The Stars of the Sceptres

When the puck dropped on the Professional Women’s Hockey League last January 1, diehard fans were cautiously optimistic. They’d been here before. Over the past two decades, similar leagues had come and gone, proving the prophets of doom—who insisted there wasn’t a market for women’s sports—right. But the PWHL scored big, despite not having team names, logos or home rinks. New faithful flocked to games, followed by the media and sponsors. Six weeks into the season, PWHL Toronto took over the 19,285-seat Scotiabank Arena for a face-off against Montreal, smashing attendance records. In April, the rivals met again at a sold-out Bell Centre in Montreal, North America’s hockey temple.

Related: The 50 Most Influential Torontonians of 2024

Toronto’s players—including forwards Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner and Blayre Turnbull—have become household names, kicking off a new chapter for hockey and women’s sports in general. As Toronto prepares to welcome a professional women’s soccer team in 2025 and a WNBA expansion team in 2026, the timing couldn’t be better. We sat down with the stars of the newly christened Toronto Sceptres for some real talk about the long road to success, meeting fans in unlikely places and why getting heckled is their love language.

Take me back to a year ago. The league was just starting up. There were no team names or logos, but there were a lot of naysayers proclaiming that the PWHL wouldn’t last.

Blayre Turnbull: I was one of the threeBefore September 10, 2023, each team in the league was allowed to sign three core players. Toronto chose Nurse, Turnbull and defender Renata Fast. players signed before the draft, so I already knew I was going to be in Toronto. I don’t think I was as stressed as the girls who had no idea where they would end up, but it was a nerve-wracking time. We had waited so long for a league to be set up in a professional way, and it seemed to finally be here. Still, we needed to wait and see if it was too good to be true.

Sarah, you had been working behind the scenesAs a member of the players’ association executive team, Nurse negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with the league’s owners—the first CBA of its kind in women’s hockey history. to make the league a reality. How were you feeling?

Sarah Nurse: I was working with the investment group,The league has a single owner: the Mark Walter Group, led by LA Dodgers owner Mark Walter. but as a player all I really knew was that I would be in Toronto. We didn’t have a rink, we didn’t have a name—we had a team, a coach and a gym. The puck was dropping on January 1—that was the light we could hold on to. The people behind the scenes did amazing work. We turned a professional sports league around in less than eight months. That’s unheard of.

Natalie Spooner: I had high hopes, but the years leading up to it were tough. We were doing tours to showcase our game and prove to the world that there was a market for women’s hockey. But then, like Sarah said, it came together so fast that we wondered what it was all going to look like when we hit the ice. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much electricity go through my body as when Billie JeanSports icon Billie Jean King heads up the PWHL advisory board, which includes former tennis pro (and King’s wife) Ilana Kloss, LA Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten, and Dodgers senior VP Royce Cohen. came out to drop the puck that first game and the stands were full of fans. The momentum we’ve gained over the past year has been amazing.

Any desire to say “I told you so” to the non-believers?

Spooner: For sure. I came out of university in 2012. In every game since, I’ve been putting myself out there to say, “Come watch us—you’ll be surprised just how fast and skilled the women’s game has gotten.” It felt like every year there was maybe a little bit of movement but not enough to make waves. Then finally everything came together. People bought in. We’re seeing little girls, little boys, women who didn’t have the chance to play in a league like ours but wanted to.

You mentioned little boys. There’s a real cross-section of people in the stands at PWHL games in a way that we haven’t traditionally seen with the NHL. Your fan base is more diverse.

Nurse: I’ve always thought of women’s hockey as a way to bridge that gap. Hockey has been a bit of an unwelcoming space for a long time. We want people to come to our games and feel welcome and included while they watch amazing hockey. That’s something really beautiful that we’ve been able to bring to the game. We’re also reaching more and more people. Toronto is a hockey hotbed, and now we’re on major sports networks. We get approached all the time by people who want to talk hockey with us. And it’s not just, “Oh, you’re doing amazing work, thank you.” It’s also, “You guys are really good, but your power play needs to be better.” We’ve never, ever had that.

What’s been your most memorable fan interaction?

Turnbull: These two get it everywhere we go—there are always people lining up for pictures and autographs. Recently I was getting groceries at a little store in my neighbourhood when a man and his son came up to ask if I was Blayre Turnbull. Apparently, I am the boy’s favourite hockey player. And he didn’t just mean in the PWHL. He meant favourite hockey player period—NHL, OHL, PWHL. Things like that are starting to happen, and it’s really cool.

Spooner: I have a son who’s almost two. Whenever he sees a hockey player, he points. He thinks it’s his mama. He’s going to grow up in a world where there has always been professional women’s hockey. It will never not be an option for his classmate to play hockey when she gets older. And I think it’s really great that he’s able to watch us and be inspired by so many amazing aunties.

Nurse: I’m trying to think of a moment that sticks out for me.

Turnbull: Um, at the gym?

Nurse: Oh my god, yeah.

Turnbull: We’ve had Sarah Nurse fans sneak into the gym during fitness.

Nurse: We work out in Burlington, above a public rink with a window that you can see in through. One day, there were four-on-four little leagues going on. The girls were playing and waving up at us. We were in the middle of fitness testing, and we were doing chin-ups. It’s a big deal—you’ve got to be good. All of a sudden this group of little girls came running in.

Turnbull: “Hi, Sarah Nurse!” She was hanging off the chin-up bar. The kids had snuck past the reception desk.

Nurse: I was like, “How did you guys get in here? I’m a little busy right now! But okay!” It was very sweet. Kids will take any opportunity to meet us.

How do you explain the sea change in the attitude toward women’s hockey in 2024? There’s a huge appetite for your games.

Turnbull: I think it goes back to how our games are televised now. If they’re not on a major TV channel then they’re available on YouTube. More people are seeing our skill, our speed and our physicality, and that has definitely turned heads. There’s a better understanding of the quality of play and the amount of work that goes into our craft. People who have been dismissive of women’s athletic pursuits have less to complain about.

Nurse: I’ve been told so many times that women’s hockey is great but there’s no real market for it unless it’s a Team Canada and Team USA game and there’s national pride behind it. So I was very proud when we sold out Scotiabank and the Bell Centre.Attendance at Montreal’s Bell Centre, the largest hockey arena in North America, was 21,105. The game at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto had 19,285 fans. The game in Montreal was the most attended women’s hockey game ever held in North America. Historically, we’ve made a lot of noise about how we want to be able to show everyone what we can do. We finally got the opportunity, so it was a real put-up-or-shut-up moment.

You called everyone’s bluff. And you got to break a lot of hearts with your overtime goal.

Nurse: We did! That was the final nail in the coffin.

Spooner: It was so loud in the arena. I remember Blayre turning to me and saying, “I don’t think my ears are going to be okay after this game.”

Turnbull: I was on the bench covering my ears at certain points. They measured the sound during the TV breaks, and I’m sure it exceeded safety standards.

Nurse: I remember that we got booed when we skated onto the ice. Which was amazing—I like that team rivalry.

Turnbull: It’s fun to be the enemy sometimes.

Spooner: One hundred per cent.

I have roots in both Toronto and Montreal. Whenever both teams play—

Nurse: Oh, you’re torn. Internal conflict!

Tell me about it! So the team is getting a new home venue in the Coca-Cola Coliseum at Exhibition Place. It has about 5,000 more seats than the Mattamy Centre, where you played most of your games last season.

Turnbull: It’s a much-needed change. This year’s season ticket memberships sold out very quickly, even with the bigger venue.

The PWHL is a start-up. You’ve talked about moments of elation, but what about the growing pains that come with building something from scratch?

Spooner: I went in expecting some hiccups, and they’ve always gotten fixed. The biggest challenge, even though it’s what we wanted, has been playing a regular season. Before now, we’d been playing on weekends or in random games and showcases. Now we have a set schedule; this is our career. Coming back post-pregnancy,Spooner joined the PWHL nine months after giving birth. She filed for a compassionate waiver, meaning she can’t be traded to another team during the course of her two-year contract. I wondered how I was going to handle everything. Thankfully I had a lot of help—I don’t think I would have been able to do it otherwise.

Nurse: I have to say that Spooner handled being a mother and a professional athlete with such grace. She performed and was an incredible teammate and leader.

Turnbull: MVP.

Natalie, you did have a pretty good season—the league’s top goal scorer and all.

Spooner: I had great teammates.

A lot of attention has been paid to the fact that you’ve done so well while being a new parent. And you all get asked about the importance of mentorship and being role models for young girls. Do you ever want to deflect those questions in favour of ones about your stats or the quality of your game?

Spooner: It’s good to have a balance. If people don’t hear our stories, then how are we going to inspire the next person? We’ve always said that you need to see it to believe it to dream it. But, yes, we love to talk hockey.

Turnbull: For so long we’ve been asked why. Why do we keep pushing for a league? Why do we have certain expectations and standards? And for so long, our answer has been that it’s for the next generation. But part of our why is because we want to be hockey players ourselves. So we do as much as we can to make sure girls will be set up to play in a successful league, but we’re also focusing on the few years we have to play professional hockey.

In the spirit of that, tell me about your top moment on the ice this past season.

Turnbull: Oh, god. Hmm.

Spooner: I wonder.

I’m asking you about your game, come on.

Turnbull: For Sarah, it has to be that one goal—

Nurse: Which one?

Turnbull: At Mattamy, where you came out of the corner. That was dominance.

Nurse: It was our last regular season game at Mattamy. We were playing Ottawa, and I had broken my finger two days earlier, so I was battling. I had a great face-off, made a great play and ended up scoring. And I thought, I just did that with a broken finger—I’m pretty good.

Turnbull: In a game that was really important for us to win.

Spooner: I feel like that whole game—

Turnbull: Spooner had those moments every game.

Spooner: No, but that final game, the goal that I scored wasn’t even nice, but it did put us in the lead. Nursey just looked at me and yelled, “20!”

Nurse: She scored 20 goals!Spooner finished the season as the league’s top scorer. She also won the inaugural Billie Jean King MVP Award. How?!

Turnbull: A huge part of my game is playing a strong defensive role as a forward. I get really pumped when I get sent on the ice to play a shutdown role against another team’s top line. And we’ve played in a lot of tight games, a lot of games where, if the other team scores, we’re going to go into overtime. Based on the points system, you really don’t want that. Those moments are big for me.

Nurse: We have a lot of trust and faith in this one.

How does this all compare to the Olympics?As members of the national team, Spooner has played in three Olympics and Nurse and Turnbull in two.

Spooner: You approach them in different ways. In Toronto, we’re together every single day, playing way more games, and we have time to work through things, whereas the Olympics is a short-term tournament. Representing your country is such an honour, but being able to play in the first-ever PWHL season, even if we didn’t win the Walter Cup,Though favoured to win, Toronto lost in the semi-finals against Minnesota. was pretty special.

Nurse: The hype, the media coverage and the noise surrounding our first game felt like the Olympics. Going into that game, there were cameras everywhere, reporters everywhere, everybody wanted to talk to us. I was overwhelmed.

Turnbull: The intensity of the games is the same, and the passion is the same. We care so much about our team in Toronto, which is very close to how we feel when we get to represent Canada.

Nurse: There’s a lot of pride. For example, I don’t like it when people tell me they cheer for Montreal.

I’m sorry! Like you said, I’m torn.

Spooner: We’re going to see these rivalries come out more.

Turnbull: We definitely have people who cheer against our team, but they’re usually so happy to have a league and a team to cheer for that they can’t actually hate a player.

Nurse: Fans have mostly gotten to know women’s hockey through players as individuals, not as members of a team, whether that’s through social media or community events. Now that we’ve split off into different groups, you can see alliances starting to form, but people are still fans of the players they’ve always loved.

Spooner: It’s hard to cheer against someone who has worked for years to get this league up and running.

Nurse: Our job now is to perform as hockey players, not to deal with everything else. It’s a relief, but it adds a new layer of pressure because if you’re not performing, people are talking about it. Our first six or seven games were tough. I was sitting in a nail salon, and on the news I saw a border that read, “PWHL Toronto still looking for just their second win of the season.” I was like, “Dang, okay CP24. Jeez.”

You’re facing the same scrutiny as Toronto’s other sports teams.

Nurse: Us, the Leafs, the Raptors—we’re all in the same boat.

Turnbull: Like those athletes, we’re under pressure to earn our next contract. I do think there’s an added element to us being in the media now. We have to take time to interact with people who want to interact with us, even when we’re dog-tired or in a rush. If you don’t take the extra 30 seconds to say hi to someone, you’re going to hear about it online, and you’re going to get called a bad person and mean and how could anyone consider you a role model? Many of us aren’t used to that spotlight.

Do you think there’s a double standard there?

Turnbull: When it comes to fan interactions and the time we give people who support us, there are higher expectations for female athletes than males. I’m not saying this as a complaint—I understand that it’s an honour to be in this position—but there is more pressure.

What about the enormous gulf between PWHL and NHL salaries? The players who have signed multi-year contracts, like you, are making more,According to the CBA, players signed to three-year contracts make a minimum annual salary of $110,000. but the average salary in the league is roughly $78,000. Will there come a time when women players are paid what they’re worth?

Spooner: Think about the Original Six in the NHL and where they started versus where they are now. At this point we’re just so excited that we can have a career playing hockey and our players can make a livable wage.Precursors to the PWHL paid much less. The Premier Hockey Federation’s average salary in 2022/23 was $47,000. In 2017/18, the Canadian Women’s Hockey League offered players between $2,000 and $10,000. Obviously we want more, but we have to build up to that. We used to have to fight for sponsorship dollars, and now a lot of that moneyIn its first season, the PWHL had more than 40 sponsors, including Tim Hortons, Bauer, Canadian Tire, Scotiabank, Rogers and Barbie. is moving over to our side. Whether we expand the league or pay our players more, this is just the beginning. Ask us in 50 years where we’re at and what the league looks like.

Has being in the league improved your performance? What’s the best part? Having access to trainers, nutritionists, data analytics?

Spooner: Benefits.The PWHL’s collective bargaining agreement includes a housing stipend, long-term disability, life and health insurance, workers’ compensation, parental leave, a dependent care assistance program, a retirement plan, and more.

Nurse: People want to talk black-and-white numbers, salaries, because they’re easy to digest. I’m more interested in what we can have that sets us up to be the best performers and to have long careers. The guys in the NHL who play until they’re 40 years old have strength coaches, nutritionists, athletic therapy staff. Our GM in Toronto, Gina Kingsbury,A two-time Olympic gold medallist, Kingsbury is also the general manager of Team Canada. has put such an incredible staff in place. We have our full-time strength and conditioning coach, full-time athletic staff, doctors. We have a mental skills coach coming in, which is a huge part of the game. These people let us lean in to just playing hockey and working on our craft. Yes, we’re getting paid, but it’s the resources that are the biggest step up.

Turnbull: It’s so easy for us to get fixed up when we need it. We can send a text to one of our team staff, and they’re happy to treat us and get us on our way. And we don’t have to pay out of pocket. It’s really nice to have those luxuries.

They aren’t exactly luxuries for a professional athlete.

Turnbull: But for us they are, based on the past.

Nurse: As a hockey player, you put your body on the line every night. Recovery is such a huge piece for us, not only because we’re playing but because we’re travelling so much. Before, if I was feeling banged up, I had to push through because there wasn’t anybody around me to offer specific advice or services.

You’re all, in different ways, leaders on your team. Who wields the most influence?

Spooner: It depends. But Blayre is a huge influence in our locker room—when she speaks, people listen.

What’s it like to be captain?

Turnbull: It feels great. For me, it’s natural to lead. I haven’t changed anything about who I am, how I act or how I treat my teammates. Still, the last year was a learning experience—I’ve been an assistant captain with the national team for a while now, but wearing a C is a bigger responsibility. As for these two, they haven’t changed either, despite having such a presence on social media and a bunch of sponsors.Spooner’s sponsors include Scotiabank and Adidas, and Nurse has eight major endorsements including Canadian Tire, Chevrolet, CCM and Dyson. She’s still the Sarah Nurse I knew when we met playing at the University of Wisconsin.

Nurse: Cute.

Turnbull: And Spoons, I met her right after she was finishing up in Sochi, in the fall of 2014. We younger players were still kind of in that phase where we idolized all those guys.

Nurse: I remember being Spooner’s line mate at this one little event, and I couldn’t believe I was playing with her. And now she’s somebody who really calms me down. She’s often laughing and dancing and keeping things light—and reminding me that I’m pretty.

Spooner: You’re so pretty!

Nurse: We also talk game a lot. I really lean on her. And I go to Blayre if I need a very rational, unbiased, honest opinion.

Spooner: Blayre is one of the hardest-working people out there.

Nurse: We always say Blayre has one speed. She gives 150 per cent—there’s no off button. The PWHL had its first draft this past June.

Can you imagine a world in which you get traded away from Toronto?

Spooner: That would be really sad.

Nurse: Really sad. I love this city.

Turnbull: No trades, please.

Nurse: Cross your fingers. Gina…

What makes Toronto such a good place to play?

Spooner: The teammates, the fans, the staff. It’s fun to come to the rink every day. We had such a great time during our first season, even if it didn’t go the way we wanted. There’s so much excitement and potential.

Nurse: I grew up in Hamilton, so not too far away, but being able to live here and experience the food, the culture and the people is amazing. I feel like our fan base is so representative of Toronto. And to be able to say that you’re a professional athlete who plays on a Toronto sports team is iconic.

Soon you won’t be the only professional women’s sports team in the city. Soccer is coming, then basketball. You’re the first but not the last.

Spooner: We’re excited to be able to go watch women’s soccer and women’s basketball. And we can’t wait for them to see the market here and how people are loving women’s sports. All of this is going to help grow Toronto’s portfolio and make it the best sports city in the world.

What advice do you have for the players coming in?

Spooner: The more media coverage we get, the harder the Toronto market will be to play in, but it’s also the best market. So embrace it all and have fun. Hopefully they come out and watch our games and we can watch their games and we can have a little friendship.

Nurse: I’m trying to get my cousinSarah Nurse’s cousin Kia Nurse is a guard for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and a basketball analyst for TSN. to come play for WNBA Toronto. I’m hoping she returns home in 2026.

Turnbull: We’d get to share a venue.The Toronto WNBA team, set to start playing in 2026, will also be based out of Coca-Cola Coliseum.

Nurse: I think the contracts are going to line up. I think it’s going to work out.

Has Kia ever played hockey against you?

Nurse: She hasn’t laced up the skates—I think she’s scared. But I used to play basketball with Kia at camps and stuff. She was always number one, and I was a distant number two. I’d be scared to go one-on-one against her now. She’s a beast.

What are your hopes for the future of the PWHL? What’s the brass ring you’re reaching for?

Turnbull: Expansion. Get some teams in areas like Halifax, where they don’t have professional sports.

Nurse: Just going out on a limb and saying Halifax, a totally random example.Turnbull was born and raised in the town of Stellarton, 150 kilometres northeast of Halifax.

Turnbull: You know, it’s the first thing that popped into my head.

Spooner: As long as you’re not leaving.

Turnbull: This will be long after my playing days are over.

Is this about fulfilling a childhood dream?

Turnbull: Totally. As a kid, I thought I could play in the NHL. So having a PWHL team in Halifax would be sweet.

What happened when you found out you couldn’t play in the NHL?

Turnbull: Then I wanted to play in the Olympics. I loved watching all types of hockey, whether it was the Halifax Mooseheads, which is the junior team, or my cousins and neighbours who played Bantam AAA. I just know that a team in Halifax would be great for the young girls and for the broader community. This past summer, I did a camp in Nova Scotia with Jill Saulnier, who plays on the Sirens, the PWHL New York team. Our registration sold out in three minutes.

It sounds like you have a post-PWHL plan.

Turnbull: Maybe! I would take a career out there.

Nurse: Personally, I’m really proud of how the PWHL has innovated, from rule changes to other little tweaks within our game. And I cannot wait until the NHL, the IIHF and other global leaders in hockey look at us and say, “We like that rule—we’re implementing it in our game.” Because I know it’s going to happen.

Which rule?

Turnbull: The jailbreak goalA fan favourite during power plays, the jailbreak rule frees a penalized player when their team scores a goal shorthanded. will be adopted soon, I think.

Spooner: Yup, jailbreak.

Nurse: Definitely jailbreak. There’s so much history within those organizations, and it’s really cool to think they can look at us and say, “Wow, they did something here.” We have the chance to be a global leader.

Spooner: I’m also interested in expansion, but in the sense of being able to reach more people. There were a lot of our games on TV this past season, but I’m looking forward to having all of our games on TV, with all the extras that other sports get. And I think it will be great when the sports commentary around the PWHL becomes more balanced. Like, when someone’s talking on TV and says, “Natalie Spooner sucked today”—just bashing me. That’s when we’ll know we made it.

Turnbull: People tuning in to talk shows just to hear what they have to say about the PWHL players.

You can’t wait for the smack talk?

Spooner: Sometimes they’re just too nice about us. Oh, and it would be cool to get some free-agency frenzy on TV one day.

Nurse: But, again, no trades.

Last question to bring us back to the beginning. You finally have a name.

Spooner: Toronto Sceptres!According to the PWHL, the name “embodies Toronto’s regal history and commanding presence.” In certain corners of the internet, the logo recalls a Taylor Swift cheerleading emblem from the pop star’s “Shake It Off” video. It feels good. The fans have wanted this for a long time, and so have we. We can’t wait to get out there on November 30 for our first game of season two and represent Toronto with pride.

If you couldn’t be the Sceptres, what would you be?

Spooner: The Queens.

Nurse: Queens, for sure.

Turnbull: Reign. Or Majesty.

All the royal names.

Nurse: We are very royal.

Spooner: Toronto royalty.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.