Color of Hockey: Roque 'at home' inspiring Indigenous girls in Montreal

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Abby Roque, a forward for Montreal of the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the bond she has formed with the Kahnawà:ke Mohawk community near the city.

Abby Roque was looking to capture a feeling of home after she joined Montreal of the Professional Women’s Hockey League this season.

The Kahnawà:ke Mohawk community was looking for someone who could inspire its youth, especially girls, and show them of the possibilities beyond the reserve.

Roque, who is Ojibwe from Wahnapitae First Nation, has forged a relationship with the Indigenous community on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River across from Montreal that has been mutually rewarding.

"I think it does make you feel a little more at home," Roque said. "When I moved to Montreal, the only people I knew in the whole city were the 26 players on our team and the staff members. So it's nice to kind of go and meet different people and see and experience different things."

The 28-year-old forward from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and the PWHL team hosted about 50 youth hockey players and Kahnawà:ke community members for Montreal’s Indigenous Peoples Celebration Unity Game against Boston at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, on March 15, with an assist from the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition.

Roque, a PIC member, brought the guests to their feet with a goal and two assists in a 4-3 overtime loss.

"I jumped out of my chair and threw my arms up," said Wahiarihtha Aria Kirby, a 12-year-old forward with the Lac St. Louis AAA team. "It was amazing seeing her play and meeting her. It meant a lot to me because she’s someone who I look up to in hockey coming from a small place with Indigenous people and her being Indigenous and coming from a small place."

Roque (pronounced ‘rock’) connected with the Kahnawà:ke community through Kahsennenhaw Sky-Deer, the former Grand Chief of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke and a former women’s professional football player, shortly after being acquired by Montreal in a trade with New York on June 24.

Sky-Deer said she knew exactly what to do in order to welcome Roque to Montreal.

"I said, ‘I'll take her on a tour, just so she has a feel of the town and what we have here, we'll go to lunch here in the community, we'll brainstorm what she envisions doing in the community,’" Sky-Deer said.

In collaboration with the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke Sports and Recreation Unit, Roque spoke at Kahnawà:ke Survival School during the PWHL break for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics in February.

She shared her hockey journey with the students and brought her championship medals and rings for show and tell. 

"It was so important because representation matters," Sky-Deer said. "All of us want to see somebody that represents us, that reflects us, that we could see ourselves in them to inspire us to say, ‘Hey, I can do that when I grow up.’"

Roque was the first Indigenous woman to play for the U.S. women’s national team and in the Winter Olympics. She won a silver medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, a gold medal at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship and silver medals in the 2020 and 2022 IIHF women’s worlds.

She won the NCAA women’s national championship in 2019 with the University of Wisconsin, where she had 170 points (56 goals, 114 assists) in 155 games from 2016-20, including 58 points (26 goals, 32 assists) in 36 games in her senior season, when she was an alternate captain.

Roque has 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) in 26 games this season and 50 points (19 goals, 31 assists) in 80 PWHL games, including the first lacrosse-style "Michigan" goal in league history in 2025.

"As an Indigenous person and an Indigenous hockey player, we obviously know there are not many (Indigenous) players, especially in the PWHL," Roque said. "So I think it's important to be visible, to try to be accessible, have these relationships where at least they've come to a game, they've met somebody, they think it's accessible and that it's attainable, and because it (hockey) is for them.

"If they want to play, and they work hard and they have the skill, and they have the love of the game, it is possible to make it to the PWHL one day."

Sky-Deer said Roque’s talk caught the students’ attention and led to an autograph session that went into overtime.

"It took a good hour and a half to get through everybody, it was so well received," Sky-Deer said. "She's really changed people's interest now in the sport from this community, who are going to be lifelong fans now."

Roque followed up her school visit with a hockey clinic for about 35 girls last month at the Kahnawà:ke Sports Complex.

"I played a lot of my youth hockey on the rink on the reserve," she said. "Here, I went to the rink and there were definitely a lot of parallels. It feels kind of at-home."

Meeting Roque left a lasting impression on Niiohenta:’a Diabo, a 17-year defenseman with the Suroit Rockettes, a U18 A girls’ team. 

"It gives me hope for the future that, like, more Indigenous athletes will make it far, because I know that wasn't a very big option in the past," Diabo said. "But seeing other Indigenous athletes pursue their careers, it's really awesome."