First woman to appear in NHL game leads PWHL's Detroit expansion

Manon Rhéaume became emotional watching the inaugural Professional Women's Hockey League draft in 2023, seeing a dream she lived alone finally become real for others.

"I was so interested to see how this whole thing's going to unfold and I started having tears in my eyes," Rhéaume recalled. "That moment when she got drafted, to me, that was real."

Now 54, Rhéaume is the first general manager of the PWHL's expansion team in Detroit — a role that draws a full circle from a life spent breaking barriers in hockey. In 1992, she became the first and only woman to play in an NHL game when the Tampa Bay Lightning invited her to their training camp. She played a period of a pre-season game that year and again in 1993.

Rhéaume went on to appear in 24 men's minor pro games and led Canada to a silver medal in 1998 when women's hockey made its Olympic debut. She spent two decades in Michigan, including 11 years as girls' division director of the Little Caesars AAA Hockey Club in Detroit, developing players who are now eligible for this year's PWHL draft.

Her path from goalie to operations advisor for the Los Angeles Kings — part of a recent wave of women hired by NHL teams — to now running an entire PWHL franchise reflects how far the sport has traveled since she had to wear her goalie helmet walking into the rink so people wouldn't notice she was a girl playing hockey.

"When this opportunity came about in Detroit, it's almost like everything I did in my entire life led to this," she said. The league expands to 12 teams in 2026-27 with the addition of Detroit, Las Vegas, Hamilton, and San Jose.