Up until the early 20th century, ice hockey was a men-only sport. That’s probably because of the slashing, hooking, scraping, and body-checking that characterize the game. But thanks to globalization and women’s agitation for equality, the Stick Kates is now a gender-neutral sport. Beginning in 1930, women’s teams started springing up, featuring most ice hockey stunts and affirming that female folks are in no way inferior or less resilient than men.
Today, the hockey world rejoices in women’s players and teams, giving them the same admiration and attention as their male counterparts. This new course is being confirmed at the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile, where tens of thousands of fans gather to follow the performances of the women’s hockey teams. This phenomenon demonstrates a continuous shift in the perception and recognition of women’s achievements in hockey.
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Whether with the gloves and helmet as a professional player or even an amateur, hockey is not a sport where women easily attain stardom. Women hockey players have to be as resilient, aggressive, fast, and sometimes violent as their male counterparts. Consequently, any female name famous in this Stick Skates game, whether as a coach or a player has paid the price.
In this article, we will examine some of the toughest female hockey players who have played this third-most-admired sport in the world.
1. Helen Schmuck
Call her the Iron Lady of ice hockey, and you won’t be wrong. She played alongside Hilda Ranscombe, another superstar, at Preston Rivulettes in the 1930s. During one of her team’s playoffs with Port Stanley in 1931, she displayed a spontaneous and short-lived fisticuff that led to the opponent suspecting that she was a man. If anyone threw a massive hit, displayed a fisticuff, or a scrum in that game, it was Schmuck. The opponent, amazed and feeling oppressed, demanded that she prove her womanhood before they could continue with the series.
Schmuck was such a famous female hockey player with a commanding stamina that journalists like Alexandrine Gibb, while describing female hockey players in 1931, said the girls were just as excellent at scrapping and punching as any boys’ team. In this description, everyone knew he had Helen Schmuck primarily in mind.
2. Angela James
Angela James was next to nobody among the women hockey players of the 70s and 80s. Besides her intimidating scoring prowess, she’s a master of bone-rattling body checks, a phenomenon that made her feared by other players. Deb Maybury later described her as a beast that could play with such intensity and skill that it is unusual.
According to James, she gained her grit and intensity in high school when she played with older women. She recalled how she often got the snot knocked out of her by these seniors, which was how she developed her forceful style. For her, no other way exists to play hockey than to hit hard, and she became the best female hockey player in her days with an unusual hitting style.
3. Hayley Wickenheiser
If there was a sport in which the USA and Canada were rivers, it was ice and field hockey. Hayley Wickenheiser felt what this rivalry looked like in 1998 when Team USA defeated her Canadian hockey team at the Nagano Olympics. As she later wrote in her book, “Over the Boards: Lessons From the Ice,” she felt horrible seeing her and the Canadian team wearing a silver medal while their American counterparts dazzled in their golds.
To many analysts, Hayley Wickenheiser is the best female hockey player of all time. From her university days in Calgary, where her ex-teammate, Danielle Goyette, was the head coach, Hayley never stopped winning awards. Having started in a men’s hockey team where she became the first non-goalie female professional hockey player to play in men’s hockey, Wickenheiser is truly a woman of grit and stamina. She attributed her resilience and stamina to her role model grandfather, a farmer and staunch believer in hard work.
Drawing strength from the hard work she learnt while growing up, the Toronto Maple Leafs assistant general manager joined Canada’s national female hockey team at fifteen, representing the country in many competitions. She was a tough player, winning seven Olympic gold medals and three silver medals. The world champion was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019 after retiring from professional hockey two years earlier to pursue a medical career at a university in Canada. Her progression at the Maple Leafs since her appointment in 2018 has been upward, making her the general manager’s lieutenant.
4. Gillian Apps
Staunch followers of female hockey will most likely remember Gillian Apps for her unpopular drive against a USA netminder in the 2007 World Championship. Talk about a strong will, intimidating physical outlook, and can-do mindset in this sport, and Apps would be a name to check out. She is among the hot female hockey players with the highest penalty minutes in the Canada Women’s Hockey League. Fewer USA and Canada physical contests in this game happened without Apps being the centerpiece. With her helmet and Stick Skates, she’s almost unstoppable.
Gillian is a world champion, winning gold medals twice (2004 & 2007) and silver medals three times, in addition to her 2006, 2010, and 2014 Olympic Gold Medal. Gillian Apps joined the Canada Women’s team in 2001 and was part of the national team that won back-to-back Olympic gold medals for Canada. She retired from professional hockey in 2015 and became a coach a year later with Boston College.
5. Kaleigh Fratkin
Maybe not one of your regular hockey names, but Fratkin is no amateur at physical contests. According to the Boston Herald, known to defend the PHL, Fratkin is the all-time leader in the league when it comes to penalty minutes. She’s got no rivals in the US with 200 PIMS. She started with her high school boys’ hockey, where she joined the under-18 Junior B and ‘AAA’ team, from where she developed her body-checking and physical style. In the US league, only a few players measure up to Fratkin in playing on the edge like this star.
Conclusion
Of course, the list of hot female hockey players around the globe does not end with these five. Others like Courtney Kennedy, Jocelyn Larocque, Hillary Knight, Angela Ruggiero, and Madison Packer are equally women of grit who know how to pluck ice, body check, and dispossess their opponents like beasts.
Perhaps you know a few others who are gurus at physical ice pluck. You can share their name(s) and impact(s).