“Hannah, Hannah,” shouted the crowd in Seattle as Kingston native Hannah Murphy made her goaltending debut with the Torrent of the Professional Women’s Hockey League in December.

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The Seattle Times reported that she made 23 saves as she “flopped and dived” across the goal crease. While the New York Sirens jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, Murphy held them off for the rest of the game. The Torrent responded with two goals to give the new franchise its first win.

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After graduating from Colgate University, where she backstopped the hockey team to the Frozen Four, Murphy was selected 15th overall in the league’s 2025 entry draft.

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She insists she wasn’t nervous about playing pro hockey in front of a crowd of thousands. “I was more excited than anything because there was a certain familiarity,” she told the Original Hockey Hall of Fame.

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Indeed there was.

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At the other end of the ice, Kayle Osborne, another Colgate grad, was in net for the Sirens. She’s from Westport, just north of Kingston, and has been named to the Canadian Olympic team.

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And the game featured four other Colgate alumni, one for Seattle and three for New York. Behind the Sirens bench was Greg Fargo of Wolfe Island.

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Born in Kingston, Murphy got her start at the age of four with a co-ed hockey initiation program in Napanee. Her mother Rebecca was a motivator to join the sport.

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“I became interested in hockey because my cousins and all my family were playing,” she says. “My mom played in a Sunday league. My dad would take us to the arena to watch and we would spend the entire hour running around the arena.”

 

After the initiation program, she joined the Napanee Crunch girls team. “When the team goalie was sick one day, I jumped right into it. I really enjoyed playing the whole game and having such an important role.”

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Her parents, Paul and Rebecca Murphy, lived in Napanee until she was 10, when they moved north of Toronto. They have since returned to the Kingston area. After graduating from high school, Hannah secured a full scholarship to Colgate. She studied mathematical economics, one of the more challenging aspects of that major.

 

As part of her studies, she interned with a commercial real estate firm. “I really enjoyed it but discovered that playing hockey is a lot more fun that sitting at a desk,” she laughs.

 

The Colgate squad won the conference title three out of the four years she attended. In her junior year, the team made it to the Frozen Four. She has also played on Canada’s national development team, which consists of the top university-age players in the country.

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The PWHL collective agreement provides for a minimum salary of US$37,000 per player, with a salary cap of $1.3 million per team. Of course, that’s peanuts compared to the minimum NHL pay, which is $775,000 for a rookie.

 

But it’s a start for a fledgling league that is only in its third season.

 

“With the collective bargaining agreement, girls don’t have to go out and get second jobs,” Murphy says. “They can focus on hockey.”

 

Higher pay requires greater revenues. So far, attendance is decent for most of the eight teams in the league. In Seattle, Murphy’s team is averaging about 8,700 fans per game. However, the New York Sirens are struggling, with fewer than 2,800 each evening.

The PWHL has a long way to go to reach the NHL revenues for broadcasting and streaming, which generates $1.2 billion annually. While more than 2.9 million Canadians watched the inaugural PWHL game in 2024, viewership has dropped to modest levels. A December Seattle-New York game generated only 3,400 views on YouTube.

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Nevertheless, Murphy is thrilled to be playing professional hockey – a dream that was impossible when she was a youngster with the Napanee Crunch.

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“The fans in Seattle are very supportive of the team and of women’s sports in particular,” she says.

Her next goal: “I have my sights set on making the Canadian Olympic team in 2030.”