How Emerance Maschmeyer built a home in Ottawa — from the crease out

Emerance Maschmeyer had no idea what to expect when she first put pen to paper with Ottawa’s newly awarded PWHL franchise in 2023.

Two years later, she leaves with a family, a loyal fan base and a franchise built from scratch.

Though she’s heading to Vancouver next season as part of the league’s expansion — a sign of the league’s rapid success — Maschmeyer leaves knowing she helped establish the kind of stability she once thought was out of reach.

Fresh out of Harvard University, she had no illusions. A viable professional women’s hockey league felt like a long shot. Her three seasons in the now-defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League were a drastic step down from the resources she’d had in college.

She played in community rinks, not storied arenas. There were no salaries, no major sponsorships, no elite sports medicine or training facilities. The league wobbled constantly on the edge of insolvency.

“I soon found out after I graduated that I had been treated the most professional in college,” Maschmeyer told Postmedia. “I thought that was kind of it. I didn’t really ever expect to be able to play in a viable professional league.”

In the fall of 2023, she signed on in Ottawa — drawn by GM Mike Hirshfeld’s vision, the opportunity to help build something new and the comfort of sharing it with close friends Emily Clark and Brianne Jenner.

“Knowing that those two were going to be on this journey together, it just made it all the more special,” Jenner said.

What none of them could have predicted was how quickly the PWHL would take off. When news broke that TD Place had sold out for Ottawa’s home opener, Maschmeyer began to realize the league’s momentum had already carried far beyond its players.

“I had tears in my eyes, chills all over my body,” she said, recalling the January 2023 game. “I expected a big moment, but I didn’t really expect to feel that much emotion and for the fans to feel it with us.

“But then after that first game, it just continued to happen again and again and again.”

Packed arenas became commonplace, and Maschmeyer became a cornerstone of the team’s appeal.

On the ice, she was the league’s most dependable netminder, playing in all but one of Ottawa’s 24 regular-season games in its inaugural campaign. She was also the busiest, becoming the first PWHL goaltender to stop 1,000 shots earlier this season.

“She’s been one of our best players, if not our best player, in these first two years,” Jenner said. “And it’s a testament to the work that she puts into her craft.”

Maschmeyer’s intensive preparation for each game and professional demeanour became well-known in the locker room. Even after suffering a lower-body injury this season that effectively signalled the end of her Ottawa tenure, teammates raved about her commitment to her recovery, which included vigorous on-ice sessions with goalie coach Pierre Groulx every morning before any of her teammates even touched the ice. With the team still competing in the PWHL final, she was determined to get healthy enough to at least dress on the bench.

“You can’t ask for anything more from your veteran goalie,” Jenner said.

Fans adored Maschmeyer for her big-time saves to keep her oftentimes low-scoring team within striking range, but it was her off-ice presence that cemented her as a favourite.

To her, the bond between player and fan has always been more than ceremonial — it’s the foundation. Back in the CWHL — before women’s hockey was played in sold-out arenas with major broadcast deals — postgame mingling was as much a part of the night as the final score. That grassroots connection helped shape her philosophy as a pro: no fan interaction is too small to matter.

So she stops. Every time she can. To sign, to chat, to share a moment.

“You just never know what can spark something in someone.”

That spirit hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“Masch is a special person,” Hirshfeld said. “An incredible hockey player, but just a delightful individual.”

Maschmeyer sees her role as more than just defending the net. She views it as an opportunity and a responsibility to inspire.

“I have the voice and the platform that I can use to inspire and encourage others,” she said. “It’s just part of my job, and I have a passion to inspire others.”

That sense of purpose hasn’t changed just because the league has grown. In fact, she says the stakes have only deepened. “Now that we have the platform and the exposure and the visibility, it doesn’t change that,” she said. “Those relationships are still so important.”

Over the past two years, Maschmeyer has collected bracelets, letters, signs, cards — even onesies for her one-year-old son Beckham — and still has every one of them.

She recounted a time that she made a video of encouragement for a couple when one of the partners had an exam. Later, the couple named their car “The Masch-Mobile” as a tribute to their favourite player.

“We play hockey for a living and it’s special, but at the end of the day, we’re just human.”

So when she signed with PWHL Vancouver last week in the league’s expansion process, marking the end of her time in Ottawa, her thoughts quickly turned to the community she was leaving behind. “I just started thinking about the fans and all the people that I’ve chatted with, and the relationships I’ve formed,” she said. “They’ve become family to me.”

That’s in addition to Maschmeyer’s actual family, which blossomed during her time in the nation’s capital. She married former international teammate Genevieve Lacasse in the summer of 2023, and the couple welcomed their son Beckham into the world last fall.

Becoming a parent changed everything — and nothing. She still performed at an elite level.

The first time Gwyneth Philips, Ottawa’s superstar goalie and new No. 1 between the pipes, met Maschmeyer last fall, Beckham was just three days old. Fresh out of her degree at Northeastern University, Philips was in awe of how Maschmeyer managed the demands of new motherhood while still showing up as an elite athlete.

“She talked about what she was doing at home with Beckham, getting up at all hours of the night taking care of a baby, and then she’s able to operate at this elite level,” Philips said, who called Maschmeyer her “big sister.”

“I was just so impressed with her dedication and her work ethic, and how through all of that, she’s able to be a really great leader and friend.”

Jenner, a fellow mother, said that in many ways, becoming a parent elevated Maschmeyer both as a hockey player and as a human.

“She’s just such a natural parent,” she said. “And I wasn’t surprised at all, but her performance, her attention to detail on the ice, none of that really changed.”

Beckham became a fixture around the rink — at the glass pregame, in a stroller on walk-ins, in the hearts of fans. For Jenner, it didn’t hurt to have a colleague at the rink to talk to about parenthood.

“It’s nice to have another mom on the team that we can relate to, what each of us are maybe managing at the time at home,” she said. “It was awesome to see her step into that role.”

For Maschmeyer, parenthood didn’t just shift her priorities — it clarified them.

“It just puts everything into perspective,” she said. “(Beckham) is my entire world, and so I’m playing for him, I’m playing for my family, I’m playing for myself and my community and my fans and the organization.”

Ottawa was the backdrop through it all, and other than an untimely injury that kept her out of game action through final months of the season, Maschmeyer has no regrets.

“It was a perfect city to start a family in,” she said. “And at the end of the day, we built a franchise from the ground up.”

Now she heads west to Vancouver to build another one, where she’ll be closer to home in Alberta and joined by longtime teammate and travel roommate Ashton Bell, the first overall pick in the expansion draft.

But Ottawa will always be her first stop in the PWHL.

“Ottawa has become my home. And now I’m going to have a new home. But Ottawa will always be the first place I played professional hockey, and it’s going to hold a special place in my heart, no matter what.”

Maschmeyer knows returning to TD Place next season — this time as a visitor — will stir up emotions.

“I maybe have tried not to think about it,” she said, laughing. “But I actually read something online yesterday — a fan said, ‘We can’t wait until you come back to Ottawa. We’ll be chanting your name.’ And I was like, ‘Wow.’ I don’t even know how I feel. There’d be so much emotion behind it.”

She hopes her connection to Ottawa remains.

“They’re not not my fans anymore just because I’m in Vancouver,” she said. “I think they’ll be cheering for Ottawa — but maybe have a little bit of cheer left for me too.”