‘I will never stop working in sport.’ Hockey icon Angela James set to tackle GM role with Toronto Six

Angela James’s timing couldn’t be better.

As the newest general manager in women’s hockey, and the second Black woman to hold that title in the Premier Hockey Federation, James is in charge of the Toronto Six with the league on the rise.

The PHF doubled its salary cap for each team to $750,000 US (with a floor of $562,000), pushing the six-team league closer to a professional sport where players can earn a living.

The 57-year-old Toronto native is the ideal executive now, a former player and icon in the woman’s game, who has “had two-three jobs since I was 14,” and pushed for decades to bring equality in pay, facilities, sponsorship, training, health and career support.

“It’s a pretty special time to be a GM in women’s hockey,” says James, a star before the woman’s game became an Olympic sport, and one of the first two women (along with Cammi Granato) inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010.

“It’s a time in history where girls are getting good money to play hockey,” she tells the Star. “Now, I’m like the good parent who’s going to give you a big allowance.”

James, who had been an assistant coach on Mark Joslin’s bench, was named general manager of the Six last month. She replaces Krysti Clarke, the league’s first Black GM.

James made headlines in March after expressing her opinion on the rift between the PHF and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, an impasse keeping the sport from having one unified league in North America.

James, in a Facebook post, felt the PHWHPA was the primary reason behind the separation of the two leagues. She accused the PWHPA of stunting the sport’s development because of its refusal to join forces.

While virtually all of the top players from Team Canada and Team USA are part of the PWHPA, the PHF can say it’s the highest-paying league in the world for women players.

Her post came days before it was announced that James would be part of a ground-breaking, BIPOC ownership group for the Six, which includes former NHLer and hockey analyst Anthony Stewart, former NHL coach Ted Nolan and Bernice Carnegie, daughter of legendary player Herb Carnegie.

Now, James is tackling another new role on the team as GM, working “unbelievable” hours to keep the Six’s core group together, while adding goalie and secondary scoring depth.

“We had a pretty successful season last year,” James says of the Six, which finished in second place in the regular season with a 16-3-1 record.

“I felt my priority was to protect the core, but also to help our starting goalie out, and add scoring depth.”

The team has to deal with the sizeable loss in Mikyla Grant-Mentis, who won the MVP with the Six last year. She left to join the Buffalo Beauts, signing a record-breaking, $80,000 US one-year contract (a deal that James acknowledges is important for the league).

The result of the increased caps, James says, is that “everyone might feel their self-worth is $100,000 (Cdn) now … but we are at a $20,000 minimum, and up in the $90,000 range at the ceiling. I can tell you that if someone told me they’d pay me $15,000 when I was playing, I’d have been delighted.”

James adds that the players want to elevate the game and the salaries.

“But it’s one step at a time,” James says. “When I talk to them now (as a GM negotiating contracts), I tell them I’d give you the world, but I don’t have the world to give … I have to build a team.”

James directs the Six from their base at the Canlan Sports Complex at York University, but also from a room in her home, which she’s converted into her office.

With 35 years of experience in sports administration at Seneca College, James understands the long hours necessary as GM. But having the comforts of home and family adds a necessary element of support.

“The commitment and work a GM has to do is an eye opener,” James says. “I started two months ago and I haven’t stopped. I had a vacation booked in Los Angeles, but let’s just say I’m not vacationing. If you are not on top of your game, you can lose players and you can lose out on a lot of things. I used to work 60-70 hour weeks for Seneca, so I know what it takes, it’s just the nature of the job.”

James adorns her office with photos of her family, including her three children.

“I love baseball, I have a softball and I toss it in the air and catch it quite often as I’m thinking about what I have to do,” says James.

When she needs a break, there’s always Rosie — James’s golden doodle who has a bed right beside her desk, and who “cruises” with James in her convertible Mitsubishi Spyder.

For the most part, everyone understands James’s time has been devoted to hockey, and always will be.

“I’ve always admired Tommy Lasorda,” James says of the former Dodgers’ manager.

“I thought, wow, that’s amazing, he’s able to do something he loves for his whole life. They (family) understand I will never stop working in sport. I retired two years ago, and a week later, I was working for the Toronto Six.”