I went by Sharks Ice, and saw how much everything has changed and improved. It really is full circle and it feels so special to be back here today, watching the team that I grew up watching."

Bryant was one of four PWHL San Jose players who spoke with reporters at the league's crossover event with the Sharks at SAP Center, though a much larger group of players was welcomed by the “Shark Tank” during the pre-game puck drop. The event gave the expansion team's players a chance to meet fans and experience the arena before the start of their inaugural season.

The crowd made an impression. Players described a lively atmosphere, with fans lining up for autographs and cheering when the women took the ice. For a team that has yet to play a regular-season game, it was an encouraging first look at the audience it hopes to build.

For Bryant, the opportunity goes beyond returning to familiar surroundings. When she was growing up in Northern California, there weren't as many girls playing hockey. Now, she hopes young players in the region can see a professional women's team and picture themselves getting there, too.

"Being back here as a role model for these girls and to show them that this is something that they can work towards and can become a professional athlete," Bryant said. "It's pretty special for me because I was a Junior Shark and played in Northern California. So to be able to be back here, it means everything."

Bryant has already started helping teammates get acquainted with the area, offering restaurant recommendations as players prepare to arrive for training camp. She has also noticed how excited her new teammates are to get started.

That enthusiasm was shared by Rory Guilday, who joined San Jose after playing with the Ottawa Charge. Guilday has visited SAP Center before, but said the early response to the expansion team has exceeded her expectations.

"It's been overwhelming and surpassed my expectations," Guilday said. "San Jose is not really a spot where you think women's hockey. It's warm for hockey. So it's been amazing."

The next step is turning that excitement into a team. San Jose has assembled a young roster under general manager and head coach Troy Ryan, and Guilday expects that youth to be an advantage rather than a drawback.

"He's been around the block," Guilday said of Ryan. "I think the characters that we have in the locker room, yeah, we're young, but I think that's going to be a strength of ours."

Guilday expects the team to play with energy and physicality, while being willing to learn as the season progresses. That's also how she describes her own game. She likes using her size to make life difficult for opponents and wants to be someone her teammates can rely on.

"We're just going to be hard to play against," Guilday said of the team's identity. "I think we're going to be structured and work as a team."

Goaltender Abbey Levy will bring a different kind of experience to the group. With several seasons in the league behind her, she expects to have a veteran role on a roster that also includes rookie goaltender Tia Chan. Levy has faced Chan in college and is looking forward to being on the same side of the ice.

For Levy, the competition for playing time and the work that goes into helping another goaltender improve aren't mutually exclusive.

"Goalies are an important part of a team. We’ll work together and help each other improve while also competing at the same time," Levy said. "It's a great balance so I'm excited to do that."

Levy also got a special welcome to the Bay Area before she ever stepped onto the ice with PWHL San Jose. After flying into the area, the goaltender spent the day with a group at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, an experience she described as truly special.

“It was an amazing experience,” Levy said. “I got to hang out all day with them yesterday right when I flew in. Great group of humans over there and it was truly special.” Levy said a video from the goalie mask design visit would be released later, offering a closer look at what the group had put together.

Sloane Matthews, meanwhile, is preparing for her first professional season after playing at Ohio State. The forward is looking forward to helping build a team from the ground up, rather than joining a group that already has years of history together.

"We're in the process of building right now," Matthews said. "So being able to do that from the beginning is going to be really cool."

Matthews wants to bring the speed and physicality she showed in college to the professional game. She also expects the team's youth to translate into plenty of energy, particularly as the group works to establish its identity.

She got a glimpse of the support awaiting San Jose when Laila Edwards dropped the puck at the event.

"It was kind of a wow moment. People are so excited for us to be here and we're excited as well," Matthews said. “Just to see them already love us and want to cheer us on and be there for us is just really cool."

The players still have to build chemistry, settle into the area and find out what their team looks like once the games begin. But Bryant's return home, and the reception her teammates received at SAP Center, offered an early reminder of what the expansion club means to the region.

For the former Junior Shark, the chance to play professional hockey in the place where she grew up is already special. Now she gets to help introduce the next generation of Northern California players to a path she once could only imagine.