With the addition of Seattle and Vancouver to the Professional Women’s Hockey League, each of the rosters of the original six clubs have sustained significant losses. Throughout the summer, PWHL writer Rob Del Mundo will summarize the impact to each team. Today we look at the Montreal Victoire.
Danielle Sauvageau will take her rightful place this fall in the Hockey Hall of Fame. She is the first women inducted as a Builder. She coached Team Canada to its first gold medal in women’s hockey in 2002.
Additionally, she served in a management role on seven straight IIHF World Championship victories. Now Sauvageau, the general manager of the Montreal Victorie, would love to pad her resume with a PWHL championship.
Victoire lost top D pair
Indeed the task will be daunting. Montreal sustained the loss of its top defensive pairing; Cayla Barnes and Anna Wilgren during the offseason.
Montreal’s first round pick in 2024, Barnes led all skaters with 21:48 of ice time per game last season. When the league’s expansion window opened, Barnes promptly inked a three-year deal with PWHL Seattle. It’s a major loss for Montreal. Barnes, an Olympic gold medalist, is a near lock to be part of Team USA’s roster in 2026.
Additionally, her defensive partner Anna Wilgren is gone. Seattle selected Wllgren in the second round of the expansion draft. Going into the 2025-26 season, the workload on the back end now shifts to veteran rearguard Erin Ambrose and PHF Isobel Cup champion Kati Tabin (Toronto, 2023).
Victoire lost a key forward
Montreal, meanwhile, suffered a significant loss at forward during the expansion window. Left winger Jenn Gardiner formed a cohesive top forward line with mainstays Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey. The trio had also suited up as a unit for Team Canada during this past year’s Women’s World Championship. Unfortunately for Montreal, Gardiner is gone.
Both Gardiner and Abby Boreen will be skating for PWHL Vancouver, the latter being the team’s first expansion draft choice. Their departures, along with that of Barnes, left Montreal without three of its top five regular season scorers when the dust had settled by mid-June.
The Victoire did make a significant acquisition to its forward unit, obtaining Abby Roque from New York in exchange for the struggling Kristin O’Neill. Roque’s total of 17 points was fourth-best on the Sirens last year, and would have placed the power forward in the same position Montreal.
Roque, a 2023 World Championship gold medallist, was a second-line centre behind Alex Carpenter in New York. She is an immediate candidate for an identical role with her new team. Meanwhile, she figures to be a rung on the depth chart below Poulin, the defending Billie Jean King MVP and Forward of the Year.
Ann-Renée Desbiens won PWHL Goaltender of the Year honours in 2024-25. She’s back to protect the Montreal net. Meanwhile, Sara Abstreiter now handles backup duties. Montreal inked the German netminder to a one-year deal after Elaine Chuli signed with Toronto as a free agent.
General manager Sauvageau has won a title at just about every level at women’s hockey, except for the Walter Cup. She and the Victoire will need consistent production from the forwards, plus continued solid netminding from Desbiens to offset the losses on defence, to make that dream a reality.
