Mikyla Grant-Mentis

Mikyla Grant-Mentis (born July 15, 1998) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward for the Seattle Torrent of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). She is the all-time leading scorer of the Merrimack Warriors women's ice hockey team and made history in 2021 as the first Black player to win the Most Valuable Player award of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), becoming the most decorated player in a single PHF season with a record four accolades.

Grant-Mentis played four years of college ice hockey at Merrimack College from 2016 to 2020, where she established herself as one of the program's most prolific scorers. She finished her collegiate career with 117 points (56 goals and 61 assists) in 137 games, setting program records for all-time points and assists while ranking second in goals.

After brief stints with the Buffalo Beauts in 2020, she joined the expansion Toronto Six for their inaugural 2020–21 season, where she tied for the league lead in points during the pandemic-shortened season and helped guide the Six to the regular season title. Her outstanding performance earned her the league's MVP, Newcomer of the Year, Foundation Award for community service, and Fans' Three Stars of the Season—the first player in league history to win four awards in a single season. She continued her success with the Six in 2021–22, leading the team in scoring and becoming the first player in PHF history to record a six-point game.

Grant-Mentis was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 for North America 2022 in the sports category at age 23, recognizing her impact both on and off the ice. Following the PHF's dissolution in 2023, Grant-Mentis joined the newly formed PWHL, playing for the Ottawa Charge, Montreal Victoire, and currently the Seattle Torrent.

Early life Grant-Mentis was born on July 15, 1998, in Brampton, Ontario, to Sandra Grant-Mentis and James Mentis. She has two siblings, an older brother Marquis and a younger brother Tre, with Marquis being her twin. Her father James played ball hockey for Team Canada and Team West Indies, and remains active with the Brampton Express of the Greater Toronto Ball Hockey League.

Grant-Mentis started playing organized ice hockey at age four with her older brother Marquis. Grant-Mentis played on boys' teams for several years before transitioning to girls' hockey with the Toronto Aeros of the Provincial Women's Hockey League (PWHL). Grant-Mentis played junior hockey in the Provincial Women's Hockey League for both the Toronto Aeros and the Mississauga Jr. Chiefs. She tied for the Hockey East conference lead in short-handed points with 4. Three weeks later, she scored a hat-trick against Brown on November 27 and was recognized as the Hockey East Co-Player of the Month for November 2020. She played in 33 games during her senior season and led the Warriors in goals (20) and points (33), ranking second on the Hockey East goals leaderboard and top-10 in scoring nationally.

Professional Buffalo Beauts (2019–20) At the end of February 2020, Grant-Mentis signed with the Buffalo Beauts to finish the 2019–20 NWHL season along with Merrimack teammate Léa-Kristine Demers. She scored three points (2 goals, 1 assist) in two regular season games and added another two points (1 goal, 1 assist) in the PHF playoffs semi-final qualification as the Beauts, who finished fourth in the standings with an 8–15–1 record, lost to the Connecticut Whale. She was named Player of the Week in her first week in the PHF. Grant-Mentis's first PHF goal as a member of the Six came in a January 24, 2021, contest versus the 2019 Clarkson Cup champion Minnesota Whitecaps. In the 6–5 shootout loss, Grant-Mentis became the only Six player to score in the shootout round. Two days later on January 26, she recorded the game-winning goal in the Six's first win in franchise history against the Boston Pride, coming back from a 1–0 deficit with a pair of third period goals by Brooke Boquist and Grant-Mentis. In the pandemic-shortened season played in a bubble in Lake Placid, New York, Grant-Mentis tied for the NWHL regular-season lead in points with five goals and four assists in six games. She added a goal and an assist in the Isobel Cup semifinal, a 6–2 loss to the eventual champion Boston Pride. She became the first Black player in league history to win the Most Valuable Player and Newcomer of the Year awards. She was also one of six players to receive the league's Foundation Award for applying core values of hockey to her community and growing and improving hockey culture, recognized for her community outreach work with disadvantaged families in the Greater Toronto Area. The Six finished second in the standings with a 17–5–2 record. In January 2022, Grant-Mentis was named PHF Player of the Month after recording eight points in two games against Buffalo, including three goals and five assists. On January 16, 2022, she became the first player in PHF history to record a six-point performance in a single game when she tallied two goals and four assists in an 8–3 win over Buffalo. The contract represented 9.38% of the Beauts' $750,000 salary cap and allowed Grant-Mentis to quit her FedEx job to focus exclusively on playing professional hockey. However, the Beauts finished last in the league with a 5–16–3 record and failed to qualify for the playoffs.

PWHL Ottawa (2023–24) After the PHF folded and the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) was founded, Grant-Mentis went undrafted in the inaugural 2023 PWHL Draft but signed a free agent contract with PWHL Ottawa. During the 2024–25 PWHL season, she recorded three goals and five assists for eight points in 30 games for the Victoire. The attendance established a new U.S. arena record for a women's hockey game, surpassing the previous record of 15,359 set at an NCAA game between the University of Wisconsin and St. Cloud State on January 14, 2017. She assisted on Jessie Eldridge's goal with 26 seconds remaining in the third period, which spoiled goaltender Abbey Levy's shutout bid. She sped through the neutral zone and cleaned up a rebound off a shot from Natalie Snodgrass, with Hilary Knight earning the secondary assist. Grant-Mentis also recorded an assist on Lexie Adzija's goal. In a home game on March 11, 2026 against the first place Boston Fleet, Grant-Mentis scored a shorthanded jailbreak goal at 14:47 of the third period to tie the game 2–2. Danielle Serdachny added the game-winner within a minute and a half later to solidify a 3–2 comeback victory. The game was the Torrent's first-ever win over Boston and ended the Fleet's six-game winning streak.

Personal life Grant-Mentis holds a bachelor's degree in criminology from Merrimack College. In December 2021, Grant-Mentis was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 for North America 2022 in the sports category at age 23, making her the second-youngest honoree in that category.

She appeared in Ice Queens (2023), a documentary about the history of Black women in ice hockey.

Career statistics Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 2013–14 Oakville Jr. Hornets Prov. WHL 2 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 2014–15 Toronto Jr. Aeros Prov. WHL 38 5 20 25 8 14 2 2 4 10 2015–16 Mississauga Jr. Chiefs Prov. WHL 37 21 28 49 14 11 6 6 12 8 2016–17 Merrimack Warriors NCAA 35 9 18 27 20 — — — — — 2017–18 Merrimack Warriors NCAA 34 15 8 23 43 — — — — — 2018–19 Merrimack Warriors NCAA 35 12 22 37 29 — — — — — 2019–20 Merrimack Warriors NCAA 33 20 13 33 26 — — — — — 2019–20 Buffalo Beauts PHF 2 2 1 3 2 1 1 1 2 02020–21Toronto SixPHF65494111102021–22Toronto SixPHF19131730610002 2022–23 Buffalo Beauts PHF 24 9 12 21 20 — — — — — 2023–24PWHL OttawaPWHL60330 — — — — — 2023–24PWHL MontrealPWHL72024 — — — — — 2024–25 Montreal Victoire PWHL 30 3 5 8 18 4 0 0 0 0 2025–26 Seattle Torrent PWHL 25 3 3 6 8 — — — — — PHF totals 51 29 34 63 32 3 2 2 4 2 PWHL totals 68 8 11 19 30 7 0 1 1 0

Awards and honours 2021 NWHL Most Valuable Player 2021 NWHL Newcomer of the Year 2021 NWHL Foundation Award (Toronto Six representative) 2021 NWHL Fans' Three Stars