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for their children to come and be taken care of and learn so much each and every day. There are days when it's very challenging. The behaviors that they have are very unpredictable. Every single day you have no clue what type of situation might arise. It's mental- ly draining some days. But on the good days, it's so rewarding." Women's pro hockey has come a long way in the past few years. Salaries continue to rise, but as Sturm said, "She works hard seven days a week, yet she's not even making a fraction of what I make. It doesn't make sense to me. But she wants to keep playing hockey and I couldn't be more supportive of that. I always tell her, ' You keep play- ing as long as you want to.' She obviously knows she wants to do something with her education, but she's too good at hockey and loves it too much to not play." M H J ON L I N E . C O M | M A R C H 2 0 2 2 32 FULL CIRCLE Sturm's an unrestricted free agent, so her hockey future largely depends on Sturm's. There are only six teams in the PHF, so theoretically, Turnquist may only be playing profession- ally next year if Sturm re-signs with the Wild or he ends up in Toronto, Buffalo, Boston or on any of the New York/New Jersey based NHL teams (Rangers, Islanders or Devils). But Turnquist is gratified that young girls growing up in Minnesota have something to aspire to when it comes to hockey beyond college or the Olympics. It's pretty neat that each morn- ing the couple wakes up they know they are two professional hockey players suiting up for the men's and women's pro teams here in the Twin Cities. "So many girls that love hockey and are good at hockey have college to work toward, but once college is over, it's like, 'Now what?'" Turnquist said. "So to have the younger generations be able to look up to us and be like, 'I have these aspirations to play professionally,' it's very exciting to see it continu- ously moving forward, each year. "Our league is seven years old now, and each year, it just continu- ously gets better and better. It just makes me so happy that younger girls can see us and be able to say, 'I want to be a professional athlete.' "I wouldn't be any where that I have been without hockey. I was a sophomore in high school and was like, 'Yeah, why not go to New York and play Division I hockey?' Not knowing even where it was, any of that. But it really was the best four years of my life and introduced me to Nico and with- out playing at Clarkson, it wouldn't have taken me up to Boston, where I found my passion for special ed. That brought me back home to play professional hockey and get schooling here. Everything has come full circle and it all comes back to just lov- ing hockey as a kid." Michael Russo writes for The Athletic. He's entering his 17th sea- son covering the Wild and 27th cov- ering the National Hockey League. He co-hosts the Worst Seats in the House podcast on talknorth.com and Straight From The Source podcast on The Athletic. Both pod- casts can be heard wherever you get your podcasts. Russo can be heard weekly on KFAN (100.3-FM) and seen throughout the hockey season on Bally Sports North and the NHL Network. Follow Russo on Twitter and Instagram at @RussoHockey. To subscribe to The Athletic at a discount, go to theathletic.com/ straightfromthesource. P R E S E N T E D B Y Russo's Rants Photo / Taylor Turnquist Turnquist was a standout hockey, soccer and lacrosse player at Spring Lake Park High School. "Our league is seven years old now, and each year, it just continuously gets better and better. It just makes me so happy that younger girls can see us and be able to say, 'I want to be a professional athlete.'" —Taylor Turnquist