At four years old, Mikyla Grant-Mentis was told to dance instead of play. Her parents had signed up her brothers for hockey, but she was sent to ballet. The compromise came at her last recital: if she finished the performance, they’d let her skate. She did every step, walked off stage, and asked, “So, when do we get my skates?” Born in 1998 in Brampton, Ontario, to a Jamaican mother and a Nova Scotian father whose ancestors helped form one of the first Black hockey clubs in the early 1900s, the sport was already part of her family’s DNA. Her father, James Mentis, captained Team Canada’s ball-hockey squad, leading well into his fifties. Hockey wasn’t just in her blood it was her inheritance. Grant-Mentis earned a full scholarship to Merrimack College in 2016, where she became the school’s all-time leading scorer and one of the most dynamic forwards in Hockey East. After graduation she joined the Premier Hockey Federation, becoming the first Black player to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award. In 2022 she signed a $80,000 contract with the Buffalo Beauts, then the highest salary in women’s hockey a milestone for pay equity in the game. Her rise wasn’t smooth. When the PHF folded in 2023, she went undrafted in the new Professional Women’s Hockey League, later signing a reserve deal with PWHL Montréal. Today, she is one of only three Black women in the league, still carrying the weight of being first and often only. “I was the only Black player growing up,” she said. “You get used to seeing only white faces at the rink. Now I see more Black fans in the stands. Change is coming it just takes time.” Grant-Mentis also coaches U-18 girls in Brampton, passing on the lessons that shaped her. She tells them that success begins with action, not permission. “If you want to be the best,” she said, “you have to act like it and never let anyone knock you down.” Her story joins a lineage that includes Angela James, Sarah Nurse, Blake Bolden, and Kelsey Koelzer women who turned frozen rinks into arenas of equality. For Grant-Mentis, it’s about empowerment. She skates for every girl told to sit out, for every voice still waiting to be heard.
