Alexa Vasko discusses choosing the Ottawa Charge in free agency and her first PWHL season in the city. Free agency is relatively new to women’s hockey and presented forward Alexa Vasko with the unique opportunity to choose her next home, which was something that she approached with some uncertainty and a lot of excitement. Vasko, a St. Catherines, Ontario native, began her career with the St. Catherines Chaos atom hockey team before moving onto the Stoney Creek Sabres of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League where she learned valuable lessons about herself and balancing a busy athletic schedule. “When I was in peak soccer season, we had off-ice training for hockey and there were several years where I had to be super disciplined with my schedule,” she said. “I think being super organized and disciplined were character traits that you needed in order to play so many sports and then you get into tactics, like being a leader, both on and off the field.” Vasko would go on to have a successful junior career, and the opportunity to represent both Ontario and Canada at the national and international levels. Vasko’s disciplined approach to being an athlete helped elevate her into leadership roles early on with many of these teams and would be a common theme as she moved into her collegiate career. Vasko would go on to attend Mercyhurst University, where she amassed 81 points, and 184 blocked shots, in 156 games and graduate [https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexa-vasko-306b28229/?originalSubdomain=ca] Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science with a Minor in Psychology in 2021 and a Bachelor of Arts in Athletic Management in 2022. She was also named team captain heading into the 2019-20 season until she graduated in 2022. Later that same year was her first opportunity to play professional women’s hockey when she suited up for Team Sonnet in the PWHPA. “I only played one year there and I loved it,” Vasko said. “I was playing with the women that I watched on TV. But we also knew there was a bigger picture there, that in the back of everyone’s mind this was a stepping stone.” Then, in the summer of 2023, came the announcement of the new Professional Women’s Hockey League and the draft to be held shortly thereafter, a draft in which she was taken 83rd overall by her hometown Toronto team. “To hear my name called was a blur, honestly,” Vasko recalled. “I hugged my parents and we were all crying. To be able to have my family there and share it with them and to go out after was a pretty special day.” Following her season with Toronto, in which she played in all regular season and playoff games for the club, Vasko had the opportunity to experience free agency for the first time. “It was new to all of us and we didn’t know what to expect, so it was a bit nerve-wracking,” she recalled. “It was just a neat concept and it was what we fought for and this is what we wanted.” And when it came down to choosing where she would continue her career, Vasko already had her sights set on one particular team. “When I was in talks with Ottawa, I’m very familiar with the city and with the girls on the team from either college and the national team,” she said. “I knew already that they had a great culture there and I heard great things about the coaching staff. So I weighed my options and I knew, okay, I think this is the place to be.” In her first season with the Ottawa Charge, Alexa Vasko has helped to round out the forward group and has played an effective role alongside fellow newcomer, and former Toronto teammate, Rebecca Leslie, and returnee Natalie Snodgrass on the fourth line. She’s challenging to play against, unafraid to be physical and willing to do everything she can to help the team win, all signs of the leader she’s evolved into since she was first awarded that letter with the Stoney Creek Sabres.
