Saskatoon’s Emily Clark among first announced signings in PWHL

After dreaming as a child of being the first girl to play in the NHL, Emily Clark is among the first three women to have their signings of free-agent contracts announced in the new Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).

“This wasn’t even a dream that was a possibility when I was younger, so it’s kind of like a dream that me and my family didn’t even know could come true one day,” the 27-year-old Saskatoon product told The Green Zone ahead of free agency.

The signings of Clark, Brianne Jenner and Emerance Maschmeyer were announced Tuesday by the league’s Ottawa team.

“We are absolutely delighted to have Emily join Ottawa as one of our inaugural franchise players. We love her complete 200-foot hockey game and strongly believe she is only getting better as a player and is heading into the prime years of her career,” Mike Hirshfeld, the general manager of the PWHL’s Ottawa team, said in a news release.

“Everyone we talked to raved about her as a teammate and a leader and we believe she will be an integral part of the culture we are trying to build in our locker room.”

Clark played collegiately at the University of Wisconsin and has played for Canada in tournaments since 2011. She was a member of the country’s Olympic team in 2018 and 2022.

Speaking to The Green Zone on Thursday, Clark said it meant everything to finally have this professional league come to life. She previously played in the now-defunct Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association from 2019 to ’21 and during the 2022-23 season.

“It’s been such a long time coming, not even for someone like me who’s been part of the PWHPA from the beginning but just all women’s hockey players have been waiting for something like this,” she said. “So I mean, you can’t even measure the magnitude of it – it’s historic and I’m just so grateful to be a part of it.”

Clark was excited about what’s to come and said it has been a long haul to get here — but that haul has been worth it.

“All of us, we’re just so competitive and we love hockey and we just want to play,” said Clark.

At the time, Clark didn’t have an answer for where she wanted to play, just saying it’ll be cool to see which teams are interested in her when free agency opened.

The 15-round draft for the new league is set for Sept. 18, with the season starting in January.

Clark is hoping her parents will be able to see her first professional game live, and joked that, between her parents and her five siblings, she’ll have a lot of jerseys to buy.