A champion at every level, Anchorage’s Clair DeGeorge shifts to Montreal in 2nd season in PWHL

Clair DeGeorge is no stranger to success when it comes to winning titles and hoisting trophies.

The Anchorage-born hockey player has won a championship at every level of the sport in which she has competed. That includes four in high school at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Minnesota and one in the final year of her collegiate career at Ohio State University in 2022.

Last winter, DeGeorge returned to the state where she claimed her prep titles to win her first as a pro in the inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. She helped the Minnesota-based franchise win the first-ever Walter Cup this past June, an accomplishment that still hasn’t quite sunk in six months later.

“It’s definitely a surreal moment,” DeGeorge said. “Being able to win it in the first year was definitely something special. I think, for myself, it still hasn’t entirely set in and maybe it won’t set in until I’m older watching other kids live out their dreams in the league someday.”

[Anchorage’s Clair DeGeorge is living the dream in new Professional Women’s Hockey League]

Being part of such a milestone for the league was meaningful and hit home especially for her because of what it means for “young girls back home in Alaska.”

“It’s just a small population of girls hockey and I had to leave the state to continue playing (when I was) growing up,” DeGeorge said. “Being able to show them that they can still get out of the state, go and play professionally and play in college and all those elite levels of play is something that I definitely take to heart.”

Her home away from home in the offseason is Rochester, Minnesota, where she works at the Mayo Clinic as a vascular nurse.

During the offseason, she signed with the Montréal Victoire with the intent of helping them contend for a championship while extending her professional career another year.

There are still just six teams that make up the league, but there are talks of adding two more next season, which DeGeorge believes is a “testament to women’s hockey growing and all the talent that there is, not just across North America but across the world over in Europe.”

The inaugural six franchises were named after the cities in which they played and didn’t have official mascots, but that isn’t the case in the second season. The reigning league champions go by the Minnesota Frost now, and the other four are the Boston Fleet, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres.

“It’s obviously a huge step for the league and I’m happy that they decided to take a year to figure out what the names would be so that they could be something that had a lot of meaning to them,” DeGeorge said.

As the league expands, DeGeorge said young girls now have a greater opportunity to follow women playing professionally, something she wasn’t able to do as a youth player.

“It’s truly an honor,” DeGeorge said. “Growing up, I know I had a lot of male players in Alaska that I really looked up to, and there weren’t a ton of female players.”

She made sure to also shout out and acknowledge other female pioneers such as Anchorage’s Zoe Hickel, who helped coach DeGeorge to a national title in college as an assistant with the Buckeyes.

“She is someone who has had a lot of success at the USA world championship level and collegiate level as well,” DeGeorge said. “People like her that I looked up to and still show support for the game up in Alaska for young girls and is someone I try to emulate myself after.”

Making the move to Montreal

DeGeorge played on a one-year deal last season and became a free agent during the offseason. Her familiarity with Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie, who she has a lot of respect for, was one of the reasons she decided to cross the border to continue her playing career.

Cheverie coached DeGeorge previously for a year in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association for the 2022-23 season.

“It’s a really cool city, has an awesome culture and a team that’s absolutely amazing,” DeGeorge said. “The girls are hard workers and it just feels like a big family here.”

One of the few drawbacks about making the move is that her nursing career has to go on the back burner until the offseason because she’d need a different kind of visa to practice nursing in another country.

“I can still go to Minnesota anytime I want, pick up my job and go in as a supplemental nurse,” DeGeorge said. “Who knows, potentially a few times this season I’ll do that if we have a week or two off. For the most part, come June next year, I’ll go back to work again and do the same thing I did last year.”

Putting on hold a career that she invested so much effort into isn’t easy, but the opportunity to continue her professional hockey career is worth the temporary sacrifice in her eyes.

“Nursing will always be there for me and I have a lot of support from my co-workers there,” DeGeorge said. “I’m going to pursue my hockey career while I’m young and able to do so.”

During the season down in Montreal when she isn’t playing or practicing for hockey, DeGeorge does “a little bit of everything,” including brushing up on her nursing through podcasts, learning to speak more French so she can further immerse herself in the culture, and playing with puzzles and Legos.

“Even with the season starting, it’s been pretty busy,” she said. “When we go on the road, we stay in hotels but here we all have our own apartments and some people from Montreal have houses.”

Lessons learned from PWHL’s first year

The biggest takeaway she gleaned from being part of the inaugural season of the league was how to find a role on a team where players come from different backgrounds and walks of life. Many of her teammates were accustomed to being the most prominent players in their previous teams and leagues but had to figure out how to gel and play together to make a successful run at a championship.

“Finding your role on a team and understanding that’s what you’re there to do, taking hold of that and doing it to the best of your abilities is one thing I really learned last year and something I will take into this year,” DeGeorge said.

She’s excited to see the continued growth of the league and sport at large with better coaching, facilities and athletic training staff.

“In just a year, all the players are probably way better than they ever dreamed to be at this point,” DeGeorge said. “Hopefully going into this year, all the players will benefit from that.”