This is part 3 in a multi-part series on Port Moody’s PWHL draft prospect Sophia Gaskell. Feel free to go back and read Part 1 (Expansion Teams Create Movements) and Part 2 (The Growth of Girls Hockey).
Canada’s pro hockey scene is smaller than you may think it is.
When you condense things even further, things get even smaller. People get even more interconnected.
As it stands, only one professional women’s hockey player from Port Moody has ever been drafted to the PWHL.
Jenna Buglioni made history for a couple of reasons on June 24, 2025. Selected eighth-overall by the expansion team Seattle Torrent, she became the Torrent’s first-ever entry draft selection in franchise history.
Her selection also marked the first time a player from Port Moody had ever been drafted to the PWHL.
Sophia Gaskell hopes to join her former teammate and make it two after this year.
“Seeing Jenna get drafted to Seattle in the first round was really inspiring,” Gaskell told NewsLight of her long-time teammate. “She has always been an extremely hardworking player who raises the level of everyone around her. Watching her success has definitely impacted how I approach my own hockey career and motivates me to keep pushing toward the professional level.”
Gaskell and Buglioni played with one another on both boys’ hockey teams and girls’ hockey teams, when they both ended up with the Greater Vancouver Comets from 2017–18 to 2019–20. Both players grew up in Port Moody, with their houses only a couple of blocks down from one another.
“I grew up playing boys’ hockey with Jenna, and we actually switched into girls’ hockey at the same time,” Gaskell said of her long-time teammate. “We played together every year growing up, including spring hockey, since we were about six years old, with only one season where we weren’t on the same team.”
The ‘small world’ adage relates to more than just Gaskell and Buglioni’s connection to each other within the hockey world. Port Moody as a whole has a relatively small professional hockey community, even from the boys’ side. Only one active NHLer hails from Port Moody — Columbus Blue Jackets forward Kent Johnson — while only three total have been drafted to the NHL. As a result, Gaskell and Buglioni ended up having to share the ice with some of them.
“We were often the only girls on boys’ teams and got to play alongside high-level players like Kent Johnson [...] which was a really unique experience at a young age,” Gaskell recalled.
With Port Moody’s limited programs for competitive girls’ hockey, Gaskell and Buglioni found themselves pretty close up until college. Gaskell went on to UBC, where she spent five seasons with the Thunderbirds, wrapping up her post-secondary hockey career this season. Buglioni joined a super-powered Ohio State Buckeyes team that won two NCAA championships in her five seasons with them.
Despite parting ways from a playing standpoint during college, the two players still keep in touch and even get together for practices and scrimmages during the off-season.
“Even now, [we] still skate and train together in the off-season, usually doing scrimmages or development sessions with other USports, NCAA, and PWHL players.”
Part 4 can be read here.