The Trailblazer – Jennifer Botterill Inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame

The ripple effect…it’s the idea that one event or action can continue or spur on more and more results.

As Jennifer Botterill is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 class, the ripples of her tireless commitment to the game of hockey should not just be commemorated; they must be celebrated.

The Player Finds the Game. The Game Finds the Player.

Growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jennifer was no stranger to the love of sport. Her mother Doreen McCannell competed in the Olympics as a speed skater and her father, Cal, played for the Canadian national hockey team and practiced as a sports psychologist. Her brother Jason, now general manager of the Kraken and three years her senior, played hockey (and would go on to win gold medals in three consecutive World Championships). But opportunities in hockey were not as abundant for young women in the early eighties.

“Hockey wasn’t in the Olympics,” Jason said. “She actually played a game called ‘ringette’ a lot. Once she knew that hockey was going to be an Olympic sport, that became her focus: ‘I’m going to try to be a hockey player, try to find a way to get to Olympics.’

“I give her a lot of credit. Growing up…any sport, whether you talked about soccer, basketball, track, badminton, she gravitated to it and excelled in it. But she wasn’t in a situation where as many girls were playing hockey. You had to look for different coaching, different opportunities, and get better competition. She moved out to Calgary from Winnipeg to push herself there and to make the Olympic team as an 18-year-old. And then to have as much success as she did, it was fascinating.”

The unparalleled success Jennifer had on the ice still holds in many a record book – and ripples into teammates’ minds and hearts.

Jennifer won silver in her first Olympics followed by three consecutive golds. In her final Games in Vancouver in 2010, Jennifer provided the primary assist on the eventual game winning goal by Marie-Philip Poulin.

Defender Meaghan Mikkelson was playing in her first Olympics with Team Canada the same year.

“Jenn, or ‘Botts’ as we call her, was the ultimate competitor and teammate,” Mikkelson said. “What I appreciate most about her as a player was not just her talent and skill, but the relentlessness and fierceness with which she trained and competed. She was the type of player you wanted on your side, not to have to play against, because of how intense, determined, and strong she was.

“She always pushed to get the best out of herself, but she also went out of her way to lift others up as well. At one of my very first training camps with Team Canada, I was nervous and had no clue where I fit in. After one of our intersquad games, Botts, a 3-time Olympian at that time, came up to me and told me how impressive she thought my play was on the ice, and told me to keep doing what I was doing. (That) tells you right there the type of leader and teammate she was.”

In parallel with her national team action, Jennifer played her collegiate hockey at Harvard. She scored at least one point in all but one of 113 games. She twice won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top US women’s college hockey player.

“She was one of the best,” Kraken assistant coach and former NCAA (Cornell) and CWHL hockey player Jessica Campbell said. “She sees the game. She was a playmaker. She was very smart and crafty with the puck.

“I looked up to Jennifer myself. I saw her as a small-town Canadian kid from the prairies who chased a dream to Boston and went through Harvard. I ended up going to an Ivy League school. I actually almost followed her to Harvard, just because of the recruiting video that they put together – it was a highlight video of Jennifer and her career. That speaks for itself.”

Taking it to the Air.

And when her playing days came to a close in 2011 after time in both the NWHL and CWHL, Jennifer’s connection to the game she loved did not. The relentless commitment to be her best transitioned over to building a career in broadcasting. She can be seen regularly as an analyst both on Sportsnet, including Hockey Night in Canada, and on TNT. She’s continued to be an inspiration to other women in sports broadcast like Mikkelson, now an analyst with Sportsnet radio covering the Calgary Flames.

KHN’s own John Forslund and Eddie Olczyk have worked with Jennifer on TNT crews since 2021. Both have been impressed by her knowledge of the game, preparedness, effective communication, and willingness to take a stance as strengths.

“I just think she understands the journey, probably more than most do,” Forslund said. “She's taken a path that, when she was younger, was probably very hard for her, and the payoff was reaching the highest level that she could and the international success she's had. She's a pioneer and a trailblazer for what we see today.

“The women coming to broadcasting from both the US and Canadian national teams are important. I think every time she's on the air, it's inspirational and those are important beacons for our young fans. They have to be able to see that. When they see that, they can see themselves. That's what she's doing each and every time she's on the air.”

Creating Currents of Change.

Campbell says she gets emotional thinking about the impact of the work players like Jennifer did to grow the game. She looked up to Botterill as a young player, and now she sees young girls coming to Kraken Community Iceplex looking up to her. They see her coaching on the ice, but they are also there to skate and to play hockey.

“I'd been playing hockey for at least five to ten years before I really knew who the role models were,” Campbell said. “And it was the Jennifer Botterills, and the Caroline Ouelettes…and then meeting them for the first time and seeing what they've done for the growth of the game - the time that they put in as pros, all they've done. They accomplished everything that our guys do every day and deserve all the respect in the world for that, for that tireless work without any compensation.”

And the impact is more than a feeling. It’s tangible. From 2021 to 2024, over 1000 girls aged 3-19 have taken part in Junior Kraken Youth Teams, Junior Squid, Sea-League and Learn to Play classes each year. Participation in the girls’ Junior Kraken program has doubled across the same span.

And in late November, men and women of all ages can head to Climate Pledge Arena not only to see professional men’s hockey, but to see professional women’s hockey as the newest PWHL team, the Seattle Torrent, kick off their inaugural season.

Corinne Schroeder is one of the Torrent’s goaltenders. She remembers being a young girl and watching Jennifer play in the Olympics. That allowed the Elm Creek, Manitoba native to dream of playing for her country. But watching what women like Jennifer went on to do made her list of goals in the game longer.

“The Olympics were the epitome of women's hockey,” Schroeder said. “There was really nothing else other than the national team. But, as I got to high school, I was like, ‘oh, college is an option. I can play there.’ That was incredible to learn. And then from college, it was like, ‘oh, there's professional leagues.’ I played one year with the PHF before the PWHL formed and we’re just continuing to take steps upwards and beyond. Seeing how much this this league has grown has been incredible.

“Jennifer and all the Olympic and national team women from that era, they played hockey because they loved it, and they wanted to keep playing, and they wanted to grow the sport. They put in the work to really build what we have now. We definitely wouldn't have it without them.”

The Call from the Hall.

And so, deservingly, this past off-season, Jennifer received a call from the chairman of the Hall of Fame selection committee, Ron Francis, telling her she was one of this year’s inductees.

Jennifer was with her parents at their summer cottage in Manitoba when she got the call. Jason laughs at the memory.

“I knew something was up because Ron asked me, ‘can you please tell your sister to answer her phone?’ And then I was contacting her husband too because they were out at the cottage, and I think they were out on the boat when the call came. But (Ron’s call) got through, and then she contacted me right after. There was a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement.”

Jason plans to be at the ceremony, of course, with the rest of the family. Olczyk, who is also on the Hall selection committee, will be in attendance as well. While details of the selection process are kept private, the importance of it is well known and highly regarded.

“I think that when you think about the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame isn't for the very good, it's for the best,” Olczyk said. “I think sometimes when people hear the Hall of Fame, with all due respect, they think it's the National Hockey League Hall of Fame, which it is not. It's hockey worldwide. And you think about what Canada and the US and women's hockey have been able to do and how they have been able to bring the game to a lot of different people and to inspire a lot of young women to be able to play….and everything Jennifer’s been able to accomplish, it just it seemed like there was so much momentum (for her to be inducted).”

When Jennifer Botterill becomes a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday, so many who know and love her will be watching. And so will so many future women hockey players to come.