Understand this about the six-team PWHL: it’s tough to make this league. There are a ton of talented hockey players out there and only six rosters to make, so you must really be great on and off the ice to earn a spot. (Just watch how high the quality of play will remain next year with eight teams, but we digress).
Minnesota forward Abby Boreen is so good that her team—the top-seeded Montréal Victoire—considers her one of their most valuable players even as she is also a full-time student in the University of Minnesota’s Doctor of Pharmacy program.
Let that sink in.
“It takes a lot,” conceded Boreen in a recent phone interview. “Having a schedule and sticking to it. I’m very disciplined in staying on top of everything.”
While most players dedicate every waking moment to being the best professional hockey player they can be, Boreen is doing that plus finishing her third year of a four-year advanced degree. All while living in a different country from her university and still finding time to make jaw-dropping plays like this stunner, which proved to be one of the top highlights of the PWHL season.
The Victoire knew what they were getting when they signed Boreen to a three-year contract last summer: a player with a point-per-game pedigree, championship experience, and leadership qualities from her days at the University of Minnesota, where she racked up 126 points in 166 career games. But even they couldn’t have fully predicted just how valuable she’d become—on the scoresheet and in the locker room.
“When we drafted her, we knew she could have an impact,” Montréal coach Kori Cheverie said after Victoire’s top-playoff-seed clinching win at New York on May 3. “She is still a young player, still finding ways to contribute. Sometimes it's on the scoreboard, sometimes it's on the power play, creating momentum, sometimes it's giving us big minutes to shut some things down. She continues to help our group. The opportunities that she’s had and the points that she’s put up, we expected it. And she’s someone that even wants more and that’s great. She’s a hungry player. I think ‘Bobo’ gives us that type of athlete that we want in the locker room.”
Boreen was not your typical draftee, of course. Having spent the 2024 season with her adopted home state team—PWHL Minnesota—she entered this season with legit professional experience. “I think it helped that I knew what to expect after being in the league last year,” said Boreen, who played nine regular-season and five post-season games for Walter Cup-winning Minnesota (she’ll get her championship ring delivered by a league staffer, Boreen told us). “I also worked really hard in the offseason and believe in myself. And here the coaches and teammates really believe in me.”
What can the Victoire, who kick off their title chase at home against the Ottawa Charge tonight, do to give Boreen a second straight Championship ring? “I don’t know if there’s one specific thing,” she said. “We just need buy in from everyone. If everyone brings their best individual effort, then we'll be at our best as a team. We have all the potential in the locker room and everyone is pushing to get better together.”
On the ice, Boreen plays a bold, attacking game that belies her calm, thoughtful demeanor off it. In a league filled with Olympians and national team stars, Boreen is more than holding her own. She’s been producing all season and has earned consistent ice time (6 goals/8 assists/14 points while appearing in all 30 of Montréal’s regular-season games). Perhaps more importantly, she’s earning the trust of a team that is chasing a PWHL championship. “It’s been very special for me here,” she said.
Part of the specialness is the way the Montréal organization has done everything it can to support her studies. “I'm super grateful for Montréal to allow me to pursue both at once,” Boreen said. “There’s a lot of hard work from them that went into that.”
Boreen is the only student in her program who is working remotely. While her peers attend lectures and labs in Minneapolis, she tunes in from her apartment in Montréal, where she rooms with two teammates—who Boreen says think she’s “a little crazy” for her relentless schedule.
Boreen is grateful to her understanding professors as well. She returns to Minnesota when she can—she spent most of the fall semester attending classes in person, jetted back there again while the PWHL took a break for the World Championships, and has a local proctor in Montréal to supervise her exams.
Instagram @abby_boreen / Via instagram.com
She’s on track to graduate in May 2026. “I don’t think doing both was my intention,” she admitted. “It was tough. I didn’t want to give up hockey but I wasn’t going to go overseas. This was my plan for after hockey—go to pharmacy school.”
Instead, she decided not to choose and she’s thriving in both worlds.
