Her nickname on the ice is “Hustles,” and now 22-year-old Abby Hustler is skating into the spotlight. Drafted No. 14 overall by the Minnesota Frost in the 2025 Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) Draft, Hustler became the first player from P.E.I. to be drafted in league history. “It’s been crazy. I know immediately after, my phone kind of blew up and people I didn’t even think were really supporting me ended up watching the whole draft,” Hustler said. She first laced up her skates at three years old, playing in local rinks in the province until she was a teenager, then moving to Ontario and New York state. But it wasn’t until recently that Hustler could really imagine going pro. “That wasn’t really an option for us,” she said. The launch of the PWHL in 2023 changed that, providing a path for female athletes across North America. For girls from P.E.I., Hustler is a homegrown hero. She has been training girls aged nine to 15 for the last two summers, sharing her skills and showing them what’s possible. Some want to skate in Hustler’s tracks. “I’d like to play for the Boston Fleet,” said Caoimhe Clarke, 11. “I want to play in Toronto,” added 11-year-old Molly Trainor. “We have something we can look forward to when we get older,” said Skyla Awlward, 13. There are long wait lists for the camp, and across Canada, women’s and girls’ hockey registrations set new records this year, with more than 115,000 people signing up to play, coach and officiate. As a power forward, Hustler is tough on the ice, but her former coach says it’s a different story away from the rink. “She’s got this heartfulness to her that I think people miss if they just know her as a hockey player,” said Mare MacDougall Bari, assistant coach at St. Lawrence University, where Hustler played in college. “But a lot of that washes away to, you know, a lobsterman’s daughter who just wants to really get to know you as a person.” The puck drops at Hustler’s PWHL training camp with the Frost in November. Until then, she’s making sure the path she carved stays clear, so other girls can shoot their shot.
