Breaking down three top stories from the inaugural PWHL Draft
The inaugural PWHL Draft took place at the CBC Studios in downtown Toronto on Monday afternoon, with 90 players selected to join the league’s six teams ahead of the 2023–24 season.
Each of the league’s six franchises (based in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, Boston, and Minnesota) had previously signed three players in the league’s initial free agency period. Monday’s draft gave the teams the opportunity to fill out their rosters with some of the top former PWHPA, PHF, NCAA, U Sports, and international players in the world.
The Minnesota franchise won the draft lottery, and with it, the right to make the first-overall pick on Monday. Toronto, Boston, New York, Ottawa, and Montreal followed them in the first round; Montreal then selected first in the second round, and the draft continued to follow a snake format from there.
Here are three major takeaways from the inaugural PWHL Draft. Fittingly, we’ll start out with the team that made the first pick.
Taylor Heise is Minnesota’s homegrown star
It didn’t surprise anyone when trailblazing tennis legend Billie Jean King, one of the PWHL’s main backers, announced that Minnesota had made forward Taylor Heise the No. 1 selection in the league’s inaugural draft.
Pretty much everyone knew it was coming. Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek had first alluded to it more than a week ago, and it became the reality on Monday. It just made too much sense.
Heise is from Lake City, Minnesota. She spent the last five years at the University of Minnesota. In her senior year, Heise served as team captain and led the Gophers to a 30–6–3 record with a jaw-dropping 29 goals and 65 points in 38 games.
Fresh off that final NCAA campaign, Heise is more than ready to turn pro as one of the PWHL’s flagship players. Given that she only turned 23 in March, Heise should be able to lead the Minnesota franchise for many years to come.
Having already signed defender Lee Stecklein and forwards Kelly Pannek and Kendall Coyne Schofield in free agency, Minnesota followed up the Heise pick by selecting goaltender Nicole Hensley in the second round. Nine rounds later, Minnesota completed its goaltending tandem with former PHF Whitecaps star Amanda Leveille.
All in all, it was a pretty good showing for the PWHL’s westernmost franchise.
What a moment. 💜#PWHLDraft2023 | @PWHL_Minnesota pic.twitter.com/D1SDB8sicf
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) September 18, 2023Alina Müller leads a stacked Boston draft class
The PWHL Boston franchise entered draft day in possession of the No. 3 overall selection, and they made it count.
After Toronto picked 35-year-old defender Jocelyne Larocque at No. 2, Boston general manager Danielle Marmer practically raced up to the podium at CBC Studios to announce her team’s selection of Swiss forward Alina Müller.
Müller, who is nearly a full 10 years younger than Larocque, has all the makings of a longtime star in the professional ranks. Like Heise, she only just wrapped up her NCAA career, having racked up 60 points (27 goals, 33 assists) in 38 games at Northeastern University in 2022–23.
But Müller established herself in the hockey world long before she suited up as a freshman with the Huskies in 2018–19, having made her Olympics debut with Team Switzerland as a 15-year-old back at Sochi 2014. That year, she became the youngest hockey player to win a medal at the Olympics as Switzerland defeated Sweden to capture the bronze.
Müller has been a mainstay on Switzerland’s national team ever since, regularly popping up among the top scorers at best-on-best international tournaments. It’ll be a ton of fun to watch Müller and Hilary Knight run the show on offense in Boston.
(By the way, we think Boston hit it out of the park basically all day long at the draft. We especially liked the Jamie Lee Rattray and Shiann Darkangelo picks, although it’ll be extremely weird to see Jillian Dempsey playing for Montreal).
An emotional Alina Muller is so happy to be drafted to @PWHL_Boston 🥹
WATCH: https://t.co/WVmBO0GJC6 pic.twitter.com/1uu3d0iiy9
Far too many strong players sidelined
The PWHL simply doesn’t have enough teams. Not yet, at least.
While the PHF and the PWHPA coexisted as separate, competing entities, there was substantially more room for all of the top players in the world to compete at the highest level. But that arrangement changed forever when the PWHPA bought (and folded) the PHF earlier this year.
Now, there’s considerably less room, and that reality becomes glaringly apparent with a mere cursory look at the talent that went overlooked on Monday afternoon.
Many of the top players in the world, including some of the PHF’s brightest stars, remain without a home. Even with 108 players now admitted into the PWHL, the likes of Madison Packer, Mikyla Grant-Mentis, Saroya Tinker, Jonna Albers, Kaleigh Fratkin, Allie Thunstrom, and more are looking in from the outside.
Some of these players will be signed in free agency. Each team only has 18 players at this point. There are still holes to fill. But let’s be real: There just aren’t enough spots.
Top-level women’s hockey in North America is more exclusive than it was at this time last year. As exciting as this new league undoubtedly is, it’s hard not to see that as a step back in the grand scheme of things. Players at the level of Grant-Mentis and Packer should be more than afterthoughts and fill-ins. They should be recognized as the stars they are.
Congratulations to all selected tonight. What an incredible moment for women's hockey.
— Madison Packer (@madison_packer_) September 18, 2023Out of the 268 prospective PWHL players who declared themselves eligible for the draft last week, 178 went unselected. That’s far too much talent left twisting in the wind, but it was inevitable with only six teams in the league. It’s not enough.
There are many locales on this continent that could, and would, support a PWHL franchise. PHF markets Connecticut and Buffalo are currently vacant. It’s easy to imagine Quebec City rallying around a team. And in an ideal world, the league could expand further west to a former CWHL city in Calgary and potentially even add teams in Winnipeg and Vancouver.
It’s fun to think about expansion. It’s far less fun to think about all the talented players out there who had jobs last year and don’t anymore. It all feels more than a little bittersweet. As great as it is have the PWHL around now, it stings to lose much of what the PHF was able to build up over the years. The women’s game won’t be quite the same without the Isobel Cup.
Hopefully, in a few years, we can all enjoy a women’s league with enough teams to fit in everyone who deserves to be in there. Unfortunately, we aren’t quite there yet — but that doesn’t mean the PWHL won’t still be a ton of fun to watch in its inaugural season. We’re super excited for it, and you should be, too. Bring on the games.