Waterford native Elaine Chuli reflects on changinglandscape of women’s hockey and life in the PWHL
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
Lisa Timpf
Advocate Contributor
It can be difficult for athletes to transition to a new team in a new city.
But for Waterford native Elaine Chuli, a goaltender in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, making the move from the Montreal Victoire to the Toronto Sceptres for the 2025-26 season was like a homecoming of sorts.
Chuli played for the Toronto Furies and Toronto Six in previous women’s leagues, earning some accolades in the process. She backstopped the Toronto Six of the Premier Hockey Federation to an Isobel Cup in 2022-23 and was named PHF Goaltender of the Year in 2021-22.
Though those experiences came prior to the PWHL’s existence, being based in Toronto again is nonetheless familiar.
“I’ve won here before,” says Chuli. “Plus, it’s closer to my family.”
The trip to Toronto to see games is also an easier one for local fans to make, as opposed to the trek to Montreal.
Chuli got her start in hockey playing for the Waterford Wildcats. Though she initially played forward, when she was in Grade 5, she made the switch to goalie. Though she can’t remember the exact reasons for the changeover, Chuli says it likely had something to do with Toronto Maple Leaf netminder Curtis Joseph.
Elaine enjoyed watching hockey with her dad, and on those occasions, Joseph’s acrobatics in net caught her eye, as did the mask and the gear.
“I was a huge Cujo fan,” Chuli says. “That’s my earliest memory of any type of goalie.”
After she tried her hand at goaltending, there was no looking back.
Chuli made the jump to the Brantford 99ers for minor and major peewee AAA. Then she moved into girls’ hockey, playing AA bantam, midget, and junior with Stoney Creek.
After high school, Chuli played NCAA hockey at the University of Connecticut, where she set a number of program records for the women’s team. She played in the CWHL for China’s Vanke Rays, then signed on with the Toronto Furies and later, the Toronto Six.
Selected by Montreal in the inaugural PWHL Draft, she signed with Toronto for the 2025-26 season.
Back when Chuli was starting out on her athletic journey, women’s professional hockey was nowhere on the horizon.
“It definitely didn’t exist,” says Chuli. “Then again, I was taking it day by day, not looking too far ahead.”
She notes that there are many more options for girls and women’s hockey now than there were when she was coming through the system.
“There are quite a few places to play now after college,” she notes.
The PWHL started with six teams - New York, Boston, Minnesota, and Ottawa in addition to Toronto and Montreal. In the 2025-26 season, the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent joined the league. Chuli says the expansion, with the possibility of further growth in the future, is exciting.
“At the end of the day, it’s going to give a lot of players a chance to play professional hockey.”
Though teams play most of their home games in their own cities, the PWHL has also hosted “Takeover Tour” games. This year’s Takeover Tour featured 16 neutral-site regular-season games played outside the league’s current cities. The games serve as a way of checking the potential for future expansion sites, as well as expanding the fan base.
“It’s cool to see the support and excitement” in the Takeover Tour venues, Chuli says, adding that it’s good to see that “the league is getting a lot of traction.”
For Chuli, the atmosphere and turnout at the game the Toronto Sceptres played in Hamilton was impressive. Halifax, as well, was “another sold-out rink” and Chuli enjoyed “the excitement and the buzz around the game.”
The existence of the PWHL and the increased visibility of women’s hockey has led to more girls taking up the sport. A recent CBC article by Emma Loop notes that player registrations in the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association (OWHA) have gone from 9,626, 30 years ago, to an all-time high of 41,019 players in the 2024-25 season.
Locally, the Norfolk HERicanes have seen their registrations bump up from 98 in 2020-2021 to 127 in 2025-26. Long-time executive member Brenda Colibaba notes that factors other than the PWHL, such as the free Try Girls Hockey program, may have had an effect. Still, the existence of a professional women’s league probably doesn’t hurt those statistics.
Asked what advice she has for those who might aspire to follow in her footsteps, Chuli says, “just stay in the moment.” She says that “it’s what you do each day” that’s important. For Chuli herself, part of the equation has been staying fit - she does a lot of off-ice training for strength and conditioning. Her other advice is to “have fun with it, and remember that it’s a game.”
Chuli notes that the mental aspect of the game becomes more important as you progress to higher levels.
“You need to find ways to dial that in,” she says. “The mental part of the game is super important,” even though “it’s not something you can see.”
With the expansion of the PWHL and the increased visibility of women’s hockey on television, women’s hockey seems to be on the upswing.
“For a lot of people in my age group, we’ve seen some pretty big transitions,” says Chuli. “Right now, we are in a good spot.”
Chuli has come a long way since playing for boys’ teams in her hometown. But thanks to the Waterford netminder and her fellow PWHL members, young girls have role models for their future aspirations, and plenty of examples that prove that you don’t have to come from a big city to make it to the big time.
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