PWHL camp invites prepare to battle for women's pro hockey jobs

Carly Jackson trained all summer like she had hockey job, even though she didn't.

The goalie had just signed a one-year, US$60,000 extension with the Toronto Six in June when it was announced that the Premier Hockey League had been bought out to make way for the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL).

"That was pretty shocking because it became a 'I know exactly what I'm doing" and then a big "I have no idea what I'm doing and we don't know what this is going to look like,'" Jackson said.

But the 26-year-old from Amherst, N.S., hired the former Six's strength trainer and hit the gym. She skated with a group of male players in Atlantic Canada before getting on the ice with the Amherst Ramblers junior A men's team.

"I was preparing for a season and that didn't change, even though it was a bit more unknown to me at that point," Jackson said.

After the PWHL's free-agency window in early September and the Sept. 18 draft, Jackson received a training-camp invitation from Gina Kingsbury, the general manager of Toronto's PWHL club.

"I was pretty stoked when I got a call from Toronto after the draft,' Jackson said.

PWHL training camps open Wednesday, bringing a total of 184 players plus coaches and support staff together in each of the league's six cities for the first time.

The PWHL announced the locations of its training camps in a release Monday.

Toronto will train at the Ford Performance Centre in the city's east end. The centre is the practice facility of the NHL's Maple Leafs and American Hockey League's Marlies.

Ottawa will hold its camp at TD Place Arena, home of the Ontario Hockey League's 67's.

Montreal will train at Centre 21.02 at the Verdun Auditorium. It serves as the lone recognized high-performance hockey centre