Champion Toronto Six prepare for ring ceremony with future uncertain

The Toronto Six, and the league they played in, are no more. But team president Sami Jo Small says that hasn’t lessened the impact of winning the last Isobel Cup championship.

“No one on the Toronto Six has a job anymore,” Small said Saturday, two weeks after it was announced that the Premier Hockey Federation’s assets had been sold and a new league will be formed. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a future in the sport. If these are the growing pains to get to a new league, then (the PHF) should be proud of what we’ve done and that we had a hand in building it.”

Small — who along with general manager Angela James and coach Geraldine Heaney led the Six to their first title in March — is in her hometown of Winnipeg for her annual hockey school, where about 160 hopefuls will learn a variety of skills. Former Six players Kati Tabin, Taylor Woods and Alexis Woloschuk (all Winnipeg natives) will lend a hand on Monday.

The 47-year-old Small, who won Olympic gold and four world championships as a goaltender for Canada, said the new, as yet unnamed six-team North American league — cities are expected to be announced in early August — offers the promise of a better future for the women’s game.

“There have been lots of calls; people want my opinion on what happened,” Small said. “I guess I’m reluctant to make that the focus at camp Monday. I guess a lot of people may not realize (the Toronto Six) all lost our jobs, but that what we accomplished (the Isobel Cup) is still impactful and worth celebrating.”

Small and the rest of the Six staff, 24 in total, were handed severance packages last weekend, after the PHF was purchased by the ownership group of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association. While some will be recruited to join the new league, there will be stiff competition for fewer jobs. The PHF had seven teams.

Roughly 260 PHF players had their contracts terminated — including Tabin, who had recently re-signed for $220,000 (U.S.) over two seasons. It’s expected about 100 of them will still be out of work in January.

In the meantime, the Six plan to go ahead with a championship ring ceremony. Their ownership group — including James, John and Joanne Boynton, Bryant McBride, Ted Nolan and Bernice Carnegie — made sure the rings were produced. Players will likely have to fly into town at their own cost for the presentations.

“I hope John and (Joanne) are respected for what they did in women’s hockey,” Small said. “I used to run the Toronto Furies (in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, which folded in 2019) and I flipped my entire approach with the Toronto Six after meeting them. This was the best experience of my business life.”