Alum of the month: Former Griffins women's hockey player Weller living a dream working for the Oilers

Austin Connelly, For MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – After a four-year career with the Griffins women's hockey team, Danielle Weller graduated from MacEwan with a Bachelor of Arts in 2012 and found her dream job working for an NHL team with the Oilers Entertainment Group.

"The opportunity came up at Oilers Entertainment Group to work in HR there just as Rogers Place was under construction," explained Weller. "Obviously, playing hockey and growing up in Edmonton and being a hockey fan, I applied for the role. So, I've been with OEG for the last – just over four years now in an HR role, and I'm living the dream with an NHL team, which has been amazing."

Weller thinks that her time as a student athlete helped prepare her immensely for her dream job with the Oilers, by learning core values OEG also holds in searching for their staff, like teamwork.

"To be honest, I had such a great experience at Grant MacEwan as a student athlete. And it was so neat being able to go to school with your teammates, and it made schooling a lot more fun along the way for sure," said Weller.

Current Griffins women's hockey head coach Lindsay McAlpine coached her from 2008-2012, instilling valuable lessons on and off the ice.

"She taught us everything from time management to accountability to teamwork, and it's been kind of neat moving through an organization now that at the NHL level still drives those values," said Weller, who was known as Danielle Baxter during her time with MacEwan.

"I think I learned a ton of those skills, you know, both on and off the ice being a student athlete that I still carry with me today."

No longer on the ice anymore, Weller satisfies her love for the game after her playing days ended by working with the Oilers and volunteering her time with Discover Hockey and various other puck programs.

"I get a chance every once in a while to volunteer with different programs just through OEG, as well, whether that's little Oilers or different girls hockey camps that we have – things like that. I try to volunteer through the organization," explained Weller.

Discover Hockey is another program she works with part time where they teach adults how to skate and play as part of an initiative with the city of Edmonton.

"We run it four times a week and I get to coach adults, whether it be you know, people that are new to hockey or have kids that have played hockey, and never got a chance to kind of skate and learn the game on their own – or maybe are new to Canada and want to take up the national sport here," said Weller. "So, it's been really cool, kind of taking a different lens and getting to teach adults who are just so eager to learn and, be part of the game.

"They all have their own reasons for being there but at the end of the day, everybody kind of steps on the ice and gets to learn the basics of skating and hockey and so I've tried to stay connected that way as well."

Danielle Weller (nee Baxter) was a key member of the MacEwan Griffins women's hockey blueline from 2008-12 (Photo supplied).

Before their recent championship years, the Griffins women's hockey team was a group of scrappy underdogs and Weller was a key cog on the backend in that era. She fondly remembers their big playoff run in 2011-12 against Mount Royal University. The Cougars were a year removed from becoming the first team to win 21 games in a season (a feat matched by the 2019-20 Griffins), but they were still strong enough to finish first in the ACAC in 2011-12, three points ahead of NAIT and four up on the Griffins.

MacEwan knocked out NAIT in the semifinals and gave MRU all they could handle before falling 3-1 in the best-of-five 2012 championship final.

"They were they were definitely a strong team. I remember we pulled out a couple extra wins in a playoff series that we probably had no business really competing with them in, and we pushed it as far as we could," said Weller. "They ended up winning but we did get an extra game back at home and I remember that just being a really cool experience because I never quite got to cherish the national championship. But it felt like it at that time. For us being able to kind of pull and steal a win from them was huge."

A highlight of Danielle Weller's university career was doing battle against the Mount Royal University Cougars in the 2012 ACAC Championship final (Photo supplied).

Weller suited up for 94 career regular season games – a mark that put her eighth all-time prior to being passed by a few Griffins players this past season. But it was in the playoffs where she really shined.

In her first two post-season runs with the Griffins, Weller had two goals in four games during the 2008-09 season, while netting a goal and an assist in three games during the 2010-11 playoffs, which led the team.

With her playing days behind her, Weller still looks back fondly on the opportunity to be a student-athlete with the Griffins, an experience that helped her net her dream job after graduation.

"I had such a great experience at MacEwan," she said. "I've worked with so many great people through my hockey career and had such great coaches and great teammates, and I look back really fondly on those memories and try to stay, you know, as connected as an alumni as I can and in any way possible.

"I see what MacEwan did for me being able to kind of make that connection to be able to work in the NHL. I definitely think that I had the opportunity at MacEwan to work with other great people to help get me where I am today, which is what I consider to be my dream job."