How Emerance Maschmeyer built a home in Ottawa — from the crease out
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Emerance Maschmeyer had no idea what to expect when she first put pen to paper with Ottawa's newly awarded PWHL franchise in 2023.
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Two years later, she leaves with a family, a loyal fan base and a franchise built from scratch.
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Though she's heading to Vancouver next season as part of the league's expansion — a sign of the league's rapid success — Maschmeyer leaves knowing she helped establish the kind of stability she once thought was out of reach.
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Fresh out of Harvard University, she had no illusions. A viable professional women's hockey league felt like a long shot. Her three seasons in the now-defunct Canadian Women's Hockey League were a drastic step down from the resources she'd had in college.
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She played in community rinks, not storied arenas. There were no salaries, no major sponsorships, no elite sports medicine or training facilities. The league wobbled constantly on the edge of insolvency.
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'I soon found out after I graduated that I had been treated the most professional in college,' Maschmeyer told Postmedia. 'I thought that was kind of it. I didn't really ever expect to be able to play in a viable professional league.'
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In the fall of 2023, she signed on in Ottawa — drawn by GM Mike Hirshfeld's vision, the opportunity to help build something new and the comfort of sharing it with close friends Emily Clark and Brianne Jenner.
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'Knowing that those two were going to be on this journey together, it just made it all the more special,' Jenner said.
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What none of them could have predicted was how quickly the PWHL would take off. When news broke that TD Place had sold out for Ottawa's home opener, Maschmeyer began to realize the league's momentum had already carried far beyond its players.
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'I had tears in my eyes, chills all over my body,' she said, recalling the January 2023 game. 'I expected a big moment, but I didn't really expect to feel that much emotion and for the fans to feel it with us.
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'But then after that first game, it just continued to happen again and again and again.'
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Packed arenas became commonplace, and Maschmeyer became a cornerstone of the team's appeal.
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On the ice, she was the league's most dependable netminder, playing in all but one of Ottawa's 24 regular-season games in its inaugural campaign. She was also the busiest, becoming the first PWHL goaltender to stop 1,000 shots earlier this season.
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'She's been one of our best players, if not our best player, in these first two years,' Jenner said. 'And it's a testament to the work that she puts into her craft.'
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