Over two weeks after the deadline for the players to declare themselves available for the Draft, the league has finally released the full list of aspiring players. 167 players representing 19 countries will be available to draft for the League’s six teams. Unlike the inaugural Draft, the second one will have only seven rounds and won’t be a snake draft.
By accumulating the most points after being eliminated from playoff contention, New York will have the first pick, thanks to the gold plan. Ottawa will be second as the other non-playoff team while the four teams that made the playoffs will pick in reverse order of the regular season standings. In other words, Minnesota gets the third pick, Boston the fourth, Montreal the fifth and Toronto the sixth. I would rather playoff fortunes be considered, but this is yet another department in which the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) differs from the NHL.
Who Could Montreal Pick in the First Round?
Since Montreal picks fifth, we can probably expect the most sought-after names will be gone. Sarah Fillier should be selected by New York faster than anyone can sing Sinatra’s classic serenading the city. Then Team USA’s Hannah Bilka should make the Ottawa team’s day. After that, it gets more complicated, several names could be in the running for the third pick; Team USA’s Cayla Barnes, Team Canada’s Danielle Serdachny, or Finnish international Noora Tulus could all be in the running.
It won’t be an easy task for Montreal general manager (GM) Daniele Sauvageau to choose her first-round pick. PWHL Montreal’s first season has made it crystal clear there are areas of concern the organization must address as a matter of urgency. When Marie-Philip Poulin was injured, the team laboured to score and, too often, it couldn’t. In 24 games, Montreal was shut out three times in a tie with Minnesota for last place in that department. At the same time, Montreal had a lot of difficulties in its defensive zone and Erin Ambrose is only one woman, she can’t always be on the ice. As for goaltending, if Elaine Chuli is not signed to another contract, it’s conceivable that Savageau will want to see what’s out there. But I doubt she’ll use her first pick on that when her number-one goaltender is Ann-Renee Desbiens.
Related: PWHL Montreal’s Dramatic Win Highlights Recurring Issues
With two areas of major need on the team, it will come down to the best player available when the fifth pick comes around. It’s hard to know how things will go down, especially if Ottawa needs to get a solid netminder to make up for the fact that Emerance Maschmeyer is on maternity leave (we know her partner Genevieve Lacasse is due early in the fall, but we do not know if Maschmeyer intends to take some maternity leave).
If available at Montreal’s turn, I think Sauvageau will pick Serdachny. The forward linked up very well with Poulin at the last World Championship. If she isn’t, a defenseman like Daniela Pejsova would make sense, especially since she’s only 21 and ready to take the plunge right away. The Czech international would certainly help settle Montreal’s blue line.
What About Later On?
Another player who’s likely to catch Sauvageau’s eye on defense is Claire Thompson. The former Team Canada player took a year off from hockey to finish her medical degree. She’s now ready to return to action and has formed a pairing to be reckoned with alongside Montreal’s Ambrose on Team Canada.
Up front, Sauvageau could potentially select 25-year-old Emmy Fecteau. The center played with Concordia University last season under coach Julie Chu and I’m sure both Chu and Caroline Ouellette (who assists Chu at Concordia) will have chewed Sauvageau’s ear off about her. In her last three years at Concordia, she was a point-per-game player. She’s from the same region of Quebec (Beauce) as Poulin and it will be interesting to see if the GM can be seduced by some local talent. We all know how things go down every year at the NHL Draft, people from Quebec complain the Montreal Canadiens are not selecting enough French Canadians. To be honest, I do not think we’ll see the same complaints in the PWHL. So far, the fans have been positive about almost everything with this league. The sole exception is “the ugly jerseys with only team names on them” and yet, the arenas are filled with fans wearing them.
At Long Last, Team Logos and Nicknames Are Coming
In other news, Jayna Hefford, the vice president of hockey operations with the league, has told media on a conference call that soon, the PWHL teams would have both names and logos. She didn’t give a date, however, only saying “Sometime in the summer, you can count the days!” (from ‘Enfin des noms d’équipes et des logos cet été’, La Presse, May 25, 2024) To date, the only names for which the league has registered trademarks are those that were leaked before the start of the season. For those who missed that memo, they were Boston Wicked, Montreal Echo, Ottawa Alert, Toronto Torch, New York Sound and Minnesota Superior.
Tonight, Minnesota will take on Boston with a chance to become the first-ever Walter Cup Champions. The faceoff is set for 6:00 PM EDT and in less than 12 hours, we could see Kendall Coyne Schofield lift the Cup! We will definitely see Hilary Knight do everything in her power to stop that from happening and cause a Game 5 in Boston on Wednesday night.
