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Londoner Nicole Gosling won the PWHL’s Walter Cup with the Montreal Victoire this spring. That career highlight had barely sunk in before she was acquired, in the expansion process, by Hamilton.
Nicole Gosling remembers feeling snakebitten in college when it came to team success.
Her Clarkson Golden Knights got close – but never quite crossed the line. Her one and only season with the Montreal Victoire, which wrapped up this spring, offered a new experience. A fourth overall draft pick prior to the season, Gosling couldn’t have asked for a better finish – a Walter Cup championship in her debut pro campaign.
“I couldn’t have written up my first year any better,” the 24-year-old defender said. “Winning the Walter Cup is the goal, and to be able to accomplish that already is something I’m very proud of. And I’m very proud of my teammates, management and coaching staff.”
The clincher happened on May 20, with the Victoire wrapping up the Walter Cup finals by winning 4-0 in Game 4 of a best-of-five series against the Ottawa Charge to win three games to one.
For Gosling, the championship was one of several achievements in a very successful rookie campaign, in which she recorded three goals and 19 points in 30 games, leading her team in assists and posting a plus-16.
“I owe it all to Montreal, the coaching staff, management, and my teammates. They had so much belief in me,” said Gosling. “They helped me throughout the whole year. They gave me the confidence to be the player that I was for them, and I’m very thankful for that development of who I’m becoming as a hockey player but also as a person.”
* * *
Gosling’s roots in London run deep, with both sides of her family residing in the Forest City. Growing up with a sister, Gabby, and a brother, Braydon, some of Gosling’s earliest memories of hockey are playing with her siblings in their driveway and in the basement, like many young hockey players.
After starting organized hockey at age six, Gosling played boys’ hockey for the next six years.
“There was actually another girl who transitioned over with me, but she didn’t like it, so I ended up being the only girl on the majority of the teams I was on,” Gosling said about her time within the London Jr. Knights organization.
When she switched back to girls’ hockey, she soon found her way onto the London Devilettes, a program that has produced numerous talents from the city and surrounding areas, including current Canadian senior women’s hockey players Ella Shelton and Gosling’s cousin, Julia, who plays for the PWHL’s Seattle Torrent.
According to Nicole, most girls are on the junior team for only a couple of years. But she remembers former Devilettes coach Ted Brown “seeing something” in her at a younger age, allowing her to join earlier and play four full seasons throughout her high school years.
That presented many opportunities for Gosling while she was still young in her career development, including being scouted by U.S. colleges, which is the usual next step after junior hockey for players hoping to reach the next level.
In her last two years of junior hockey, she was selected to represent Canada at the IIHF U18 World Championship. In her first go-round, in which she was one of only a handful of 2002-born players, the team won gold, beating Team USA in the final.
“We won in overtime, which was special, but I think it was extra special to do it with my cousin, Julia. Having that family connection there was really cool, especially my first time representing Canada,” Gosling said about that 2019 championship team.
The next year, being a returning player, she was selected to the leadership team, acting as one of the alternate captains. Back home, she was captain of the Devilettes in her final season in London.
* * *
Gosling’s first year of collegiate hockey, which happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, featured a drastically reduced season, with only four of the 12 ECAC member schools competing. Gosling played 19 games in total, recording four goals and 14 points. Despite the chaos of the pandemic, Gosling saw positives in the experience of her freshman season.
“Honestly, I think that helped me a little bit in being able to get comfortable with that transition,” she said about the change to university life.
The defender was honoured with some awards and nominations after her first season, including selections to the ECAC All-Rookie Team and ECAC All-First Team. She was also named a finalist for the conference’s Rookie and Defender of the Year.
The accolades continued throughout her collegiate career, as she added two more ECAC All-First Team selections and one All-American First Team selection, in her senior season. That year, she was also named ECAC Defender of the Year. Gosling views the accolades as nice bonuses from playing with great teams.
“I have to thank my teammates the most for being able to put me in the position [to win awards], and the same with the coaching staff being able to give me the confidence to play the minutes I did,” she said.
As much as Gosling appreciates the personal acknowledgments, she found her time with the Golden Knights to be bittersweet since the team wasn’t able to win hardware while she was there.
“I’m still a little bit sour that I never actually won anything there, like an ECAC [title] or anything,” she said. “We lost a couple of games that we obviously wished we’d won. But at the same time, being able to experience going to a Frozen Four was unreal.”
* * *
During Gosling’s senior season in 2023-2024, she earned her first call-up to Canada’s senior national team – first for the annual Rivalry Series against the U.S., and then for the 2024 IIHF World Championship.
“Getting the full experience of what it’s like to play on Team Canada and what it takes, seeing all the veteran girls, how they act and get prepared for such a short tournament, it was really cool to see and be a part of,” said Gosling.
Being the youngest player on the team and one of only four college players, Gosling remembers being a “sponge” while with the team, gaining as much experience and knowledge as she could from all the players who had reached the highest level possible in the sport.
That year was also very special for the Gosling family, as Nicole was once again joined by her cousin Julia on a Canadian team to compete in international competition.
* * *
Last June, following the completion of her collegiate career, Gosling was selected with the fourth overall pick by the Montreal Victoire in the PWHL draft after being ranked as a top five prospect entering the selection process.
“Leading up, you kind of get a sense of where you’re going to go,” said Gosling. “When [Montreal] was up and I was still available, I was really hoping they would take me, and when they did, it was a big relief. I was really happy.”
Gosling’s defence partner at Clarkson, Hailey Winn, who Nicole notes as being a key piece in her time with the Golden Knights, was selected second overall by the Boston Fleet.
Gosling’s rookie year in the PWHL was certainly one to remember. And she capped it off with a Walter Cup, winning the league championship. But there were many other memories along the way from her first professional year that she’ll never forget.
“There’s always stuff to learn, and there were some notable players like [Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey and Ann-Renee Desbiens],” said Gosling of the team’s veteran presence. “I would always get their point of view, and I would tell them mine to understand what they would say.”
Following the end of the season, it was announced that Poulin had been playing on a torn ACL and meniscus since she first injured her right leg at the Olympics in Italy. Gosling remembers seeing Poulin’s “warrior” mentality every day and her perseverance to lead the team into the playoffs after missing time due to injury.
Playing in the PWHL also brought back competition against Nicole’s cousin, Julia, after they faced each other in college in the ECAC.
“Growing up, we played together, and it would be nice to play with her again one day, but being able to play against each other, to compete at this level and play in this league with her, it’s really special.”
* * *
The PWHL continues to grow. This past season was the first expansion, with the additions of the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent. And with great success from that expansion, the PWHL is continuing to push the growth of women’s hockey, announcing four new teams for the 2026-2027 season, doubling the league’s size in two years.
The four new cities to get teams are Detroit, Hamilton, San Jose and Las Vegas.
The new teams meant a roster expansion process, which took place through six phases. Gosling was one year into a three-year rookie contract with the Victoire. With teams only able to protect three players, she was left as a restricted player. Phase two, which happened from June 5-8, allowed expansion teams to acquire unprotected players. Hamilton acquired Gosling on June 6, signing her to a new three-year contract.
“There were definitely a lot of mixed emotions. It was bittersweet,” said Gosling on changing teams after winning a championship in Montreal. “But I’m very excited to be a part of PWHL Hamilton, with the coaching staff, and all the players they’ve signed and picked up in the draft.”
Gosling says Montreal will always hold a special place in her heart. She fell in love with the city and the team over the past year, especially after coming together to win the Walter Cup.
With her future now set in Hamilton for at least the next three years, Gosling is now resting up in London with family before she heads to Clarkson for a few weeks to get back on the ice and catch up with old coaches and teammates.
After that, she’ll head to Montreal for the rest of the off-season to shake off the rust and get back to the elite level she’s been playing at each stage of her career. And then, next fall, she’ll return closer to home, in Hamilton, for the next chapter in her journey.
