Darryl Watts thought she’d retired from hockey after a stellar NCCA career.
The 23-year-old from Toronto was accepted into the University of Wisconsin’s masters commercial real-estate program last fall after a summer internship in that field.
But a week before returning to her alma mater in Madison, Watts did what people her age often do which is change her mind about what she wanted to do with her life.
“I backed out seven days before. My dad was so upset,” Watts told The Canadian Press on Wednesday. “He supports everything I do and he was so supportive after he kind of got over it.”
‘Turning point’
While recharting the course of her life, what brought her out of retirement was the Premier Hockey Federation’s announcement Dec. 14 of a salary-cap doubling next season to $1.5 million US per team.
“I was kind of pursuing other things at the time,” Watts said. “Once I saw the news that the PHF’s salary cap had doubled to $1.5 million US, that was the turning point.
“The conversation with my family was playing women’s professional hockey is a very viable financial option and it can support a really great lifestyle for a 23-year-old. Why wouldn’t I pursue this and see what the options are?”
Historic contract
Days after the Toronto Six signed the forward to a two-year contract, Watts made public Wednesday her 2023-24 salary which at $150,000 is a league record.
“I’m disclosing this because women’s hockey has been struggling for so long” Watts said. “I’m so grateful and fortunate to be the recipient of this historic contract.
“It’s my duty, almost, to the women’s hockey community, to share this contract, provide clarity into what the women’s pro hockey atmosphere looks like right now.
“This is a staggering number. It sends the message to young girls who play hockey that they can look forward to a pro women’s league where they have the opportunity to make a really significant amount of money to support themselves while playing the sport they love.
“I’m also disclosing this because I hope this will attract other players, which will then accumulate into the establishment of one single professional women’s hockey league.”
Wilson-Bennett buries it and Daryl Watts has her first PHF point! <a href=”https://t.co/zzhyEEY3Tw”>pic.twitter.com/zzhyEEY3Tw</a>
Toronto forward Mikyla Grant-Mentis was the PHF’s highest-paid player heading into this season after signing an $80,000 contract with the Buffalo Beauts.
The seven-team PHF, with clubs in Toronto and Montreal, has upped the financial ante in its bid to be the North American women’s pro hockey league of record.
The average salary this season is $34,000 on a 22-player roster, but pay ranges anywhere from $13,500 to the $80,000 of Grant-Mentis.
Watts’ contract that converts to $200,000 in Canadian dollars next season is a milestone in terms of raising the financial bar.
It’s also the PHF’s latest message to the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, whose 80-player membership includes stars Marie-Philip Poulin, Sarah Nurse, Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield.
The PWHPA, which holds showcase games and tournaments, intends to start its own league with Billie Jean King Enterprises and Mark Walter, co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as potential backers.
PWHPA players have thus far refused to join the PHF stating that if a player needs a second job to support themselves — and several have side gigs — that is not the pro league they envision.
Women’s hockey nearly lost a high-calibre player in Watts, who ranks second all-time in NCAA scoring with 297 points in 172 games with first Boston College and then Wisconsin from 2017 to 2022.
In her rookie year with the Eagles in 2018, Watts became the first freshman to win the Patty Kazmaier Award that goes to the top player in women’s Division 1 hockey.
Watts represented Canada at the world under-18 hockey championship in 2017 in a silver-medal effort. She also played for the national under-22 team in a three-game series against the United States in the summer of 2019.
With the help of her father Michael, a corporate lawyer who acted as her agent, Watts entered into discussions and negotiations with PHF clubs.
She said she was attracted to the Boston Pride and the Connecticut Whale because they’re coached by former NHL players Paul Mara and Colton Orr respectively, as well as Buffalo because of proximity.
‘Special place in my heart’
But her hometown team, which ranks second in the league at 10-2-2 behind Boston, won the Watts sweepstakes.
“They offered me a really great contract,” Watts said. “Born and raised in Toronto, I had a special place in my heart for the Toronto Six.
“I played high school hockey in Toronto. My family and my friends are here. Great downtown life and I’m a huge Leafs fan. Right now, I’m living in my childhood house so life is pretty good.”
Watts stepped on the ice for the first time in 10 months for Six practices last week. She played in Toronto’s games Saturday and Sunday against Connecticut and had an assist.
“I was absolutely sucking wind,” Watts said. “My legs were on fire. I was blacking out on the ice. Didn’t feel great. Physically I was struggling, but mentally having a great time.
“I’m hard on myself. I expect myself to perform at the level that I know I’m capable of. I hadn’t been on the ice in the year and I spent the summer shedding my hockey muscle.
“I hope to be performing at a 100 per cent by the time playoffs come.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
