Passing the puck: Hockey hero Wickenheiser mentors young Sask. girl

Nine-year-old Ella Kautzman lives and breathes hockey.

She’s a left wing with the U11 Bengals in Warman, wearing number three on the ice. Her long ponytail flies behind her as she skates, moving with determination.

She’s chasing pucks, dreams and maybe a little bit of mischief, all with the biggest smile on her face.

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Catch a glimpse of Ella during a hockey game, and you’re almost guaranteed to see a big grin on her face. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

In some ways, her story sounds a lot like the beginning of another Saskatchewan hockey story.

Ella started skating at five. She played on a boys’ team. She loves being a forward. So did Hayley Wickenheiser.

In the 80s, Wickenheiser was a little girl playing hockey in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan. Today, she is an Olympic champion, a trailblazer in women’s hockey and a role model for generations of players who grew up in prairie rinks.

Wickenheiser is a quadruple Olympic gold medallist and seven-time world champion. (HayleyWickenheiser.com/Submitted)

Women’s hockey didn’t always look the way it does today. There weren’t always girls’ teams. There wasn’t always Olympic women’s hockey. There weren’t always women working in the NHL. There certainly wasn’t a professional league young girls could dream about playing in.

Those opportunities exist today because players like Wickenheiser helped build them.

This International Women’s Month, Ella picked up the phone to interview her hockey hero.

The conversation was exactly what you might expect when a young hockey player meets one of the all-time greats: curious questions, thoughtful advice and a reminder that big dreams can start in small rinks.

Listen to Ella’s conversation with Hayley Wickenheiser:

Hockey as a canvas

Ella asked Wickenheiser how it all began — and what kept her playing.

“I started skating when I was four or five, and I think I started organized hockey around five or six,” Wickenheiser said. “I only played with the boys growing up. In Shaunavon, we didn’t have any girls teams to play on. I had to play with the boys, and I kept playing with them until I was 15 years old.”

When Ella asked why she wanted to play, Wickenheiser’s answer was simple and familiar to any young player: the love of the game.

“In my town, like yours, there wasn’t much to do in the winter,” she recalled. “My dad built a rink in our backyard … that’s kind of where it all started.”

Hayley Wickenheiser is a Canadian hockey legend. But long before a gold medal was ever draped around her neck, she was just a young Saskatchewan girl, not unlike Ella, dreaming of what a future in the sport could look like. (Submitted)

For Wickenheiser, hockey has always been more than a sport.

“It’s never the same thing twice,” she told Ella. “When you go out on the ice for a shift, it’s always different. That’s what I loved about it. It’s kind of like a canvas, like a painting. You can create your own thing every time you went out there, your own kind of piece of art. That’s why I like it.”

Butterflies before the big game

Even legends get nervous. Ella wanted to know if Wickenheiser ever felt those pre-game jitters.

“Yes, yes, all the time. Nervous, for sure,” she admitted. But she quickly reframed those nerves as a positive feeling. “I think part of being nervous is kind of showing that you care. You want to win, you’re excited.”

Over the years, she found a way to manage the butterflies, a technique she even passed on to her son. She would tell him to close his eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine the butterflies in his tummy flying in formation.

“When I got nervous, I would try to do the same thing,” she said. “Just take a big breath and imagine those butterflies.”

Even at the highest stakes, nerves didn’t disappear. They just transformed. She recalled being anxious in the days leading up to each Olympic gold medal final, yet feeling at ease on game day.

“The bigger the game, probably the more nervous you get,” she explained. “But I always was really calm before I would play in a gold medal final at the Olympics for some reason.”

Her advice for Ella and every young player is simple: nerves are part of the game, and learning to manage them is part of growing as a competitor. Even at the top, it’s okay to feel butterflies. It just means you care.

The drill every kid should practice

Ella couldn’t resist asking one of hockey’s all-time greats for a little on-ice advice.

“What’s one drill every kid should practice?” she asked.

Nine-year-old Ella Kautzman recently had the rare opportunity to get some tips and advice from her hockey hero: Hayley Wickenheiser. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Wickenheiser didn’t hesitate. “Oh, my gosh, such a good question. You know what, I think every kid should work on their skating,” she said.

It might sound simple, but she explained that skating is the foundation of everything.

“What’s really, really important in the game of hockey, especially today, is if you become a good skater, the game gets easier,” Wickenheiser explained. “You buy yourself more time on the ice. There’s always a place on every team for players that can really skate.”

She was honest about the grind, too. “It’s kind of boring when you’re a kid, but the edge work and the fundamentals of becoming a really good skater — both forwards and backwards, lateral mobility and that kind of stuff — is an incredibly important skill to set yourself up to become a good hockey player.”

Being the teammate everyone counts on

Ella wanted to know what makes a player truly great off the scoresheet.

“A really good teammate is someone everyone can count on,” Wickenheiser said. “Someone that gives their best every single day, that cheers on their teammates and wishes the best for their teammates.”

It’s about showing up, not just talking about it.

“Someone that you can count on,” she noted. “Whether things are good or things are bad, they’re going to be there.”

For Ella, it was a reminder that hockey isn’t just about goals and assists. It’s about being part of something bigger than yourself — and being someone your teammates can rely on.

Ella plays with the U11 Bengals in Warman. In her conversation with Wickenheiser, she asked what makes someone a really good teammate. She plans to bring the advice from Wickenheiser back into her team’s locker room. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Still in love with the game

When Ella asked if she still loves hockey as much as she did as a kid, Wickenheiser’s answer was immediate.

“I still love hockey. I feel like hockey is… probably like you feel — it’s like a part of you, right?”

Even after a career that took her to the Olympic podium, professional leagues and the NHL, the sport hasn’t lost its magic for Wickenheiser.

Sometimes, she admits, hockey can feel more like a business than a game. But there’s a simple cure for that: go back to where it all started.

“What I like to do,” she shared with Ella, “is I like to go to the outdoor rink, or find a place where the kids are playing and just put my skates on and just go skate around and play with them. And it reminds me of why I love the game. Never lose that love of the game and you’ll always be in good shape in the game of hockey.”

The goal she’ll never forget

When Ella asked about the favourite goal of Wickenheiser’s career, the answer wasn’t an Olympic one.

Instead, she went back to when she was just 12 years old.

“I scored the winning goal of the at the Canada Winter Games for Team Alberta against Team B.C.,” she recalled fondly. “I was the youngest player by five or six years.”

It was her first time playing female hockey at that level.

“That might be the one that nobody knows about, but probably the biggest goal I’ve ever scored.”

For someone who has scored on the biggest stages in hockey, it’s remarkable that the moment Wickenheiser still thinks about is one that Ella, and any other young girl, can imagine herself in.

Ella Kautzman is one of the smallest members of her team, but her size has never stopped her from giving her all each game. Her coach Corey Harder described her as “a firecracker.” (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

How the game has changed

During International Women’s Month, the biggest difference between Ella’s hockey world and Wickenheiser’s childhood is impossible to ignore.

When Wickenheiser was nine, there were very few women playing hockey in the spotlight. Her hockey heroes were all men.

“I loved Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers of the 1980s,” she told Ella. “I tried to be like those guys. I’d watch them on TV and then go on the outdoor rink and try to imitate what they did.”

Wickenheiser told Ella that she started playing hockey between the ages of five and six in her hometown of Shaunavon, Saskatchewan. (Submitted)

Today, girls have something she never had.

“When I was your age, I didn’t have a PWHL, a professional women’s hockey league, to look up to,” she explained.

There wasn’t even Olympic women’s hockey yet.

“So I wanted to play in the NHL and win a Stanley Cup with the Edmonton Oilers.”

She said now, the possibilities for a girl who loves the sport are far wider.

“Whether you’re a player, coach, a referee, there’s so many options for young girls to have a path in the game of hockey,” she said. “The game has come so far. There’s so many more opportunities than when I was your age starting to play the game, for sure.”

The next generation

Before the conversation ended, Ella asked one very important question. What advice would Wickenheiser give a nine-year-old girl who wants to play hockey forever?

The answer was simple.

“You just keep playing till they rip your skates off your feet,” she said.

She encouraged young players to watch the game closely and learn from the best.

“You have to be a little bit of a thief,” she said. “Which means you’ve got to steal stuff from all the best players that you watch and try to put it into your own game.”

And practice — even when no one is watching.

“Get out there on the outdoor rink and the driveway,” she said. “Just play for the love of the game.”

Because that love, she told Ella, is what hockey is really about.

Nine-year-old Ella Kautzman is in her fourth year of hockey. Her goal? To play the sport forever. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Before hanging up, Wickenheiser had one more thing to say to the young interviewer.

“Ella, you remind me a lot of myself.”

For a nine-year-old girl chasing pucks across Saskatchewan rinks, there may be no greater compliment.

“I wish you all the best in your hockey,” she said. “Have a ton of fun with it.”

She left Ella with one final thought.

“Hey, maybe someday I’ll be interviewing you.”

Ella paused. “Maybe,” she replied, pride and excitement written all over her face.

As she ended the call, Ella was glowing, grinning from ear to ear.

This is the kind of moment International Women’s Month was made for.

One generation of women passing the torch — and the puck — so the next can shine.

This International Women’s Month, Saskatchewan hockey legend Hayley Wickenheiser (left) shared some hockey wisdom with 9-year-old Ella Kautzman (right) of Warman, inspiring the next generation of female players. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)