Pro Wiikwemkoong hockey player signs contract with expansion Toronto franchise
By Sam Laskaris
NORWALK, CONNECTICUT – Once professional sports are able to resume, Kelly Babstock will be playing relatively close to her childhood home.
But Babstock, a 27-year-old Anishinaabekwe hockey player and member of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, will continue to live in the United States. She signed a contract earlier this month to suit up for the yet-to-be named expansion Toronto entry in the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) for the 2020-21 season.
Team officials are hoping to open their training camp in September. But because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic restrictions, it remains to be seen what shape pro sports will be able to take in the coming months.
While Babstock was born in Little Current on Manitoulin Island, she primarily grew up in Mississauga. She has been living south of the border, in the state of Connecticut, since 2010, when she first started attending Quinnipiac University on an athletic scholarship.
Upon her graduation, Babstock remained in the U.S. and then turned pro with the NWHL’s Connecticut Whale in 2015. She spent three seasons with the Whale before signing with another league entrant, the Buffalo Beauts, for the 2018-19 season.
“It’s a super exciting feeling,” Babstock said of her contract with the Toronto club, from her home in Norwalk, a city in the southwestern part of Connecticut. “It will be nice to see people I haven’t seen in some time in Toronto.”
Babstock’s parents, Donna and David, as well as two of her siblings, sisters Shenoah and brother Jacob, are currently living in Mississauga, just west of Toronto.
Babstock didn’t play in the NWHL during the 2019-20 campaign. Instead, she threw her support behind the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), which was created in May of 2019.
The players’ association was formed to fight for a viable pro women’s league in North America.
A majority of the PWHPA members were players in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, which folded in 2019. Several NWHL players also joined as they were not fully satisfied with how their league was operating.
During the 2019-20 campaign, the PWHPA staged its Dream Gap Tour, which included various events throughout Canada and the United States. Teams competed in weekend tournaments in various locations.
Babstock only participated in one event, which was held in the New Jersey community of Princeton.
That’s because she was also busy working full-time in hockey. Besides having her own hockey development business, she is also a coach and director of a rink.
But she still was still keen to return to the NWHL. And it was a perfect fit when Toronto was granted an expansion franchise.
“I wanted to play hockey for a season and compete for a championship,” she said.
In order to stay in shape, Babstock also played in a men’s recreational league this past season.
“It kept me moving,” she said.
Babstock believes the Toronto franchise will be able to challenge for the league championship in its inaugural season.
“We are going to be a very competitive team and we are excited to get out there,” she said.
Since most NWHL contests will be held on weekends, Babstock will be able to continue living in Norwalk and fly to Toronto for the team’s home games. She will also be required to fly to home games for the Beauts and the Minnesota Whitecaps.
Babstock, however, will be able to drive herself when her Toronto squad has road matches against the Whale, Boston Pride and New Jersey-based Metropolitan Riveters.
Digit Murphy, who will serve as the president of the Toronto franchise, is thrilled Babcock has signed on.
“Kelly Babstock is an awesome fit for our team in Toronto,” Murphy said. “She’s highly skilled, hard-edged, experienced, fierce [and] dedicated to winning. To have this great hockey player back home playing before the GTA fans is cause for celebration.”