Abagael Thiessen (Supplied)

By Kevin Watson

Globetrotter

Red Deer hockey player travels the world for pro hockey

Nov 25, 2021 | 12:47 PM

Have stick will travel! That is what Abagael Thiessen should have on her business card, but it probably just reads BSc Finance (SLASH) hockey player (see what I did there).

Thiessen has been racking up the frequent flyer miles since she left her Red Deer home to go to the United States to play college hockey. Since graduating from minor hockey, she has traversed from Red Deer to Grand Forks, North Dakota to St. Cloud, Minnesota to Leksands, Sweden, to Moscow, Russia to Calgary, and if all goes according to plan, back to Moscow in the New Year.

After playing four years with the Sutter Fund Chiefs, the defender secured a scholarship to play for the University of North Dakota, but after only one season in Grand Forks, the women’s hockey program was eliminated, and Thiessen needed a new place to play. She found her way to St. Cloud and enjoyed three great seasons there, twice being named to the Academic All-WCHA team. Two of her teammates over the years in the State of Minnesota included Sidney Crosby’s sister and current Rebel Kalan Lind’s sister.

After 140 college games with 11 goals and 26 assists from the blueline, Thiessen knew she wanted to pursue pro hockey in Europe, and she had options, but the pandemic was going to pretty much make that decision for her. Her choices were a league in Russia or Sweden. The land of IKEA won out as it was more stable with a pandemic happening and she doesn’t regret her decision.

“We were on the ice every day or working out every day and two games on the weekend, which doesn’t really happen in some of the other European leagues and some of the leagues over here in North America. The style of hockey was a bit different, just being more European and more focused on skill and kinda free flowing. I found compared to college and North America where it’s a lot more structured and everybody’s working on systems and stuff like that. It was a little bit different, but I honestly found it a lot more fun getting to play that style of hockey.”

Saturday and Sunday

AHS reports temporary closure to Sylvan Lake Advanced Ambulatory Care Service

17h ago

LAST SEEN DECEMBER 30, 2024

Missing: Peyton Chilton, 15, of Red Deer

Jan 03, 2025

road safety

Red Deer Photo radar locations for January 2025

Jan 03, 2025

Thiessen played pretty much a full season in Sweden scoring a goal and nine assists in 32 games, even with the pandemic happening. But her and her Canadian teammates had to cut their season short once the Canadian government wanted people to pay for a $2000 hotel quarantine.

“I think we missed one or two games; we didn’t want to leave the girls like that. But it didn’t really make much sense to stay over there and stay in the hotel and deal with that financial burden.”

When it comes to money and the women’s pro game, however, the finances just aren’t there. Thiessen had a place to stay and was paid, but it’s not like she was coming home with a full savings account.

This season she decided to forgo the Swedish meatballs and go for the fortune cookies and will suit up for a Chinese team that plays in a Russian league.

“In a normal, non-COVID world, we would be based in Shenzhen, China and we’d be flying into Russia every month or so for two weeks at a time to play games and then we would have teams come to us in China. But right now, we are strictly in Russia, in a suburb of Moscow.”

This season is far from normal and not just because of COVID. It’s also an Olympic year, which China is hosting. The coach of Thiessen’s pro team is also the coach of China’s Olympic Women’s Hockey team. And they brought all the imports over in August to finish up last year’s final and for this year’s pre-season tournament.

“We had a couple practices together, then we played the three-game series of the final for last year. Unfortunately, we lost in a shootout in the third game. After that, we went to Soki and played in a preseason tournament, then the imports went home or went to different leagues and then we’ll gather back together after the Olympics.“

In the meantime, Thiessen is working for an oil and gas company in Calgary, and she has also been able to catch on with the PWHPA’s Calgary team that is taking part in the Secret Dream Gap Tour. They recently won the Nova Scotia event and will compete again in Toronto Dec 18-19.

Once the Olympic medals are handed out, Thiessen will board another plane to Moscow to get her pro career back in gear. There is professional women’s hockey closer to home with six teams in the Professional Hockey Federation and the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association which includes the Calgary team Thiessen plays with now. Many feel it would make sense for the two to join forces and have a strong league that would pay players more than just a living allowance, but right now the two don’t see eye to eye.

“I think both parties would be open to sitting down and having some serious conversations, because right now we’re splitting resources in a way. We could have all that money from all those different sponsors for the league and the sponsors for us. And I think if we were able to put that together, then it would make a world of difference, but it sounds nice when you say it like that, but who knows if it works out like that in reality.”

Thiessen is hopeful the two can find a way to come together to form one league where women can make a decent living, which would give her a good reason to cash in those air miles and come home to play closer to family and friends.