When Jillian Dempsey was growing up in Winthrop, Mass., she set goals for her dream hockey career: play for her dream school, Harvard, and represent the U.S. in international competition. There were no professional hockey opportunities available to women, so the very idea of playing hockey for money did not factor into her long-term planning.
But now Dempsey is a professional hockey player, and one of the longest tenured players in the National Women’s Hockey League at that. The forward is in her fifth season with the league’s Boston Pride, who started 2019-20 with an 11-game unbeaten streak, and she leads the league in scoring with 13 goals and 17 assists for 30 points in 18 games. Dempsey might not have ever dreamed of playing professional hockey, but she’s not only doing so, she’s trailblazing.
“It’s been amazing to continue playing the game that I love and to keep doing that in a competitive environment that’s growing,” said Dempsey. “It’s amazing to be able to impact the next generation and help inspire them to dream big and to want to play professionally as well.
After graduating from Harvard in 2013, Dempsey played for the Canadian Women’s Hockey League’s Boston Blades for two seasons, earning Rookie of the Year honors in her first campaign. When the NWHL and its commissioner, Northeastern women’s hockey alumnus Dani Rylan, came along in 2015 and promised to pay its players salaries, several players made the decision to switch leagues, including Dempsey. She joined the Pride, where she has been ever since.
Dempsey points to the NWHL’s arrival, and its ability to compensate (even if it has fluctuated in amounts), as the biggest development in women’s professional hockey during her career.
“In my first years playing professional hockey with the CWHL, they weren’t paying players yet,” said Dempsey. “And then the NWHL kind of came out of nowhere and was offering a salary. It was an opportunity that most of us — at least most of the Americans playing in the CWHL at the time — thought that it was exciting. It was something new that was a great opportunity.”
The compensation might be the biggest change Dempsey has experienced during her seven years playing professionally, but she has also seen massive changes in the exposure of the sport. The NWHL is breaking ground, particularly this season, in its streaming availability and sponsorships. Fans who are nowhere near the league’s teams can still follow games via the web service Twitch, which was originally used for gamers. Non-hockey companies such as Dunkin’ and Chipwich support the league alongside traditional big-name hockey companies.
“Early on in my career, I don’t know if I was even as aware of what sponsorships there were with the leagues,” said Dempsey. “It’s been cool this year that almost every month, there’s a new sponsor that’s jumping on board with the NWHL. There’s just new deals, new supporters and new investors. It’s really cool to see growth like that, to see people want to support the league and be a part of it.”
Some of those new fans include Dempsey’s own students. In addition to her hockey career, she teaches fifth grade in her hometown of Winthrop, and the Pride’s performance has become a big classroom conversation.
“On a daily basis, I get to see the impact of so many different things on my students,” said Dempsey. “But one thing they do get really excited about is the fact that I still play hockey. A lot of them will come to my games and be on the other side of the glass and cheer for me. They ask how the weekend games went. It’s really special to be able to share that with my students.”
When her students go home each day, Dempsey turns to hockey. As she has for years, she trains with Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning off-ice several times a week. The Pride have increased their practices from past seasons and now skate together three times each week, and play one to two games a weekend. Then before she gets to the classroom on Friday mornings, Dempsey takes the ice for a stick practice with her father.
“It feels like we are actually playing a lot more hockey during the week then probably all of the proceeding professional seasons combined,” said Dempsey. “Things obviously get busy, but it is nice.”
It’s a busy existence for Dempsey, but being a pioneer in professional women’s hockey is worth it. She filled her original hockey dreams, and now she gets to pursue one that she didn’t ever think was possible.
“It’s kind of crazy that I’ve been out of college this long,” said Dempsey. “I think the most amazing part of what I’ve gotten from professional hockey is a place to continue playing the game I love. In college, I had the aspirations to play for the national team and to continue playing beyond college by playing for Team USA, and there wasn’t really much else besides that at a certain point. The fact that the CWHL and NWHL existed and I had a place to be able to continue playing competitively has been amazing because I love hockey. I want to keep playing as long as I can.”
