Dave Leaderhouse, Special to the Herald
Dreams do come true!
Ever since Kaitlin Willoughby was a little girl she dreamed of hoisting a championship trophy. Like most young hockey players it is the Stanley Cup they have in their dreams, but being a girl she knew that was never going to happen.
The dawn of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) three years ago resurrected those dreams for Willoughby and in May her dream became reality when she was an integral part of the Montreal Victoire winning the Walter Cup when they outlasted the Ottawa Charge in four games in the best-of-five championship final.
“This is better than anything I ever dreamt of,” said Willoughby with a huge smile on Wednesday as she got to celebrate her championship with family and friends and then showcase the Walter Cup with hundreds of others at the Art Hauser Centre.
Each player on the winning team is allotted a day with the championship trophy and Wednesday marked the first time the Walter Cup was ever in Saskatchewan. For two hours Willoughby posed for photos with young and old alike and even she had to admit the turnout was more than she had expected.
“I had said to Mom no one will come,” says Willoughby. “It’s the middle of the week, people are at the lake, but this is unbelievable.”
The line-up was out the front doors of the main lobby when Willoughby set up shop and there was never a break during the allotted time as fans happily posed with her with the trophy. Young female hockey players were the most visible in the line-up and with Willoughby sharing in her success it has undoubtedly lit the fire in many to one day have a similar celebration of her own.
Willoughby was just 13 years old when as an affiliate player she was called up to the A&W Bears and helped that club capture a Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League championship.
The fast-skating and tenacious-checking forward would play 126 games for the Bears over four-plus years compiling 122 points before moving on to the University of Saskatchewan where she would post 111 points in 132 games in five seasons with the Huskies.
Willoughby was part of a Clarkson Cup-winning Calgary Inferno squad in the defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League and when the PWHL was formed she went undrafted before securing a spot with the Toronto Sceptres after accepting an invitation to that club’s inaugural training camp.
Willoughby spent the better part of two seasons with Toronto seeing spot-duty before a trade to the Victoire in March of 2025 changed the course of her career. With the Victoire she started getting more responsibilities and last year scored three goals and set up three others in the regular season and was a key shutdown player during their championship run.
Armed with a new two-year contract Willoughby will be returning to Montreal in the fall to try and help the Victoire defend their title. Until then she will be working in the health services field as a nurse in Prince Albert all the while continuing to have the glow of a champion.
Her day with the Walter Cup ended with a large family gathering at the Northern Regional Recreational Centre and maybe, just maybe, there might be another similar celebration in the future. By the response of the young players who turned out on Wednesday there are many others who share her dream.
