Manon Rheaume is carrying over her trailblazing women's hockey career into a front office role after being hired as the general manager of the PWHL's expansion team in Detroit, the league announced Friday.
The Canadian Olympic goaltender, and first woman to appear in an exhibition game of any of North America's four major men's sports, has spent the past four years working in the Los Angeles Kings' hockey operations department. Rheaume's hiring represents a homecoming for the 54-year-old, who spent 11 years in a developmental role for the Detroit-based Little Caesars youth hockey girls' program.
"I'm incredibly honored to join the PWHL and help build something special in Detroit," Rheaume said. "The city has such a deep hockey tradition, and the passion for hockey here is truly special."
In a separate announcement, the PWHL hired women's player agent Dominique DiDia as general manager of the league's expansion franchise in Las Vegas.
Rheaume's hiring comes a little more than a week after the league announced Detroit as an expansion team. The PWHL has since added franchises in Las Vegas and Hamilton, Ontario, and is planning to make one more addition in growing to a 12-team league for next season.
Of the PWHL's 10 general managers now in place, eight are women.
"She brings an unmatched résumé, a championship mindset and a lifelong commitment to growing the women's game," Jayna Hefford, PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations, who oversees the hiring process, said of Rheaume.
"Her experience at every level of hockey, combined with her leadership and vision, makes her the perfect person to lead PWHL Detroit into its inaugural season," Hefford added.
Among Rheaume's first duties is preparing for an expansion free agent signing process tentatively scheduled to begin May 28, followed by the league's draft, which will be held in Detroit on June 17.
Rheaume is from Beauport, Quebec, and began making her international mark in the early 1990s by signing with Trois-Rivieres of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. In 1992, she tried out for the Tampa Bay Lightning and allowed two goals on nine shots in one period of a preseason game against the St. Louis Blues. A year later, she made a second preseason appearance against the Boston Bruins.
She went on to win a silver medal with Canada at the 1998 Nagano Games, the first to feature a women's tournament. She also won gold medals at the 1992 and 1994 world championships.
DiDia joins the PWHL after representing a number of players including Boston goalie Aerin Frankel, Toronto forward Blayre Turnbull and Seattle teammates Cayla Barnes and Hannah Bilka. She worked for CAA Sports since 2022 and eventually launched the agency's women's hockey department.
"She understands the evolving landscape of women's hockey and has a strong vision for building a team and culture that reflects both the ambition of the PWHL and the energy of the Las Vegas market," Hefford said.
From Los Angeles, DiDia grew up playing hockey and spent nine years working for the Kings, eventually becoming the team's director of marketing and content publicity.
"Las Vegas has embraced hockey with a rare intensity, and you can feel that the game has become part of this city's heartbeat," DiDia said. "Growing up as a player in Los Angeles, I witnessed the sport's expansion across the Southwest, making this opportunity at the forefront of women's hockey in Nevada deeply meaningful to me."
