showcasing the best talent in the game on a consistent basis for the first time ever.

The journey to this moment was anything but easy, marked by countless obstacles and setbacks. Yet, every challenge was met with persistence and grit, paving the way for this historic league.

For each of these 138 players, the path to the PWHL was unique. No two stories are the same, but they all share one common thread: they didn’t wait for opportunity to knock—they created it.

They laced up their skates, hit the weights, and dedicated themselves to becoming the best. Their relentless drive has built a league that now fills NHL arenas and firmly places women’s hockey on the global stage.

The Don’t Wait for Opportunity—Make It campaign offers fans an inside look at the inspiring journeys of four incredible athletes.

On each of the dates below we'll explore how their stories of persistence and determination brought them to the PWHL.

to attend the 2017 U.S. Olympic hockey team tryouts, she wasn't a household name. She hadn't been to national team camps since her under-18 days. But she saw an opportunity and decided to give it everything she had.

"I have nothing to lose," Sidney recalls. "Go play hockey. Go have fun. You don't even really know that many people here. You haven't been at these camps. You're not really involved. Like, they don't know who you are. Maybe they're gonna underestimate you."

Though she didn't make the initial roster, her performance caught attention. Six months later came an unexpected call - an invitation to join the Olympic team's residency program. Within weeks, she went from planning her move to Sweden to standing in the Olympic Village.

"It was just crazy that when I look back that I was just basically on autopilot," Sidney says. "I never was prepared for any of that to happen in the first place."

That mindset of embracing opportunity led to Olympic gold, with Sidney earning an assist on Team USA's first goal in the gold medal game. She would go on to break the points record for defenders in Sweden's professional league, recording 65 points in one season - the most anybody has ever had as a defenseman in that league.

"I was not looked at as a huge name when I finished college," Sidney reflects. "But going over to Europe, everybody knew who I was after that. It wasn't my intention to become a superstar - I just went to Europe to play hockey, and all of a sudden, I became more of a superstar."

The doctors' words hit Gabbie Hughes like a body check she never saw coming. Two herniated discs in her back had left her unable to feel her left side - the result of a brutal collision with the boards during her freshman year at University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Most players would have listened. Instead, Hughes spent the next three years battling through a punishing routine. "Missing practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to feel good for a Friday game," she recalls. "Missing workouts, because I would do workouts in the pool to take the load off my back... it was always pain management."

But pain wasn't the hardest part. It was watching her teammates bond during practices while she was alone in the treatment room. It was questioning if the daily struggle was worth it. Then came the night at a concert when she couldn't even sit through a song. "I got home and told my mom - I need surgery. I'm 21 years old and I can't even sit at a concert."

Rather than accept a fusion surgery that would end her career, Hughes chose a riskier path. Her rehabilitation started with a simple goal: walk to the mailbox. Ten steps that felt like a thousand.

Today, Hughes isn't just playing hockey - she's making history as one of the first players in the PWHL. When asked what drives her, she thinks back to those lonely days of rehabilitation, then smiles:

"Do all the extra things that everyone else doesn't want to do. Embrace the suck. Because at the end of the day, if you truly love something, it's worth it. It's all about getting through the hard stuff to achieve something extraordinary.

When Maddie Rooney was cut from the U.S. National Team and went undrafted in the PWHL, many would have seen it as the end of the road. After all, she'd already won Olympic gold, made appearances on Ellen and Jimmy Fallon, and cemented her place in hockey history.
But that wasn't Maddie's style. It never had been.

Years earlier, as a high school junior, she'd led the Andover girls' team to their first state tournament appearance. Instead of returning for her senior year as the celebrated star, she made a bold choice – she went back to playing with the boys.

"I wanted to give myself the ultimate challenge before heading into division one women's hockey," Rooney recalls. "That's when I truly believed in myself and where I could go with hockey."

That same spirit of seeking out challenges rather than waiting for them would define her career. So when faced with those professional setbacks, her response was characteristic: "I felt like I had more. I was worth more than people were viewing me. I guess I wanted to make a point proven."

She signed with Minnesota as a free agent, split time with her former Olympic teammate, and helped lead the team to a championship in the PWHL's inaugural season.

"You have to compete to be the best version of yourself," Rooney reflects. "That's what drew me to being a goalie - you're involved in every play. You don't take shifts off. You can't."
Just like in the crease, Rooney knows success means being ready for every moment, not just the ones handed to you.

her car packed with belongings and her future uncertain, she wasn't just starting a new chapter - she was writing her own story.

It wasn't her first time choosing an unconventional path. Years earlier, when COVID-19 forced Ivy League schools to cancel their seasons, Keopple and her Princeton teammates faced a critical decision. While some players ended their careers, she took a gap year, staying ready for a season that wasn't guaranteed. "It was definitely a weird, stagnant time," she recalls. "You kind of had to figure it out, but also stay busy and keep your training up."

That resilience would prove crucial when the Professional Women's Hockey League launched in 2023. Though Keopple wasn't selected in the draft, she saw it as just another opportunity to prove herself. "I knew that I was going to have to get into free agency and try to get invited to a camp," she says. "I knew that if I just got to a camp, I could kill it and show what I can actually do."

That mindset led her to Montreal's training camp, where she started as the seventh defenseman. Through relentless work and a willingness to learn, she steadily worked her way up to the first line. "I've never felt more confident playing hockey than I did that year," Keopple reflects. "Through my teammates and through my coaches, I learned so much and grew so much as a player."

For Keopple, each challenge has been an opportunity to embrace the unknown. "I love experiencing new things," she says. "That's the whole reason why I went to Princeton and went out east." She brought that same adventurous spirit to Montreal, turning uncertainty into opportunity at every turn.

"If you try and fail, then you fail and you learn from it," Keopple says. "But if it does happen, you know, it can be so great and it can change your life. And it absolutely transformed my life."