00:00The Seattle Kraken have been teaching kids to play hockey since they joined the NHL in 2021.
00:05In the coming months, they're bracing for another boom in youth registrations.
00:10This time, it's a girls' world.
00:13The Seattle Torrent will drop the puck on their inaugural season in the Professional Women's Hockey League on November 20th.
00:19And a surge in young girls wanting to get on the ice with stick and puck will surely follow,
00:24as it has in every city that PWHL now plays in.
00:31Kraken youth coach Julia Takasuka led a rink full of young skaters in a tri-hockey-for-free class in October.
00:39And that's a preview of what's to come.
00:41Takasuka grew up in the Seattle area when there were just a handful of girls playing the sport.
00:47And she started by playing on boys' teams.
00:49I was either the only one or, like, one of one or two on the team playing.
00:54And then I did switch to a girls' team when I was in, like, middle school.
01:00So I was pretty lucky there.
01:02There were kind of three girls' teams in the entire state, and they were three different age groups.
01:07And one of them played in a co-ed league, and two of them played against other girls up in Canada.
01:13So I was going to Canada every weekend to play.
01:16Girls in Washington no longer have to make that two- or three-hour drive to the Great White North.
01:20There are now teams and leagues in every age group up to 18 years old.
01:25Girls hockey is hitting record numbers across North America.
01:29USA hockey youth registrations grew by more than 5 percent across all female age groups in 2024, with 4,784 new members.
01:40In Canada, where hockey is the national sport, participation is up 30 percent in the last three years, with more than 70,000 new players.
01:50Takasuka believes those numbers will keep rising with the PWHL expansion, allowing more girls to see a path to college and the professional ranks.
01:59They're going to be able to see their future selves, right?
02:02You can see that role model and, like, have someone to root for and have a team to root for and be like, okay, this is where I want to go.
02:10And so you can see that whole track right in front of you, instead of having to just kind of make it up as you go along.
02:16Minnesota Frost star Claire Buterak has been in the PWHL since the league started in 2023.
02:21As a Minnesota native, the sport has always been available to her, even at a young age.
02:27But being a role model and signing autographs for the next generation is something new.
02:32When I was growing up, like, I didn't have, you know, professional women's.
02:35Like, I had the national team, and that was really cool.
02:37But now it's like having seen the little girls in line just be like, oh, like, I want to be in the PWHL.
02:41Like, it's just really cool to hear, and it's like a full circle moment, I think, for all of us.
02:45The PWHL is all the better for it as girls hockey grows and more specialize in the sport.
02:51Buterak has coached kids in Minnesota and is already seeing it.
02:55Just the talent level, like, from where it was five years ago to now, like, the 12-year-olds and 14-year-olds that I coach.
03:01And it's crazy, right?
03:03There's so much development happening, and it's really cool to think about, like, oh, well, when these young players get to be my age and our age,
03:10it's like the league and the level of pace and play is just, it's going to be so much faster.
03:14Youth organizers have two big hurdles to jump to keep growing the game.
03:19The cost of a full set of kids' hockey gear can range from $400 to over $1,000.
03:25There's also a shortage of ice rinks and time set aside for young kids, even in the biggest hockey markets.
03:31The Kraken Community Iceplex has three full ice sheets, and the doors are open from 6 a.m. to midnight daily.
03:38But Takasuka said they still have to get creative with scheduling to accommodate demand.
03:42The PWHL is expecting to set attendance and viewership records during the upcoming season,
03:48meaning more young girls will surely see their future.
Be the first to comment