the game,<\/a> Tabin said she was feeling \u201ca lot of emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cObviously, I was really, really excited and didn\u2019t know how it was going to feel out there,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it was nice to get game one under my belt and get a feel for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tabin\u2019s inclusion on the Canadian roster is a strong indicator of two things: her own persistence and the opportunities created for players by the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League. In the two years since the league launched in January 2024, Tabin has gone from the bubble to establishing herself as a steady, shutdown defender and the exact kind of player Team Canada might need to upset the No. 1-ranked Americans.<\/p>\n
\u201cKati Tabin is a perfect example of an athlete that has taken the platform that was offered to her and shown that she\u2019s a great shutdown \u2018D\u2019 that is hard to play against,\u201d said Canada general manager Gina Kingsbury. \u201cShe is playing really great hockey and we think that\u2019s going to continue to (the Olympics). The elements that she brings, the style of play she brings in the PWHL, is exactly what we are looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tabin had decided she was done with hockey once before.<\/p>\n
Over her four-year career at Quinnipiac University, Tabin played well enough to be named captain of the team and get an invite to a 47-player Canadian national women\u2019s team camp ahead of her final season. Her performance then, however, wasn\u2019t enough to make her any sort of mainstay on the national team.<\/p>\n
After her senior season in 2020, the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tabin felt she hit a dead end. At the time, the PHF presented one of the few post-graduate opportunities, but in 2020-21, the league was attempting to play a \u201cbubble\u201d tournament in Lake Placid, N.Y., which failed due to rapid COVID-19 transmission.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere weren\u2019t very many places to go play or practice,\u201d Tabin said. \u201cSo I just ultimately made the decision (that) it\u2019s just time I hang them up and get a real job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tabin took a position as a marketing director for a campground and marina in Wisconsin, but soon started to miss being on the ice. With the encouragement of her mom, Heather, Tabin left for Connecticut to try out for the Whale.<\/p>\n
She hadn\u2019t played competitively in 18 months, so she went into her visit with low expectations: She\u2019d visit friends and former Quinnipiac teammates, talk to coach Colton Orr, and potentially secure a roster spot for next season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was obviously pretty rusty,\u201d Tabin said.<\/p>\n
So she was surprised when the team came to her with a contract offer \u2014 but not for the next season. Tabin joined the Whale immediately, sleeping on her teammate Abbie Ives\u2019 couch while her work visa was processed. She played six games, without pay, for the love of the game.<\/p>\n
But after several weeks, Tabin went home to Winnipeg, disillusioned with the idea of making hockey a full-time job. She got a new gig as a player development coach at the RINK Training Centre, a hockey facility just outside the city. The position kept Tabin on the ice, and one year later she felt ready to give hockey one more shot, this time with the PHF\u2019s Toronto franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways in the back of my mind I wanted to get back in the door with Hockey Canada,\u201d Tabin said. \u201cSo I just said, why not? You really gotta put everything forward here if you wanna get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She spent the summer training and getting back into shape before the start of the 2022-23 season.<\/p>\n
As a member of the Toronto Six, Tabin balanced a full-time job at Yamaha Motor Canada to help offset her modest salary and finished the year as the highest scoring defender en route to a league championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just put my head down, went to work and didn\u2019t care how much I was getting paid,\u201d Tabin said. \u201cIt was a lot, but I just loved the game and it was a really fun year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tabin signed a two-year extension with Toronto just weeks before she learned the league would cease operations in June 2023. A new league led by Mark Walter, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and tennis legend Billie Jean King would launch the following year, but it meant that Tabin\u2019s contract was nullified. Despite another abrupt change in her career, Tabin stuck with it and declared for the inaugural PWHL draft, where she was selected 30th overall by Montreal.<\/p>\n
Since then, Tabin has built a reputation as one of the most consistent all-situations defenders in the league. Montreal general manager Dani\u00e8le Sauvageau said Tabin \u201cdoes everything right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tabin\u2019s skating ability allows her to keep up with the high-octane forwards in the PWHL, and her physicality makes Tabin among the most difficult to play against.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a skill set displayed on a major stage for the first time in Tabin\u2019s career<\/p>\n
\u201cThe PHF allowed me to kind of get my feet wet, and then when I joined the PWHL, I was against USA\u2019s and Team Canada\u2019s top players every game and I think that just allowed me to reach another level, especially here in Montreal being able to train alongside (Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, Ann-Ren\u00e9e Desbiens and Erin Ambrose),\u201d Tabin said. \u201cMy physicality grew, my speed grew, my offense and defense both grew as a whole and I feel like I\u2019ve just become much more consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team Canada decision-makers took note of that growth, too. Over the summer, Tabin was named to the 30-player roster that would try out for the Olympic team and made her Team Canada debut in November at the Rivalry Series. When it came time to name the 23-player roster for the 2026 Olympics, Tabin\u2019s name was on it.<\/p>\n
Montreal coach Kori Cheverie, who also serves as an assistant coach for Team Canada, was the one to deliver the news on a call with the rest of the national team staff.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Holy s\u2014,\u2019\u201d Tabin said. \u201cThose were my first words. And then honestly, I just blacked out.<\/p>\n
Obviously, I believed in myself but just hearing those words was kind of a shock, like oh my god I really did this \u2026 It\u2019s a true dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Tabin cracked the Olympic team over players with more international experience and a 19-year-old phenom whose game has been likened to that of NHL star Quinn Hughes might have come as a surprise to some. But, to Team Canada staff, she brings something the team needs if it\u2019s going to have a chance at beating Team USA \u2014 the top-ranked team who outscored Canada 24-7 at Rivalry Series \u2014 in an expected gold medal rematch.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of players when they play against her in the PWHL, they recognize the physicality that she has, they recognize the compete, they recognize how difficult she is to play against,\u201d said Canada head coach Troy Ryan. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s important to have some players like that in your group.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Milan, Tabin should give Canada another solid defender to play against top competition. If Canada needs someone to step in and play tough matchup minutes \u2014 either due to injury or poor performance \u2014 Tabin has proven herself capable of playing that role against top competition in the PWHL.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think a lot of players could learn a lot from Kati Tabin\u2019s journey,\u201d said Ryan. \u201cShe stuck with her game, didn\u2019t change who she was as a player or as a person, and finds herself in the Olympic Games at this point in her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that is what the Olympics are about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Five years before becoming a Canadian Olympian, Kati Tabin was a hockey player crashing on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,2337,4,2602,1581,54279],"class_list":{"0":"post-451157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-montreal-victoire","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-womens-hockey","13":"tag-womens-olympic-ice-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116034998357836777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}