Taylor Turnquist puts the challenges of professional women’s hockey into perspective

Turnquist explains the challenges of becoming a professional women’s hockey player originally appeared NBC Sports Bayarea

Taylor Turnquist is excited about the future of professional women’s hockey, even though she might not be a part of it.

The 25-year-old defenseman retired last year after two professional seasons with the Boston Pride and Minnesota Whitecaps of the NWHL/PHF. He returned to Pride this year on a part-time basis, but has no plans to return full-time.

That’s partly because women’s professional hockey still doesn’t pay a living wage to most players.

Turnquist, a two-time NCAA champion with Clarkson University and an Isobel Cup winner with the Pride, now lives in San Jose with Sharks center and boyfriend Nico Sturm. He plans to pursue a career in either special education or occupational therapy.

She gave San Jose Hockey Now an honest look at the financial challenges of being a professional women’s hockey player and what rival women’s hockey leagues PHF and PWHPA need to do to ensure young girls have a sustainable and profitable hockey league to dream about. in.

Sheng Peng: 25 years ago, the US women’s hockey team put women’s hockey on the US “map” Olympic gold in 1998. I know you were young for it, but how did that win or the players on that team play a part in getting you started in hockey?

Taylor Turnquist: That was obviously before my playing days. But I think it’s very important to shine a light on how far women’s hockey has come. Even in the last 10 years, there have been many more opportunities in pro hockey.

Since the beginning, the Olympics have really paved the way. [For] our girls that I’ve always looked up to. It’s really incredible what the national teams are capable of, but also how far the sport itself has progressed, for example in the experiences of university hockey and then in the professional league.

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It’s really cool what the national team players are doing for the sport itself and how far it has come in the last 10 years.

SP: Are you officially retired? I know you played with the Boston Pride this season.

CT: First year playing pro [in 2020-21]I was with Boston Pride.

And then last year I played [Minnesota] The Whitecaps because Nico was playing for the Wild then and it was a lot easier for our relationship and it was a great opportunity.

With Nico’s trade and him now in San Jose, I decided to officially retire. But then this year, the Boston Pride suffered a season-ending injury. A defender, he actually broke his femur.

It was in the preseason. So they only had six defenders at first, and then obviously with him that reduced to five. In PHF you can have 10 PTOs in a season. So they were able to sign me for a few PTOs during the year just to get that extra defenseman.

So when they called and asked me, I was like, why not? It’s a few games, earn some money. So I did that for a while.
But now they’ve asked me to play and you don’t get much further [from] San Jose than Boston.

SP: Would you still play if the pay was more livable?

CT: I think so.

You grow by playing forever and work so hard and then give up so easily. It’s not an easy decision.

So I think for me even this year saying I’m going to retire after last year, it was so hard even though the pay is not livable.

It’s really amazing, people don’t realize how hard these girls work. But it’s crazy how we went to work from eight to four, worked all day, practiced after work and then practiced. It’s crazy what these girls do.

I don’t know if it will last more than a couple of years, the girls burn out. But hopefully in the near future it will have already reached that far. So hopefully in the next few years the girls can just play.

SP: What is the minimum wage for a professional women’s ice hockey player?

CT: The first year in the PHF, it was a different name, it was actually called the NWHL. So my first year in the NWHL, minimum wage, this is crazy, but minimum wage was $5,000.

In the last two years it has improved a lot. I think last year we had huge investors invest in the league and the average salary went up to about $30,000, something like that. And then next year it will be even more.

SP: When you were playing you had another job as a special education teacher – what other jobs did the girls do?

CT: We have such a wide selection.

You have girls who love to coach. They organize skill exercises during the day.

But then we have nurses, we had a couple of physical therapists, occupational therapists. We had a few teachers.

We had girls in finance. So they do desk jobs all day.
We had a few engineers, which is crazy.

SP: What needs to be done for every female player to make a living? What can the two rival women’s leagues, PHF and PWHPA, do to achieve this goal? I know that attempts to merge the two leagues have failed so far.

CT: It’s a really sensitive topic, it’s so difficult that there’s no easy answer.

I think both leagues are really great. And both leagues are making progress in the right direction individually.

But I really think if we could come together and have one, big league that’s very talented, come together as one group instead of two separate ones now, I think we could really make a sustainable league and try to get paid what we want.

Right now we are hurting ourselves with two separate leagues because we are ultimately fighting for the same thing. We want a sustainable league that gets the publicity it deserves.

Hopefully in the next two years we can really come together as one group.

SP: From your point of view, what bridges do the PHF and PWHPA need to cross to become one league?

CT: I was never on, there used to be a lot of PA [or] player representatives [calls], but I’ve never been into it. I wasn’t on those Zoom calls where they talked about difficult things.

But I really think the leaders of both programs need to come together and just ask the hard questions. It is a matter of one league when we can say we are leaning to join your league or another league when we say we are leaning to join your league. Right now we both believe our leagues are the best.

SP: Now you’re retired, what’s your next step?

CT: My plan was to complete a two-year master’s degree in special education. So I completed one year of that.

But before I went into specialty, I wanted to be an occupational therapist. This is what led me to special education.

I’m really taking this year off to figure out if teaching is what I really want to do. I know that I want to work with children and children with disabilities and special education teachers.

I actually found a program online that is occupational therapy. I applied for it and thought I could start it this summer. Not 100% sure yet, but it would be perfect for me since it’s online. So it doesn’t matter where we end up or where we go. Because obviously last year my master’s program was in person, I couldn’t continue it when I came here.

SP: For the typical male professional hockey player, there is a path after retirement to a coaching career, a scouting career, perhaps a job with an NHL organization, a path to extending the hockey life.

But for professional female players, you girls don’t get paid that much to begin with, so that equates to not having that money to extend your hockey life after your playing career, right?

CT: Is hard.

You want those opportunities when you can’t keep playing yourself.

Like you want to coach, maybe coach at a junior level, and then you have to build that resume, right? But while doing so, you hardly make any money.

You have to really love the game to do that. Some people make great, fantastic careers doing it. But you have to be willing to take a little less money than you would in a different career. Which is tough. You find the right people who love the game and they can do it.

SP: Finally, bring everything back into the circle. The 1998 USA team may have shown young girls that you can play hockey at the highest level possible — but why is it important now for women’s professional hockey to show women that you can play for a living?

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CT: Yes, it is that important.

I think the leagues are doing a good job right now of getting young players into games, having them come in between games, inviting them to games, sending players to smaller programs and maybe having a workout or something. so.

I think [that outreach is] really important for our game. Because right now we’re building it so that hopefully one day they can just play hockey. Right now it’s not there.

But I think we’re doing a good job of bringing young people together and showing them that you can have a dream to play professionally, whether you’re making a little money or a lot of money right now. It just shows that we have a league so these younger girls can grow up saying I want to be a professional hockey player.

SP: Do you have any dissenting opinions on the state of women’s hockey?

CT: I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play professional hockey. Many people before me have never had this opportunity. It’s amazing to see firsthand how far it has come in just the last five years. And I can’t wait to see where it goes in the next 5, 10 years. It is very exciting that there is so much room for growth in women’s hockey. I got to be a part of it. It will be exciting to see where it leads.