Prince Albert's Brooke Hobson (left) and Kaitlin Willoughby (right) will faceoff in the PWHL's inaugural contest when New York visits Toronto on Jan. 1. (File photos/paNOW)

By Logan Lehmann

Making history

Two P.A. products, former Bears to suit up in inaugural PWHL season

Dec 13, 2023 | 5:00 PM

A pair of Prince Albert hockey players are set to be some of the first people to play in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).

The local products, and former Northern Bear teammates, Brooke Hobson and Kaitlin Willoughby will don their respective colours during the PWHL’s inaugural season with Hobson playing in New York while Willoughby will stay in Canada and play for Toronto.

The two were teammates during the 2012-13 season, which saw the Bears finish second in league standings with a 19-6-0-3 (W-L-T-OTL) record.

Willoughby spent parts of five seasons in Prince Albert with her first games coming in the 2008-09 season. The forward ended her time with the Bears as one of the best to ever play for the franchise, scoring 97 points in 96 games. That total is enough to place the former captain 26th on the all-time points list and third in all-time franchise scoring, trailing only behind Bear greats Abby Soyko (128 points, 9th all-time) and Kelly Regnier (101 points, 23rd all-time).

Meanwhile, Hobson jumped on the ship full-time in 2012-13 and spent a full five seasons with the team. The defenseman suited up for 128 games in her career, scoring 86 points in the process. Along with Willoughby, Hobson also appears on the all-time scoring list at 40th and is the 2nd highest-scoring defenseman behind only Taylor Woods who’s 14th all-time with 121 points. Additionally, she is sixth in all-time franchise scoring.

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Hobson skates with the puck during her time on the Bears. (File photo)

Following their time in Junior, the two went on to college and then played professionally taking two different routes onto the PWHL.

Willoughby committed to the University of Saskatchewan and played five seasons, accumulating 111 points in 132 games. Following post-secondary, she was drafted into the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) by the Calgary Inferno, going in the seventh round, 37th overall en route to a league championship.

Willoughby hoists the CWHL title after winning it all with the Calgary Inferno in 2019. (File photo)

READ MORE: P.A. hockey star brings trophy home

She then spent parts of three seasons with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) during the pandemic. She last played 20 games in the 2022-23 season for Team Adidas in the PWHPA before getting a shot in the PWHL. She went undrafted before receiving an invite to Toronto’s camp and impressed the team enough to earn a spot on the final roster.

Hobson went on a different path after her time with the Bears. During her final season, she was named to Hockey Canada’s U18 team in 2017 and went on to help Canada claim silver at the World Championships in the Czech Republic, scoring a goal in five games. She committed to Northeastern University in Boston where she spent five seasons, scoring 98 points in 170 games and helping the Huskies to five straight NCAA Hockey East Conference titles.

Hobson during her time at Northeastern. (Jim Pierce/Northeastern University Huskies)

For her final two seasons, she was named captain and in her final year, she guided Northeastern to the school’s first National Championship appearance in women’s hockey where they fell short in a 2-1 overtime defeat to Wisconsin. After her graduate season, she went across the pond to Sweden and spent a single year there before hearing her name get called in the inaugural PWHL draft, going in the eighth round, 45th overall to New York.

READ MORE: ‘Beyond thrilled’: P.A.’s Hobson reflects on PWHL draft, looks forward to new chapter in Big Apple

Now, the pair of players will look to be the first to hoist the PWHL Championship. The inaugural PWHL season begins on Jan. 1 with the two former teammates being pinned against one another in the league’s first-ever game. Hobson and New York will visit Willoughby and Toronto in the inaugural contest, which is slated for an 11:30 a.m. puck drop Saskatchewan time.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com