Turnquist explains challenges of being pro women's hockey player

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

The 25-year-old defenseman retired last year after two pro seasons with the NWHL/PHF’s Boston Pride and Minnesota Whitecaps. She returned to the Pride this year on a part-time basis but has no plans for a full-time comeback.

That’s, in part, because pro women’s hockey doesn’t pay a living wage yet 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. She 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 pro women’s hockey player, and what rival women’s hockey leagues PHF and PWHPA need to do to ensure that young girls have a sustainable and lucrative pro hockey league to dream about playing in.

Sheng Peng: 25 years ago, the US women’s hockey team put women’s hockey “on the map” in the US with their 1998 Olympic gold medal win. I know you were young for that, but how did that win, or players from that team, impact your entry into playing hockey? 

Taylor Turnquist: That was obviously before my time playing. But I think it's so important to shed light on how far women's hockey has come. Just even in the past 10 years, there's been so many more opportunities in professional hockey. 

Since the beginning, the Olympians have really paved the way. [For] our girls that I've always looked up to. It's really incredible what the national teams are able to do, but also, just how far the sport itself has come in terms of like college hockey experiences, and then, the professional league. 

It's really cool what national team players do for the sport itself and then just how far it's come even in the past 10 years.

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

TT: My first year of playing pro [in 2020-21], I was with the Boston Pride.
 
And then last year, I played for the [Minnesota] Whitecaps because Nico was playing for the Wild then, and that was just way easier for our relationship, and it was a great opportunity. 

With Nico's trade, and then now him being in San Jose, I decided to officially retire. But then this year, the Boston Pride had a season-ending injury. A defenseman, she actually broke her femur. 

That was in pre-season. So they only had six defenseman to begin with, and then obviously with her, that cut it down to five. In the PHF, you're able to have 10 PTOs per season. So they were able to sign me to a few PTOs throughout the year to just have that extra defenseman. 

So when they called and asked me, I was like, why not? It's a few games, make a little bit of money. So I did that for a while. 
But now, they've been asking me to play, and you can't get much further [from] San Jose than Boston.

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

TT: I think so.
 
You grow up playing forever and you work so hard and then to just give it 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 actually incredible, people don't get to see how hard these girls work. But it's insane how we went to work, eight to four, worked all day, worked out after work and then had practice. It's insane what these girls do. 

I don't know if it's sustainable for more than a couple of years, girls get burnt out. But hopefully in the near future, it's already come so far. So hopefully in the next few years, it will be livable for girls to just play.

SP: What is the minimum salary for a pro women’s hockey player?

TT: My first year in the PHF, it was a different name, it was actually called the NWHL. So my first year in NWHL, the minimum salary, this is insane, but the minimum salary was $5,000. 

Over the course of the past two years, it's gotten a lot better. Last year, I believe, we had huge investors invest into the league, and the average salary went up to about $30,000, something along those lines. And then for next year, it's up to even more.

SP: When you played, you had a second job as special education teacher – what were other jobs that the girls held?

TT: We have such a wide range. 

You have the girls that love to coach. They put on skills sessions during the day. 

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

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

SP: What has to be done to get every woman player a living wage? What can the two rival women’s leagues, the PHF and PWHPA, do to achieve that goal? I know the attempts to unify the two leagues have failed so far.

TT: It's a really touchy subject, it's so hard, there's no easy answer.
 
In my opinion, I really do think both leagues are great. And both leagues are making strides in the right direction individually. 

But I really think that if we could come together and have one, large league that's very talented, we came together as one group, instead of right now two separate, I think we really could make a sustainable league and make that push to get the pay that we want. 

Right now, we're kind of hurting ourselves with the two separate leagues, because we're ultimately fighting for the same thing. We want that sustainable league that gets the exposure that it deserves. 

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

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

TT: I was never on, there used to be a lot of PA [or] player reps [calls], but I was never a part of that. I wasn't in those Zoom calls where they talked about the hard stuff. 

But I really do think it's just that leaders of both programs need to come together and just ask the hard questions. It's a matter of one league, being able to say we will fold to join your league or the other league saying we will fold to join yours. Right now, we both believe that our leagues are the best.

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

TT: My plan was to pursue a two-year master's degree in special education. So I completed one year of that.
 
But prior to even going into special ed, I wanted to be an occupational therapist. That's kind of what led me into special ed. 

I'm really taking this year off to figure out if teaching is what I really want to do. I know I want to work with kids and kids with disabilities and special ed and all that. 

I actually found an online program that's occupational therapy. I applied for that and I'm thinking I might start that this summer. It's not 100 percent sure yet, but it would be perfect for me because it's online. So no matter where we end up or where we go. Because obviously last year, being in my master's program was in person, I couldn't continue it when I came out here.

SP: For a typical pro men’s hockey player, there’s a path, post-retirement, to a coaching career, a scouting career, a job with an NHL organization maybe, a path to extending your hockey life as a living.

But for a pro women’s player, you girls aren’t paid as much to begin with, so it corresponds that there isn’t that money after your playing careers to extend your hockey life, right?

TT: It's hard.
 
You want those opportunities when you're not able to continue playing yourself.
 
Like you want to coach, you coach, maybe at a younger level, and then you have to build that resume, right? But while doing that, you're making hardly any money. 

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

SP: Finally, bringing it all back to a circle. The 1998 USA team maybe showed young girls that you could play hockey at the highest level possible – but now, why is it important for women’s pro hockey to show women you can make a living playing the game?

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TT: Yeah, it's so important.
 
I think that's one thing that the leagues are doing a good job of right now is incorporating youth players into games, having them come out in between periods, inviting them to games, sending us players into smaller programs, and maybe running a practice or something like that.

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

But I think we are doing a good job at incorporating the youth 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's just showcasing that we do have a league, so these younger girls can grow up saying I want to be a pro hockey player.

SP: Any parting thoughts about the state of women’s hockey?

TT: I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play pro hockey. A lot of people before me never had that opportunity. It's awesome to see, firsthand, just in the past five years, how far it's come. And I can't wait to see where it goes in the next 5, 10 years. It is very exciting that there's so much room for growth in women's hockey. I've been able to be a part of it. It's exciting to see where it's going to go.

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