Manon Rheaume was hired as the general manager of the Professional Women’s Hockey League expansion team in Detroit, the league announced Friday. The move brings the Canadian Olympic goaltender and trailblazing player into a front-office role as the PWHL builds toward its next season.
Rheaume, 54, spent the past four years working in the Los Angeles Kings’ hockey operations department and earlier spent 11 years in a developmental role with Detroit-based Little Caesars youth hockey’s girls’ program, per the report. “I’m incredibly honored to join the PWHL and help build something special in Detroit,” Rheaume said, adding that the city’s hockey tradition and passion make it an important market for the league.
The hiring comes a little more than a week after the league announced Detroit as an expansion city. The PWHL has since added franchises in Las Vegas and Hamilton, Ontario, and is planning one more addition as it grows to a 12-team league for next season, the report says.
Of the nine general managers now in place around the PWHL, seven are women, per the report. Jayna Hefford, the league’s executive vice president of hockey operations who oversaw the hiring, praised Rheaume’s experience and leadership. “She brings an unmatched résumé, a championship mindset and a lifelong commitment to growing the women’s game,” Hefford said, per the report.
Among Rheaume’s initial responsibilities will be preparing for an expansion free agent signing process tentatively scheduled to begin May 28, followed by the league’s draft, which is set to be held in Detroit on June 17, the report says. Those steps will precede the team’s preparations for its inaugural season.
Rheaume is from Beauport, Quebec, and began making her international mark in the early 1990s after signing with Trois-Rivières of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. She tried out for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992 and allowed two goals on nine shots in one period of a preseason game against the St. Louis Blues, and made a second preseason appearance the following year against the Boston Bruins. She won a silver medal with Canada at the 1998 Nagano Games and gold medals at the 1992 and 1994 world championships, per the report.
