Darryl Watts thought she’d retired from hockey after a stellar NCCA profession.
The 23-year-old from Toronto was accepted into the University of Wisconsin’s masters industrial real-estate program final fall after a summer season internship in that subject.
But per week earlier than returning to her alma mater in Madison, Watts did what folks her age typically do which is change her thoughts about what she wished to do together with her life.
“I backed out seven days earlier than. My dad was so upset,” Watts informed The Canadian Press on Wednesday. “He helps all the things I do and he was so supportive after he sort of received over it.”
‘Turning level’
While recharting the course of her life, what introduced her out of retirement was the Premier Hockey Federation’s announcement Dec. 14 of a salary-cap doubling subsequent season to $1.5 million US per crew.
“I used to be sort of pursuing different issues on the time,” Watts mentioned. “Once I noticed the information that the PHF’s wage cap had doubled to $1.5 million US, that was the turning level.
“The dialog with my household was enjoying ladies’s skilled hockey is a really viable monetary possibility and it may possibly help a extremely nice life-style for a 23-year-old. Why would not I pursue this and see what the choices are?”
Historic contract
Days after the Toronto Six signed the ahead to a two-year contract, Watts made public Wednesday her 2023-24 wage which at $150,000 is a league report.
“I’m disclosing this as a result of ladies’s hockey has been struggling for therefore lengthy” Watts mentioned. “I’m so grateful and lucky to be the recipient of this historic contract.
“It’s my obligation, nearly, to the ladies’s hockey group, to share this contract, present readability into what the ladies’s professional hockey environment seems to be like proper now.
“This is a staggering quantity. It sends the message to younger ladies who play hockey that they’ll look ahead to a professional ladies’s league the place they’ve the chance to make a extremely vital sum of money to help themselves whereas enjoying the game they love.
“I’m additionally disclosing this as a result of I hope it will entice different gamers, which can then accumulate into the institution of 1 single skilled ladies’s hockey league.”
Wilson-Bennett buries it and Daryl Watts has her first PHF level! <a href=”https://t.co/zzhyEEY3Tw”>pic.twitter.com/zzhyEEY3Tw</a>
—@PHF
Toronto ahead Mikyla Grant-Mentis was the PHF’s highest-paid participant heading into this season after signing an $80,000 contract with the Buffalo Beauts.
The seven-team PHF, with golf equipment in Toronto and Montreal, has upped the monetary ante in its bid to be the North American ladies’s professional hockey league of report.
The common wage this season is $34,000 on a 22-player roster, however pay ranges wherever from $13,500 to the $80,000 of Grant-Mentis.
Watts’ contract that converts to $200,000 in Canadian {dollars} subsequent season is a milestone by way of elevating the monetary bar.
It’s additionally the PHF’s newest message to the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association, whose 80-player membership consists of stars Marie-Philip Poulin, Sarah Nurse, Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne Schofield.
The PWHPA, which holds showcase video games and tournaments, intends to start out its personal league with Billie Jean King Enterprises and Mark Walter, co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as potential backers.
PWHPA gamers have up to now refused to hitch the PHF stating that if a participant wants a second job to help themselves — and a number of other have aspect gigs — that isn’t the professional league they envision.
Women’s hockey almost misplaced a high-calibre participant in Watts, who ranks second all-time in NCAA scoring with 297 factors in 172 video games with first Boston College after which Wisconsin from 2017 to 2022.
In her rookie 12 months with the Eagles in 2018, Watts turned the primary freshman to win the Patty Kazmaier Award that goes to the highest participant in ladies’s Division 1 hockey.
Watts represented Canada on the world under-18 hockey championship in 2017 in a silver-medal effort. She additionally performed for the nationwide under-22 crew in a three-game sequence towards the United States in the summertime of 2019.
With the assistance of her father Michael, a company lawyer who acted as her agent, Watts entered into discussions and negotiations with PHF golf equipment.
She mentioned she was interested in the Boston Pride and the Connecticut Whale as a result of they’re coached by former NHL gamers Paul Mara and Colton Orr respectively, in addition to Buffalo due to proximity.
‘Special place in my coronary heart’
But her hometown crew, which ranks second within the league at 10-2-2 behind Boston, received the Watts sweepstakes.
“They provided me a extremely nice contract,” Watts mentioned. “Born and raised in Toronto, I had a particular place in my coronary heart for the Toronto Six.
“I performed highschool hockey in Toronto. My household and my mates are right here. Great downtown life and I’m an enormous Leafs fan. Right now, I’m dwelling in my childhood home so life is fairly good.”
Watts stepped on the ice for the primary time in 10 months for Six practices final week. She performed in Toronto’s video games Saturday and Sunday towards Connecticut and had an help.
“I used to be completely sucking wind,” Watts mentioned. “My legs had been on hearth. I used to be blacking out on the ice. Didn’t really feel nice. Physically I used to be struggling, however mentally having a good time.
“I’m arduous on myself. I count on myself to carry out on the stage that I do know I’m able to. I hadn’t been on the ice within the 12 months and I spent the summer season shedding my hockey muscle.
“I hope to be acting at a 100 per cent by the point playoffs come.”
