At just 25 years old, Jesse Compher already has seen plenty in the ever-increasingly competitive world of women’s hockey.
The Illinois native, who is enjoying a standout season with the Toronto Sceptres, was the 26th overall selection by Toronto in the inaugural PWHL draft and already had represented her native United States at three world championships and an Olympic Games, not to mention winning a pair of gold medals at the under-18 world championships for the U.S.
Compher arrived in Toronto with that kind of resume, but in her first year didn’t put up the kind of numbers she had been enjoying either with the U.S. national team or with Wisconsin in her final year of college hockey.
Compher doesn’t have one easy answer for why things didn’t click immediately in the PWHL, but she’s far from the only player who struggled making the jump from the college ranks to the pros.
“I wish I had an answer like I just figured out how to score in this league. I obviously could have used it last year,” Compher said. “But I think that recently I have just been playing with a bit more confidence. I was really happy with the way I trained this past summer with a group back in Chicago.
“And then I have been playing a bunch with Blayre (Turnbull) and a bunch of different players but just to play with some of the same players consistently and I think playing in a lot more situations and I think I have been playing with confidence in myself and confidence in the staff, so I think I’m just having a lot of fun out there and obviously liking the results.”
That Chicago group Compher got to train with this summer wasn’t your run-of-the-mill hockey players looking for summer ice time either.
Because there aren’t many professional women’s players working out in Chicago in the summer, Compher found herself working out with her older brother J.T. (who is a member of the Detroit Red Wings) and a slew of seasoned NHL players.
“Patrick Kane, Christian Dvorak, Connor Murphy, there’s a bunch of them, a bunch of the Blackhawks boys that stick around,” Compher said of that group. “Obviously some pretty big names and I’m very lucky that they treat me like a professional athlete and not like a female athlete or somebody’s little sister. When I’m out there they treat me just like they treat each other. They compete with me and they want me to get better and they want the best for me and I think I’m very fortunate to be in that situation.”
In the span of two seasons, Compher has gone from a goal and four assists in 24 games in Year 1 to eight goals and seven assists in the first 21 this season, which is easily among the biggest jumps in production, right there with her teammate Hannah Miller, the league’s leading scorer.
Teammate Renata Fast, like everyone else on the team and watching from afar, has been impressed with the new heights Compher has reached in just over a season and a half. Fast says she gets an almost daily first-hand look at why Compher is having that kind of success.
“Going against her in practice you truly respect her as a player because she is just so good with the puck,” Fast says. “I find it very difficult to take the puck off of her because she protects it very well and then her shot is lethal. Her release is kind of hidden, too, because it comes off real quick. It’s been incredible to be able to see her progression this season. I think a lot of it is the work she has put in and just a mindset that she brought into the season.”
Part of that mindset was a desire to show the U.S. national team brain trust that leaving her off the U.S. world championship team a year ago was a mistake.
On that front, Wednesday was a big day for Compher and for her Sceptres teammates Hayley Scamurra and Savannah Harmon, all of whom were named to the U.S. team for next month’s worlds in Czechia.
“Being left off the roster for (last year’s worlds) wasn’t easy,” Compher said. “I experienced probably some of my hardest days being left off that roster but obviously that comes with days you know you are going to work your hardest. I knew from the second I was left off that worlds roster after being on it for consecutive years, that I wanted to get back on it and my one goal in mind since then has been that in 2026 I want to be in Milan (with the Olympic team). That starts with these worlds.”
None of that would have been possible without the PWHL platform her roster spot on the Sceptres gives her and with which she has excelled over the course of this season.
“Last year I walked into this locker room knowing about two girls,” Compher said. “I knew Kali Flanagan (who was on the U.S. national team with her) and I knew Rebecca Leslie (a college hockey teammate).
“But stepping into the locker room this year with a bunch of Canadian girls who are now like my best friends and my sisters and having the confidence to be on the ice with them and know I’m out there with the best girls in his league every single day just gives you a boost and a little more confidence in yourself,” Compher said.