Catherine Daoust was on her way to work when she was summoned by Danièle Sauvageau by text message.
That Friday, the general director announced to the players who were going to be part of the Montreal team, in the new Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF).
While waiting for her meeting with the general director, Daoust sat in a meeting room “up here” to work.
“Here” is the Verdun Auditorium, where the defender meets La Presse. We’re sitting in the stadium stands, minutes after the end of an hour-and-a-half-long practice, a little more than two weeks before the start of the team’s season.
Daoust was on a video conference with colleagues at Nova Bus, where the professional hockey player works as a manufacturing engineer, when her turn came.
“I told them, ‘If I come back bawling, you know why. And if I come back happy, you know why too!” »
She came back with a big smile.
“I will never forget her face when we told her she was part of the team,” Sauvageau told La Presse a little earlier, while the players were still training.
It’s not for nothing that Daoust was “very emotional” when she heard the news.
“It’s what I’ve always dreamed of,” says the athlete from L’Île-Bizard.
Catherine Daoust, aged 28, has had a complicated career in professional hockey, which is unfortunately not unique. Her story is part of a long line of players who have worked hard to assert their right to earn a living playing their sport, as men have done for over a century. We’re talking to you about Catherine Daoust today because her story well illustrates their fight, and the potential victory they won with the creation of the LPHF.
After four years in the NCAA at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Daoust was drafted by the Canadians in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) in 2018.
“We had $2,000 a year, it didn’t pay much. We had full-time jobs. We came to the arena in the evening. »
At the end of its first season among the pros in 2019, the LCHF ceased its activities. The following years, without a real professional avenue, Daoust played around ten games in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), a non-profit organization.
In the meantime, she completed her master’s degree in aerospace engineering at Polytechnique, a diploma she obtained in 2020. The engineer then landed a job at Nova Bus in Saint-Eustache.
She eventually signed a contract with the Montreal Force in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), and played 24 games there during the 2022-2023 season. Then, last summer, the PHF was bought, dissolved, and everything had to start again.
Catherine Daoust “loves” her job, and doesn’t see it as a “chore” outside of hockey.
But his passion remains his sport. And this fall, there was – once again – no guarantee that she would be able to continue practicing it at a professional level.
“I argued for myself, but in the end, it’s not me who makes the decisions,” she emphasizes. […] Me, I was happy with my camp. I gave everything. At worst, I gave them a hard time making their decision. »
Éric Houde is the assistant to head coach Kori Cheverie. Its mandate is to work with defenders, precisely. According to him, Catherine Daoust “deserved her position”.
“For me, it wasn’t that tight,” he adds.
“From what I see so far, she’s in the top 6 easily. That’s what training camps are for. You have surprises, disappointments. […] But I’m really proud of her. She did that really well. I think people will get to know her. She has a good work ethic. She is a good person, a serious girl. »
Catherine Daoust still has a smile on her face when she talks about it.
“I was very emotional knowing I made the team. That’s very good news. Because for me, there is no American League. It’s this team, or not much. »
What about his job in all this?
“I have a lot of support from my colleagues and managers,” she emphasizes, thanking them for their flexibility. ” I am lucky. »
Her agreement with the club is in the process of being signed, she said. Which means his schedule will soon be devoted entirely to hockey.
“The contract is for six months, we finish in June. With the lifestyle I have, I have no choice but to return to work. »
But “hockey comes first,” adds the player. “I don’t have many years of hockey left either. I’m living my dream of playing professional hockey. But ideally, I would like to keep a foothold at Nova Bus to return there after the season. »
Just these salaries, although modest when juxtaposed with those of men’s hockey, is a big victory. Because before, recently graduated athletes “could go to work and probably earn more” than they would have gotten playing hockey.
“But that’s not necessarily the case. If there had been this league when I was coming out of university, I probably wouldn’t have started working as an engineer right away. »
Because passion cannot be proof of everything, she says. “There are a lot of people who drop out because of that. They can’t take that much time to train for what little it pays. »
And beyond the players, it is also the competition and the level that will benefit.
“It puts everyone on the same starting point. We are capable of giving more to each other. The game is taken up a notch. You really have the best. »
And she’s not just talking about energy.
“European women didn’t necessarily come here, because it didn’t make money. »
There are notably two Czechs with the Montreal team: attacker Tereza Vanišová and defender Dominika Lásková.
“There, they come because it’s worth it. You have the best players grouped together in these six teams. »
No more one-sided 10-0 matches like we saw in the past, then. In addition to more attractive salaries, the player believes that the draft also allowed teams to build themselves in a more “fair” way.
“That’s what I always wanted: to play against the best, with the best. »
