‘You don’t ever stop working’: Iqaluit player hopes for big step up in hockey career

Mykyla Allakariallak, 15, hopes she skated into the next phase of her hockey career this past weekend when she suited up for Team Alberta in a tournament that’s attended each year by scouts from colleges across North America.

The Iqaluit-born elite player becomes eligible to be recruited to play college hockey on June 15, 2026.

Allakariallak’s off-season performance this summer is important, because in the fall she plans to try out for the under-18 Alberta Female Hockey League. Suiting up against the older players would be a big step for her.

“I’m definitely nervous, but excited for the challenge,” she said.

This past season, she played as a forward for the Edmonton Ice Blue under-15 AA team in the Alberta Female Hockey League. She had 10 goals and 20 assists in 30 games.

Allakariallak was named player of the game in Sunday’s final, in which she had a goal and an assist to help Team Alberta to a 4-3 victory and a third-place finish in the Eyes Elite Female College Showcase held in Calgary, an invitational tournament for female players aged 15 to 17.

It was the first of three such college showcase tournaments Allakariallak is scheduled to compete in this summer. The other two are in Toronto in late June and Boston in mid-July.

On top of that is a weekend-long under-17 female top-40 development camp in Red Deer, Alta., in July. She was selected to attend the tournament based on her performance at last month’s Alberta Challenge, also held in Red Deer, where she scored two goals in the opening game.

Allakariallak’s journey is not all trophies and Gatorade, however.

Mykyla Allakariallak, left, meets Jordin Tootoo, the first Inuk NHL player, who played professionally from 2001 to 2018. The pair were both attending the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Kamloops, B.C., in early May. (Photo courtesy of Kristal Allakariallak)

She was thrilled to earn a spot on Team Alberta at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Kamloops, B.C., in May. She experienced disappointment, though, when she didn’t make the starting lineup and had to watch in street clothes from the bench as her teammates competed.

Still, she found the positive in that it gave her the chance to study the play of the other exceptional Indigenous hockey players on her team.

“They’re just so amazing and inspirational,” she said.

While there, she met tournament alumnus Jordin Tootoo, from Rankin Inlet, who enjoyed a 13-year career playing in the National Hockey League. The former pro put her benchwarming experience in perspective, she said.

“He was telling me: ‘You don’t ever stop working,’” she said.

“Like, he’s been in the same position where he’s wanted to play. But you just keep showing your coach and coming to the rink with a good attitude and working hard every day to be able to get on a roster one day.”

Tootoo told her she will get her turn and to keep playing her own style of game and stay true to herself.

She said she plans to heed his advice.