Happy Friday! Silvia from The Ice Garden here bringing you this week’s edition of Hockey Friday. While the rest of the PWHL is deep in the playoffs, let’s take a look at one of the quieter stories from Seattle’s inaugural season: how rookie forward Jada Habisch carved her place on the Torrent’s roster this year.
Jada Habisch reflects on impactful first season in Seattle
Jada Habisch’s rookie debut was not written in the scoresheet.
Seattle traveled to Toronto in mid-March, and Habisch, freshly called up from reserve status, finally dressed for her first game with the Torrent. The assignment was simple: play fourth-line minutes, bring energy and be herself. For a player who spent four years at UConn building a reputation as a relentless scorer and forechecker, that was enough.
“Finally getting the call, the nod, being like, ‘You’re playing,’ is one of the best feelings in the world,” Habisch told The Ice Garden. “I still pinch myself to this day about it.”
Habisch did not record a point that night, but her teammates kept her grounded on what mattered to them.
“‘The score didn’t reflect the game, but your energy and presence on the ice was noted,’” Habisch recalled them telling her. “And that goes a long way. Just being able to know that I was helping out the team in any way was huge.”
That became the defining theme of Habisch’s rookie season.
Seattle signed Habisch in March after she started the year as a reserve player, and she entered a difficult situation. The Torrent spent much of their inaugural season at the bottom of the standings before ultimately finishing last in the league at 8-1-4-16. But on the inside, players consistently talked about culture, trust and building something larger than immediate results.
Habisch spent much of the year figuring out how she fit into that process.
At UConn, she built her game around offense. She finished her collegiate career with 64 goals and served as captain during her senior season. The transition to the professional level, though, forced her to reevaluate what success looked like.
“Coming in off of college high and then getting drafted and making the team, but as a reserve, I got to step back and kind of look at it like, ‘What kind of hockey player is Jada Habisch, and who does she want to be?’” she said.
The answer was not purely offensive production.
“One thing I’ve always loved about my game is my speed and my relentlessness,” Habisch said. “So I kind of honed in on that and how I could be a key asset with that on this team.”
That identity became especially important on Seattle’s fourth line, where multiple rookies, including Lily Delianedis and Sydney Langseth, often played together while trying to stabilize momentum and provide reliable depth minutes.
“We talk about knowing your role a lot,” Habisch said. “My job when I hit the ice is doing whatever I can to get the puck deep and giving some of the other lines a break, and knowing that they can trust us to keep the puck out of the D-zone.”
Talking to reporters toward the end of the season, Seattle head coach Steve O’Rourke emphasized trust and development throughout the season, particularly as younger players earned opportunities later in the year. Habisch said that confidence from the coaching staff changed the way the line approached games.
“Our coaching staff and Meg, they do a great job instilling that trust and confidence in us,” she said, referring to general manager Meghan Turner. “We’re just three rookies going out there, and we each play so differently, but it meshes so well.”
That trust eventually produced one of the defining moments of Habisch’s season when she scored her first PWHL goal in Seattle’s 5-3 win over Ottawa on April 8.
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But much of Habisch’s rookie year happened away from the spotlight: at reserve practices, on long road trips and in the process of building chemistry on a brand-new team.
“The way we’re going to get through this is if we make our own fun,” Habisch remembered one teammate saying during training camp after an early practice. “From that day, we’ve always been making our own fun.”
Sometimes that meant finding comfort in small routines. Habisch and teammate Langseth became road roommates during Seattle’s demanding travel schedule.
“Whether it’s looking forward to watching a movie that night or as simple as going out and trying a new place for coffee,” Habisch said, “It literally is just little things.”
Those little things helped Seattle begin to feel like home. Habisch settled into a neighborhood in northern Seattle during the season and found comfort in the neighborhood’s routines and familiarity.
“I walk into the coffee shop and the barista remembers me every time,” she said. “It truly is like a small little community.”
That same sense of connection carried over to Seattle’s fan base. Even as the losses piled up and the Torrent fell out of playoff contention, fans kept showing up. Seattle finished the year leading the PWHL in attendance, averaging 12,875 fans per game.
“Even when we are eliminated, the stands are still packed,” Habisch said. “We just feel heard.”
For a rookie trying to establish herself in the league, those crowds really left an impression.
“I remember just talking to Syd on the road, and she’s like, ‘Wait till we get back home,’” Habisch said. “And it truly was. When we stepped out on that ice, you felt and heard everybody.”
Seattle’s inaugural season did not produce the results the organization wanted. But for Habisch, the year still became an important step in understanding the kind of player she wants to be.
When asked what she hopes people remember about her rookie season, her answer had little to do with statistics.
“I guess kind of just someone who buys into the program and gives it all,” Habisch said. “Showing up every day, doing everything that I can do to make myself better and my teammates, and finally getting that call-up and still going out there and giving it everything and leaving it all on the ice every night.”
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