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.”
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
