PWHL Hamilton players look forward to puck drop and getting to know their new city

Hockey players Zoe Boyd, Brianne Jenner and Kayla Vespa stood near the corner of York Boulevard and Bay Street North, under the massive digital sign that advertises upcoming events at Hamilton's TD Coliseum. 

One of the many ads in the rotation featured their team, PWHL Hamilton, and they stared silently together at the logo that represents the next chapter in their lives and playing careers. 

Boyd, Jenner, Vespa and their teammates on the Professional Women's Hockey League expansion team are local trailblazers in women's sports. They'll be among the first women to work as professional athletes in Hamilton, and they know how much that means to their fans — especially for girls who can now see a pathway to professional hockey.

Thanks to the success of the three-year-old league, many of the league's youngest fans don't remember a time when only men could aspire to playing hockey as a career, said Jenner, previously captain of the Ottawa Charge.

"That is what makes me most proud and excited to be a part of this," she said.

How much do Hamilton's new PWHL players know about the city?

During the PWHL's last season, its third, the league surpassed one million single-season ‌attendees for the first time and averaged more than 9,000 fans per game, it said. The eight-team league will grow to 12 this coming season, with the addition of Hamilton, Las Vegas, San Jose and Detroit. 

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"To be where we're at three years in is just mind-blowing," said Jenner, who was part of the formation of the league and a negotiator for the players' first collective bargaining agreement. "I think this