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A daughter of hockey-playing parents in Oshawa, Ontario, Victoria Wells joined her siblings in taking up the sport as a kid. After rising to the Canadian university-level at Montreal’s Mc Gill University from 2006-09, she spent her first few post-graduation years teaching physical education and coaching youth sports, including hockey. Advertisement Even when she later switched careers, training to become a firefighter and moving to the Toronto area, Wells never forgot her passion. “I reached out to a couple of organizations to try and stay involved in coaching, but it was summer and they all emailed me back and said, ‘You’re a little late, we pick the coaches in April, ’” Wells said. “I was, like, ‘Damn! ’ “And then I asked if there was any way I could officiate. I just wanted to stay in hockey in some capacity. ” This weekend, when the Montreal Canadiens host three fellow NHL teams for a preseason prospect tournament at the famed Bell Centre, Wells will be there as part of the officiating crew, wearing black and white stripes as both a referee and a linesperson. And she won’t be alone: Four other women are similarly taking the ice in cities across the league, including Sydney Harris, who spent the 2024-25 season as a referee for the AHL, hockey’s top minor league. As a group, Harris and her cohorts are far from novel; since 2019, at least four women have annually officiated NHL prospect games such as these. But the NBA has employed women on the court for more than a quarter century, beginning with the historic hirings of referees Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer in the late 1990s. The NFL eventually followed suit in 2015, thanks to official Sarah Thomas, while earlier this summer Jen Pawol debuted as the first woman to umpire an MLB game. By contrast, the NHL is still waiting on its first female official. It won’t happen this season, either, with the league’s recently settled 2025-26 roster of all-male referees and linespeople. So when will the barrier finally be broken? “I can’t give you a straight-up timeline, ” NHL vice president and director of officiating Stephen Walkom said. “But we have people in our system right now that if they keep progressing and developing, they will be our top prospects — and ultimately one day you will see women working hockey games at the highest level. Advertisement “That would be our goal. ” Six years ago, when the league first invited women to work preseason prospect camps, it selected two referees and two linespeople from a group of 96 officials who participated in the NHL’s 2019 Officiating Exposure Combine in Buffalo. Among them was referee Katie Guay, who later became the first woman to officiate in the AHL when she took the ice for an Oct. 2021 game between the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. That season, the AHL welcomed 10 women onto its officiating staff and issued an official terminology change, with “linesman” becoming “linesperson. ” Now retired from refereeing, Guay currently works as the NHL’s scouting and development officiating manager. Last season, nine other women — eight referees and one linesperson, Kirsten Welsh — had reached hockey’s final proving ground for officials hoping to ascend to its best league. “Working in the NHL would be a total dream, ” the AHL’s Harris recently told NHL. com, before refereeing a four-team prospect tournament this weekend hosted by the Tampa Bay Lightning, “and this is a step in that direction or a taste of what something like that might be like. ” Typically, out of its 235-person officiating roster, the AHL maintains a running list of nine referees and four linespeople considered “minor-league teammates” who would be in consideration for an NHL promotion, an NHL spokesperson said. These are usually officials with significant minor-league experience who have graded well with the NHL’s officiating managers, led by Walkom. Before becoming a full-time NHL official, a candidate would likely work a mix of AHL and NHL games over one or more previous seasons. The decision on when they are ready for the call-up is made by Walkom and his staff based on progress reports and other methods of evaluation, he said. Advertisement If a woman is going to officiate an NHL game soon, Walkom said, she will likely come from the AHL’s roster. But the NHL is working to further fill its pipeline, having annually staged its Exposure Combine since 2014. There it identifies and trains officiating prospects with varying degrees of experience — among them 55 women, including 10 last month. Walkom hesitated to predict who the NHL’s officiating trailblazer would be and when she would arrive. He knows the first woman to officiate a game will generate attention, but he said there are things the public should know when it does happen. “To officiate our sport you have to have wicked skating skills, you need to be a wicked athlete, ” Walkom said. “And we’re attracting more and more of that with women who have hockey backgrounds — that’s good for the sport and the NHL, but that’s exactly what we need. ” In addition to being “an elite skater, ” Walkom tells prospects at the NHL Exposure Combine that all high-level officials separate themselves by viewing the game through the eyes of players and coaches. As for how those male players and coaches see the women working their games? “You have to earn their respect, but it’s the same thing for men or women, ” AHL referee Elizabeth Mantha, sister of Pittsburgh Penguins winger Anthony Mantha, told The Athletic before her 2021 debut. “It’s not different. You can’t take it personally. … When it’s a new game, it’s a new game. The previous game is over. It’s hockey, it’s emotional. ” For her part, Wells may not have been on the short list for Hockey Canada’s national team as a player, but the on-ice skills that once helped her reach the country’s top collegiate level would likely still stand out to even a casual observer today. Wells also sees top-flight competitiveness as a common trait among those vying to climb the officiating ladder — something she missed from her playing days. That caught her by surprise a few years ago, on the opening day of her first Exposure Combine. Advertisement “You notice there are 90 other competing officials besides you that want exactly what you want, which is to get to that next level, ” she said. “So many people want the same thing. “In a sense, you are competing against one another, but at the same time, you can lean on each other for support. ” This season, Wells will referee girls’ and boys’ junior-level and women’s university leagues in Ontario. A career in coaching, once her primary goal, remains an option. But so does making NHL history. “While you’re young and can skate, you gotta try, ” Wells said. (Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Jonathan Tenka / AP, Joshua Bassex / Getty, Courtesy of Adam Vinz) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle An award-winning sports journalist, Rob Rossi has reported on the Pittsburgh Penguins and National Hockey League since 2004. He has covered almost 2, 000 NHL games, including over 150 in the playoffs and four Stanley Cup Final series. He also has covered two Super Bowls and multiple MLB All-Star Games. He sits on the executive board of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, and chairs its Pittsburgh chapter. He joined The Athletic in October 2018, and co-founded its Mental Matters resource group. Follow Rob on Twitter @Real_Rob Rossi