The third season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League will look drastically different than the first two years.
With the circuit expanding from six to eight teams by adding teams in Vancouver and Seattle, the foundation of each of the original rosters has been shaken, as each of the teams was permitted to protect only three players.
During the five-day signing window ending Sunday, both new franchises were permitted to sign up to five available players as free agents. Arguably, no team has been impacted than the Boston Fleet, who lost future Hall of Famer Hilary Knight to Seattle.
Knight, 35, who has been the face of women’s hockey in the United States for the past decade, was left unprotected in favour of younger franchise players: goaltender Aerin Frankel, defender Megan Keller, and forward Alina Muller.
Seattle – in addition to Knight – has signed star players Cayla Barnes (D, Montreal), Danielle Serdachny (F, Ottawa), Alex Carpenter (F, New York), and Corinne Schroeder (G, New York).
Not be outdone, Vancouver has inked a bevy of impact players; Jenn Gardiner (F, Montreal), Sarah Nurse (F, Toronto), Emerance Maschmeyer (G, Ottawa) and defenders Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson, the latter two coming off the blue line of the Minnesota Frost, mere weeks after the team’s defense of their Walter Cup championship.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Expansion Draft
After Monday’s seven-round expansion draft, a myriad of the league’s best players will be switching rosters.
Minnesota is poised to lose Britta Curl-Salemme and Olympian Grace Zumwinkle, who were instrumental to the Frost’s championship playoff run.
Boston, already having lost Knight, will almost certainly lose Hannah Bilka. New York will likely say goodbye to at least one of Abby Roque and Jessie Eldridge.
North of the border, stars like Emma Maltais and Savannah Harmon (Toronto), Brianne Jenner and Jocelyne Larocque (Ottawa), and Erin Ambrose (Montreal) could all be wearing different coloured sweaters next fall.
In principle, the initiative by the league to create parity among the two newcomers from the Pacific Northwest is understandable.
However, the protected player maximum of just three players among the six original franchises does a disservice to those teams. It robs those teams of the identity that has been established over the league’s first two successful seasons.
An attempt to level the playing field should not come at such an expense to the fan bases of the founding teams.
