Five years ago, Kirsten Simms used to walk into the doors of Little Caesars Arena as a AAA player with Little Caesars. The next time she walks through them, it will be as a player in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Simms is amid a banner year, including a national championship at Wisconsin and Olympic gold with Team USA in Milano-Cortina. Next up: the Plymouth-raised forward will be picked in the 2026 PWHL Draft on Wednesday night at the Fox Theatre.
“I think it just brings me chills, honestly,” Simms told The Detroit News.
Simms, 21, boasts an impressive resume, including three national championships with the Badgers where she had 238 points in 152 career games. She also had a goal in seven Olympic games en route to that gold medal.
Simms is a candidate to be picked in the top five selections of the draft. The leadup to this draft has marked a full-circle moment, including when she arrived at her old LCA stomping grounds on Tuesday.
“It’s a little bit nostalgic, obviously, even me just getting dropped off and walking and seeing the doors I walked through all the time my senior year of high school,” Simms said, surrounded by cameras and microphones. “It’s pretty cool. And like I said, I mean, it’s honestly a dream come to reality that our draft is happening in Detroit.”
This is the fourth PWHL Draft, and the first to be held in Detroit, which just got an expansion team alongside Las Vegas, San Jose as well as Hamilton, Ontario.
The league just wrapped up its third season, in which the Montreal Victoire won the Walter Cup as league champions. The league marked its third straight season of attendance growth, and with that welcomed those four new markets for a total of 12 teams.
For Simms, the expansion process brought the start of her pro career right to her own backyard, where she expects 20 or more family and friends to attend the draft.
“It’s a big crew, so I’m really excited to share it,” Simms said.
Growing up, Simms says the draft process — the interviews, the meetings with general managers, the pro career to come — wasn’t on her radar like young boys got to dream about going to the NHL. The establishment of the PWHL gives her and other peers an opportunity she is grateful for.
“The fact that we get that experience now,” Simms said, “and we get the opportunity to go to a draft and get drafted is just super cool to just see the growth of women’s sports in general.”
Simms is part of a strong draft class that includes Wisconsin and Olympic teammate Carolina Harvey, as the projected No. 1 pick. Fellow Badger and Olympian Laila Edwards is also a projected top pick.
Harvey had high praise for Simms, and says that whichever team lands her will be getting a strong prospect.
“Outside of (being a) phenomenal player, she brings a lot of energy on and off the ice,” Harvey said. “So she’ll bring an energy person to the locker room, and I think she’s so strong on the puck, so deceptive, she has a knack for scoring, and she’s a playmaker, so she’ll best suit any team, and she’ll bring a lot of skill and creativity to that roster.”
Olympic teammate Tessa Janecke agrees with that assessment.
“I think everyone first goes to her puck ability, which is like second to none with that,” Janecke said. “She’s a great teammate.”
Detroit could’ve been in the range to select Simms or another top prospect with the No. 3 overall pick in the PWHL Draft, but the organization led by GM Manon Rheaume traded that first-round selection away to PWHL Las Vegas to acquire Hilary Knight. The two-time Olympic gold medalist and 10-time world champion forward has served as a role model for many of the players in this draft.
The past year has been anything but calm for Simms, with a national championship college season interrupted by the Olympics, then followed by the PWHL draft process. All of this strengthened her, she says.
“Obviously there was a lot of moving parts with being in college and having to go play for the national team and getting to go to the Olympics and all those things,” Simms said. “So, I just think there’s a lot of development for me overall as a hockey player, but also as a person too. I mean, it takes a lot to balance those two things, and to kind of figure that out and learn some things about yourself.”
If Simms could’ve learned all this was possible when she was a high school senior?
“Five years ago, I never thought I’d have this opportunity,” Simms said. “So trying to just take it day by day and enjoy it, do what I can to grow the game.”
cearegood@detroitnews.com
@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Kirsten Simms’ hockey journey comes full circle at PWHL Draft
Reporting by Connor Earegood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Connor Earegood, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
