Thea Johansson, a forward at the University of Minnesota Duluth, joins Rinkside Rundown to talk about her path from Sweden to NCAA hockey and now toward the 2026 PWHL Draft. Read and subscribe at www.rinksiderundown.ca.

Growing up in a competitive athletic family in Sweden, Thea was surrounded by sport and learned early how to train, compete, and handle pressure while still enjoying the game. She walks through her early years in the SDHL, what it meant to leave home for Mercyhurst University, and how transferring to Minnesota Duluth challenged her and helped her grow as both a player and a person at the NCAA level.

Thea also reflects on her mindset and professionalism, the skills she has worked to refine, and what she took from her time with the Swedish national program, including Olympic dreams and the reality of chasing them. With the 2026 PWHL Draft ahead, Thea also shares how she is preparing for that next step, what excites her about the opportunity, and the advice she would give younger players: have fun, be in the moment, be curious, ask questions, and remember that you love this sport for a reason.

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Visit Meg's Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/madebymegsimon14

Middlebury College forward and 2026 Hockey Humanitarian Award winner Meg Simon joins Rinkside Rundown to share how a life spent around the game shaped who she is on and off the ice.

From moving more than 50 times for her dad’s pro hockey career and growing up in NHL locker rooms, to coming to Middlebury as a golfer and betting on herself to join the women’s hockey team, Meg’s path has been anything but typical.

We talk about the team culture she fell in love with, the community work inspired by watching her parents use their platforms to give back, and how she now tries to be “more than just a hockey player” for the kids and community around her. She also opens up about homesickness, finding home in a small Vermont town, running a little Etsy shop on the side, and the three simple rules from her parents that still guide everything she does: play fair, play hard, have fun, and be a good person.

Since our conversation, Meg was named the 2026 Hockey Humanitarian Award recipient, and you discover more here: https://hockeyhumanitarian.org/news/middlebury-colleges-meg-simon-named-2026-hockey-humanitarian-award-recipient/

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Friend of the show Alyssa Regalado returns to the show for the first time since Episode 35, and shares how Cornell University has helped to prepare her for the next chapter of her hockey career with the upcoming 2026 PWHL Draft.

Alyssa shares more about the mental side of the game, how she's grown as a leader, and the lessons she's learned through the ups and downs of collegiate hockey.

We also discuss what it would mean to Alyssa to see her professional dreams become a reality with the PWHL Draft on the horizon.

Check out Episode 35 here and discover Alyssa's origin story: https://youtu.be/Gmv92jxJlRs

Subscribe to Rinkside Rundown for weekly conversations with players from around the world of women's hockey, and for ongoing coverage of the upcoming 2026 PWHL Draft. And visit www.rinksiderundown.ca for even more coverage.

Issy Wunder is the top-ranked Canadian prospect heading into the 2026 PWHL Draft, but her journey to the professional ranks began long before the league’s inception.

From the backyard rink her mother built in Toronto to her tenure as captain of the Princeton Tigers, Issy has defined her career through a balance of elite athletic performance and strong academics.

In this episode, we move beyond the scoresheet to explore the person behind the "C." A neuroscience and psychology student at Princeton, Issy explains how understanding the brain allows her to "reframe" the immense pressure of the collegiate and professional game as a privilege.

We discuss her junior roots with the Toronto Aeros and Durham West, the influence of Olympic legend Sami Jo Small, and why she views being a role model as a non-negotiable responsibility.

As she prepares to transition from the Ivy League to the PWHL, Issy reflects on the growth, leadership, and community that made this path possible.

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"I didn't prove anyone wrong. I proved myself wrong."

Alaina Giampietro joined Robert Morris University in 2023 as part of a newly reinstated program, but her journey in the game started much earlier at her grandfather's local rink in Ohio. Now, as the captain of the Colonials, she is balancing the weight of Division I hockey with the responsibility of building a team culture from the ground up.

On Episode 119 of Rinkside Rundown, Alaina shares:

• The Ohio Origins: How early mornings skating with her grandfather laid the foundation for her career.
• The Rebuild Reality: What it actually takes to establish a culture and a legacy in a program’s first years back on the ice.
• The "Prove Myself Right" Mindset: How shifting from external validation to internal growth changed her development as a player and leader.
• The Impact Beyond the Scoreboard: Why leaving the program better than she found it is her ultimate goal at RMU.

Join the community: If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and follow along on Instagram for more behind-the-scenes coverage of women’s hockey: https://www.instagram.com/rinksiderundownpod

Episode 118 of Rinkside Rundown continues the “Road to the PWHL Draft” series with Union College defender and captain Stephanie Bourque.

A native of Moncton, New Brunswick, Bourque has built a standout NCAA career defined by consistency, durability, and production. She became Union’s all-time leader in points and assists among defenders and set an ironwoman streak, appearing in over 140 consecutive games. This season, she was also among the most utilized players in NCAA women’s hockey, averaging more than 28 minutes per game.

In this episode, Bourque reflects on her journey through junior hockey and the NCAA, her development as a leader, and how she’s preparing for the next step as she looks toward the 2026 PWHL Draft.

“Trust the process and be patient.”

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Tory Mariano grew up in a household where sport was everything. Her dad took her to events across every discipline imaginable, and where she started in tee-ball, competed in multiple sports, and carries all of that athletic foundation into the way she reads the game today.

And it was her grandfather, a professional tennis player and someone she never got to meet, who has been a role model and North Star through it all. "I want to be as good as him," she said.

That drive led her to Northeastern, where she found the right coaching staff and the right environment to help push her to become the player she always knew she was. "Everything just kind of clicked. This is where I need to be."

In Episode 117 of Rinkside Rundown, Tory shares that journey from where it all started to being on the cusp of the 2026 PWHL Draft. She talks about her first championship team in 8th grade, how competing across multiple sports shaped her hockey IQ, what drew her to Northeastern, what her year of focused preparation actually looked like, and what she wants a PWHL team to know about her before draft day.

"Everything that I've done, I feel like it's starting to pay off. I'm proud of myself, and it's been hard, but I'm glad to see where I am now."

This is the first episode in my "Road to the 2026 PWHL Draft" series, so be sure to subscribe to Rinkside Rundown for more conversations with players and leaders shaping the future of hockey. Discover more at www.rinksiderundown.ca
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Some players choose a program for the ranking. Béatrice Bilodeau chose Ottawa because it felt like home.

The Gee-Gees captain grew up in Quebec's hockey culture, played on boys' teams until she was 12, and developed through one of the province's most competitive junior pathways before making a deliberate decision to come to uOttawa. Not for the profile. For the fit.

In this episode, we get into what shaped her as a player, what leadership looks like from the inside, and how she carries that same commitment into her community work with youth programs, mentorship, and seniors in long-term care, which culminated in being awarded the Marion Hilliard Award in earlier this month.

Subscribe to Rinkside Rundown for more conversations with players and leaders shaping the future of hockey.

Discover more at www.rinksiderundown.ca
Follow the podcast on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/rinksiderundownpod