Erin Ambrose, 29, has won one Olympic gold medal and two world championships as a defenceman with Canada’s women’s national hockey team.Photo illustration The Globe and Mail. Source photo: Kennedy Pollard/Getty Images for RBC/Getty Images
It is only a few days after the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s draft and Erin Ambrose is still excited about it when we chat.
At the time, she is in Princeton, N.J., helping to coach the University of Toronto’s women’s team in an exhibition game against the Ivy League’s Tigers.
The 29-year-old has won one Olympic gold medal and two world championships as a defenceman with Canada’s women’s national hockey team.
On Sept. 18, she was chosen with the sixth pick in the first round by Montreal’s PWHL franchise, where she will be a teammate of Marie Philippe-Poulin when the six-team league commences play in January.
“It was nerve-wracking,” Ambrose says of the draft. “I ended up in Montreal which is certainly a fit. It is a situation I feel very grateful to be a part of.”
The new league, which has received support from the NHL, will have teams in Boston, Minneapolis, Montreal, New York, Ottawa and Toronto.
Ambrose says her phone blew up after she was selected in the first round. Women’s hockey players have fought for years to have one major league.
“This is what we have waited so long for,” Ambrose says. “This is what we deserve.”
She is chatty and shows a sense of humour during a 30-minute video call. And she’s committed to women’s hockey.
Andre De Grasse has nothing to fear. Except heights and maybe golf
“It is so important that we continue as female athletes to get our voices heard and our faces seen,” she says. “We want people to understand us more.
“I am not just a hockey player. I am a person first and that is what I take more pride in. I have an opportunity to impact a lot of people and to allow them to know who I am.”
What is your main characteristic?
I am very compassionate. I have a lot of compassion for other people, probably too much at times. I can be too understanding.
What is your main fault?
I almost want to say that I am super compassionate. It is probably the best thing about me but the thing that almost eats me alive at times in the sense that I want people to be happy. I would do anything, especially for the people I care about, to make sure they are happy, and I often put other people’s happiness above my own. So as much as I would say it is a great thing, I would say it is my biggest fault as well.
When you are working out or preparing for a game what music do you listen to on your phone?
This kind of varies. If I am working out I go with anything. I don’t need something that is super pumped up. I can have country, I can have something a little more mellow. Pregame if I have my headphones on it is very different than if I am actually the DJ in the room, which sometimes happens. I actually have a song I listen to every game when I get off the bus. It’s like my walk-in song. It’s Ima Boss (by Meek Mill).
Do you have a favourite author or are you reading something presently?
I would have to say I am not a huge reader but when I do I have really enjoyed a lot of Brené Brown’s stuff. I don’t like fiction. I very much want to read things that make me see things in a little different perspective.
What is your most shameful luxury?
I have two. One would be my watches. I love nice watches. I love wearing watches that complement my outfit. I have 14 watches, which is a little bit absurd. The other is shoes. I have way too many that are white or a shade of some sort of colour and I am called out for it quite frequently. I will probably buy a pair this weekend that I will not need.
In what sort of situation do you or would you lie?
In all honestly I am not a good liar. You would be able to call me out on a lie in a second. I’d like to say that I will fib before I lie. So I just kind of withhold the truth sometimes. When I don’t want to give the full story to something, maybe I want to throw in a fib and usually it’s to my mother. I’m just not fully telling her what happened. Usually my sister stops me immediately and outs me to my mom.
Do you have a hidden talent?
I can juggle well. It’s something that has always stayed with me, kind of like riding a bike. My first-ever senior camp I was 15 or 16 and I was rooming with Tessa Bonhomme. Tessa said she used to have a pregame ritual with Colleen Sostorics and they would juggle. Colleen had just retired from the team so Tessa was looking for a new person to juggle with. I looked at it and said, ‘This could be my in.’ I even used to bring my juggling balls to high school. (She very adeptly juggles three balls and hockey pucks.)
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
It’s sitting on the dock at my family’s cottage in Ontario and drinking coffee in the morning with the lake just completely still.
What would your idea of misery be?
Going into a crowd of people or an event where I know nobody and am by myself and I have to communicate with them.
Where are your favourite places to visit and if you could choose, where would you live?
My favourite place to visit would be taking a weekend trip up to my cottage for sure. Somewhere I would love to live is in the mountains. I kind of think of Banff. A perfect day for me would be to go on a hike with my dog in the mountains. That would be something that would bring me a lot of joy.
What kind of dog do you have?
I have a cockapoo named Henry. He is 5 years old and my best pal. I make my bed in the morning and when I come home from the gym it is unmade because he gets in it and created himself a little cocoon. He lays in it under the covers almost like a human.
Do you have a favourite flower?
A Gerbera daisy. I have two tattooed on me. It’s the favourite flower of my mom, my nana and my sister, so it just kind of became mine.