New collaboration between the PWHL and Peace Collective brings mental health awareness to the forefront

This May, the PWHL is using its rapidly growing platform for a campaign that is much bigger than hockey. In partnership with Canadian apparel brand Peace Collective, the PWHL is launching a new Mental Health Awareness Month initiative centered around a limited-edition clothing collection carrying the message: “Break the Ice on Mental Health.”

The campaign, which is available now in our Canadian and U.S. online stores, combines merchandise, storytelling and charitable impact, with donations from both the PWHL and Peace Collective supporting Sophie’s Squad and Kids Help Phone. More importantly, it places players at the center of a conversation many athletes once felt pressured to avoid.

Three PWHL players helped shape the collection and are serving as the faces of the campaign: Montréal Victoire defender Erin Ambrose, Ottawa Charge forward Gabbie Hughes and Boston Fleet defender Haley Winn. Each brings a different perspective, but all three share the same goal—making it easier for athletes and fans alike to talk openly about mental health.

For Ambrose, that mission has become deeply personal. The veteran defender has spoken publicly in recent years about her own experiences with anxiety and depression, using her voice to show that mental health challenges can affect anyone, including elite athletes.

“I think with my journey with mental health I decided to become public with it and write that article. Hockey Canada approached me about writing it during COVID. There was a lot more awareness about mental health and mental health struggles... More than anything, I just want people to know: I’m a hockey player, I’m an athlete, and I struggle just as much as somebody who works a 9-to-5 job.”

That honesty cuts against the culture many athletes grow up in, where toughness is prized and vulnerability can be mistaken for weakness. Ambrose knows that pressure well.

“I think everyday I feel pressure to appear strong, whether that’s to my teammates, my coaching staff, the fans. You never really want to show any sort of weakness,” she said. “But at the same time, when it comes to mental health there’s a difference between struggling when it comes to hockey with the physical side of things and struggling when it comes to the mental side of things.”

Ambrose said learning to let trusted people in has been one of the most important steps in managing those challenges. She believes prioritizing and being open about mental wellness has helped her not only personally, but as a teammate.

For Hughes, the campaign is tied to tragedy, remembrance and purpose. The Ottawa forward is an ambassador for the aforementioned Sophie’s Squad, an organization dedicated to improving mental health awareness among athletes and families. It was created in memory of Sophie Wieland, a 14-year-old athlete Hughes had known and coached, who died by suicide.

In the wake of that loss, Hughes said one lesson became clear: silence can be dangerous. “The biggest thing I learned is to have those conversations,” Hughes said. “I had my own struggles and I always felt that if I felt comfortable sharing those maybe that would have changed something for Sophie. Now I try to share, have those conversations and be vulnerable and continue to let other people know that it’s ok.”

Hughes fondly remembers the joy Sophie she brought to others. She described her as musically gifted, athletic and someone whose smile could lift an entire locker room. That memory continues to inspire the work being done in her name. “We really want to end that stigma of mental health challenges being something athletes feel like they have to hide,” Hughes added.

For Winn, the youngest of the three spokespeople, the perspective is different but no less relevant. The Boston Fleet rookie is navigating the jump to the professional game, where expectations rise quickly and performance can feel all-consuming.

“’Break the ice on mental health’ just means not being afraid to speak out about it and let people know what you're going through and where you need the help,” Winn said.

Winn said one of the biggest lessons she is learning early in her career is that success requires balance. Even for elite athletes, identity cannot be tied solely to results on the ice.

“Being a professional athlete comes with a lot of pressures that can affect your mental health so I think it’s so important to be surrounded by the right people, whether that’s teammates or coaching staff, a support circle outside of the rink I think goes a long way,” she said, reiterating her main point that she wants her fellow athletes to remember “that the game that we play is what we do, not who you are.”

That message may resonate strongly with younger players coming up through competitive systems where self-worth can become tangled with performance, rankings and roster spots. Winn also stressed that people often suffer in isolation because they assume no one else understands.

“It’s important for athletes to be able to talk about mental health because a lot of times when you’re in the midst of it, you think you’re the only one going through it,” she said. “But nobody can help you if you’re not talking about it.”

The clothing itself is meant to become a conversation starter. Peace Collective founder and CEO Yanal Dhailieh said the company has long viewed apparel as a way to build community and spark meaningful dialogue.

“At Peace Collective, the way we want to approach mental health awareness is really about creating conversations,” Dhailieh said. “One of our taglines is, ‘How are you really?’”

He believes public attitudes toward mental health have improved in recent years, but stigma still exists on a personal level, especially when individuals are deciding whether to admit they are struggling. That is why athlete-led campaigns can be so powerful.

“I think the fact that the players were involved in designing something like this and telling a story that is true to them sends a message to the fans that they care,” Dhailieh said. “At the end of the day, they’re athletes. Their job is to go out there and perform and this is something that they’re deciding to do beyond that because they care about it.”

Ambrose sees this as an important step: “The fact that we are doing this as a league, the fact that Haley, Gabbie, myself all decided to be a part of this, I think is so important because we're three hockey players in a league full of so many of us, but maybe we're the ones that need to start these conversations and keep them going.”