Rheaume set for return to ice as goalie in 2022 NHL All-Star Skills

Manon Rheaume made history in 1992 when she became the first woman to play in an NHL game.

Thirty years later, she'll be back on the ice in an NHL event as one of the goalies in the adidas NHL Breakaway Challenge, part of the 2022 NHL All-Star Skills presented by Draft Kings Sportsbook at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS).
"It's going to be fun," Rheaume said Tuesday. "Obviously, I don't expect to be stopping everything and things like this, but I'm going to have a lot of fun and those guys are amazing. I'm sure they're going to come up with all kind of crazy breakaway things. It's good for the game, for the NHL to showcase how great they are and I'm going to hope the puck touches me at some point."
Anaheim Ducks center Trevor Zegras, who
scored a lacrosse-style goal
in a 5-4 win at the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, will be among those competing in the NHL Breakaway Challenge, along with three-time Olympic medalist Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and actor Wyatt Russell. The other NHL players in the skills competitions will be announced in the coming days.
Rheaume played in a preseason game for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the St. Louis Blues on Sept. 23, 1992. She played one period, allowing two goals on nine shots. She won a silver medal with Canada at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the first Olympics to feature a women's hockey tournament.
She played one game with Trois-Rivieres of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 1991-92; five games with Atlanta (1992-93), Las Vegas and Flint (2008-09) of the International Hockey League; nine games with Knoxville (1993-94), Nashville (1993-94) and Tallahassee (1994-95) of the ECHL; and 11 games with Reno of the West Coast Hockey League (1996-97).
Rheaume lives in the Detroit area, where she is the girls program coordinator and coach of the 12-and-under girls team for the Little Caesars hockey program. She's also part of the broadcast team on Detroit Red Wings telecasts for Bally Sports Detroit.
Rheaume said it's encouraging that more women are getting opportunities with NHL teams. Former forward Cammi Granato, who won gold with the United States women's hockey team at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and silver at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, became the first female pro scout in the NHL when the Seattle Kraken hired her in 2019. Forward Kendall Coyne Schofield, who won silver with the U.S. at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, became the first female player development coach for the Chicago Blackhawks on Nov. 23, 2020.
"Diversity in the organization helps to bring different perspectives, point of view, maybe even thinking outside of the box," Rheaume said. "When you can bring some of that, it's very beneficial to [an] organization, instead of always having the same process or thinking. For myself, coaching those young girls, every time they see someone getting a job somewhere, I can just tell how much more they want to play the game knowing they have something at the end of it."
Rheaume loves that women's hockey players have also been a big part of the NHL during the past two All-Star weekends. Coyne Schofield had a time of 14.346, finishing seventh out of eight skaters, at the NHL Fastest Skater competition at the 2019 NHL All-Star Skills in San Jose. Forward Brianna Decker, also part of those 2014 and 2018 U.S. Olympic teams, had an unofficial time of 1:06 in the Premier Passer in 2019, which would have beaten Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl, who won with a time of 1:09.088.
The Canadian and American All-Stars played in the Elite Women's 3-on-3 presented by adidas at the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills in St. Louis. Canada won 2-1.
"The NHL having provided that platform to them, I applaud that because that's what the women's game needs, that support," Rheaume said. "I'm coaching young girls and I want those girls to have dreams about the game. If not playing, maybe it's doing broadcasting or being a referee. The more women that we see doing those things and breaking barriers, it helps those young girls who start to play the game."
Rheaume is looking forward to the trip to Las Vegas, where she played two games with Las Vegas of the IHL in 1994-95. As the third goalie of that team, Rheaume stayed after practice to take shots from teammates, including former NHL forwards Alexei Yashin and Radek Bonk.
"They just know how to do the game," she said of the Las Vegas experience. "The entertainment value when you go to Vegas is amazing. Just to see the atmosphere in the arena, the crowd, the show. It's an experience."