'Years in the making': Marie-Philip Poulin ready to start new women's hockey league

A woman destined to be a star player in the new North American women's professional hockey league can't wait to get started.

Canadian women's hockey team captain Marie Philip-Poulin was among the Professional Womens' Hockey Players' Association (PWHPA) membership who steadfastly pursued their vision of a women's pro league.

The PWHPA voted Sunday to ratify a comprehensive collective bargaining agreement with the new league's owners long before January's puck drop.

For Poulin, called "one of the greatest clutch performers this country has ever produced" when she was named The Canadian Press female athlete of the year for 2022, it's been a long road worth travelling to get to a league that met her threshold for professionalism.

"It's been years in the making," she said Tuesday in Brossard, Que.

"The amount of times we've said 'We'll see, we're working, we're working' and now we can finally say that something is happening in January that's going to be a league."

The 32-year-old from Beauceville, Que., was asked Tuesday about the as-yet-unnamed women's league at the Montreal Canadiens development camp. Poulin is a player development consultant for the Habs.

In addition to a salary range between $35,000 to $80,000 US, 23-player rosters, per diem, commercial rights and trade protocols, the CBA includes competition bonuses, a retirement plan, housing stipend, long-term disability, life and health insurance, workers' compensation, maternity leave and a dependent care assistance program.

The league will start with six teams in cities also yet to be named — three in Canada and three in the United States.

Montreal and Toronto are likely two of the three Canadian locales.

"I think once some teams are announced, once team names are