Jenny Scrivens checked her phone as the text message arrived. It read: “I have this crazy idea. Call me when you get a minute.”

It was from Dani Rylan, then-New York Riveters general manager and National Women’s Hockey League commissioner.

It was July 2015. A week earlier, Scrivens joined on to the newly formed - and very much a startup - NWHL to work on public relations for the league remotely from her home in Edmonton, Alberta, where she lived with her husband, Ben, who was a goaltender for the Edmonton Oilers at the time.

This ‘crazy idea’ text from Rylan marked the first of several Scrivens would receive as a part of the NWHL.

This time, though, it was about her. The Riveters had one goaltending spot open on their roster. Rylan wanted Scrivens to fill it.

“I kind of laughed it off at first,” said Scrivens in an interview with Puck Daddy. “I haven’t played in six years. I’m not at this level … Yoga and walking my dog does not a hockey player make.”

She told Rylan she’d think about it. She didn’t even mention it to Ben until the next night when it popped into her mind while getting ready for bed, saying, “So, Dani has this crazy idea, and I talked to her on the phone. I have chance to play hockey in Brooklyn next year.’ I laughed … and rolled my eyes.

Ben’s reaction? He said, “Well, why not? You should do it.” She has a pretty good idea of what he’s going to say most times, but that wasn’t the answer she expected from him.

Jenny, 28, and Ben, 29, have been together for 10 years; married for four. They met in their first year at Cornell University, both playing for the university’s hockey programs, and dated all four years of school.

She was supposed to be on a semi-break from her career in public relations so she could spend time with her husband. Goaltending in Brooklyn while he lived in Edmonton was not part of the plan.

For the better part of the previous five years, Scrivens has balanced the roles of partner to a professional athlete and career woman. It’s a path she started on in 2010 when she and Ben graduated from Cornell.

“Ben and I decided mutually that were going to see where his hockey career took him, and if he had the chance to play professional hockey, we were going to go where ever that was. I was 100-percent onboard with the idea. It just meant that I had to sacrifice my career at that point in time.”

She continued to work in various public relations jobs as Ben’s career took them to Toronto, Los Angeles, and Edmonton to that point. Each time he was traded, she had to leave her job, and start over again. This was something she chose and accepted as part of supporting Ben’s hockey career.

However, the opportunity offered by the NWHL was one Jenny could not pass up. Ben saw that, too.

“He’s right: why not do it? I didn’t really have anything holding me back from being able to move to Brooklyn, and take this sort of risk,” said Scrivens. “Yes, in the long run, I had to give up a lot to move. I didn’t get to see Ben nearly as much as I wanted to, but those are things that are sort of short term pains for the long term gain of being able to play professional hockey at this stage.

“I went into this thinking I want to do this for a year … [to] be able to pave the way for other women to come in and play, and tell our kids one day that both their parents played professional hockey. How cool would that be?”

Now after her one year as professional hockey player under her belt, Jenny and Ben now have that awesome story to tell their future children.

Despite having a stellar showing in the playoffs against the eventual Isobel Cup champion Boston Pride, and being offered another contract to play by the Riveters, Jenny has made the decision to retire.

When she made the determination to move to New York, she couldn’t have predicted was the upheaval in her husband’s career as she was pursuing her dream, and the personal growth that would take place in such a short period of time.

“While I was having this great time in my career, my husband was going through the toughest time of his career, and I wasn’t there for it,” said Scrivens. “Not only was I not there for it, I probably couldn’t have been further away. That really weighed on me.”

It weighed on her so much she almost didn’t make it through the season.

Story continues