In a league where control and certainty are in short supply, the Montreal Victoire and Vancouver Goldeneyes both emerged from the regular season with a valuable sliver of it.
By virtue of finishing first atop the PWHL standings, the Victoire had the power to select its first-round opponent. Montreal opted to play the back-to-back Walter Cup champions, the Minnesota Frost, in a series that will begin on Saturday.
At the other end of the standings, the Vancouver Goldeneyes won the right to draft first overall in the upcoming entry draft. Vancouver earned the pick by winning games after being eliminated from playoff contention, earning Gold Plan points for every victory.
Both are rules unique to the PWHL, where looming expansion and free agency has left plenty of questions about what next season could look like.
Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie described her team’s power to pick its opponent as an “honour” and a “privilege.”
It’s a decision that came together as the Victoire returned from a west coast road trip that culminated in a 2-1 shootout victory over the Seattle Torrent on Saturday — a win that sealed the Victoire’s spot at the top of the standings.
“As a collective here in Montreal, we decided to continue with our internal process of where we were at and different things that we looked at,” Cheverie said. “We landed on Minnesota and we’re looking forward to that opportunity.”
Lina Ljungblom scores in the sixth round of the shootout to lift Montreal to a 2-1 victory. The Victoire will select their first-round opponent, which will either be the Minnesota Frost or the Ottawa Charge. Seattle’s loss means the Vancouver Goldeneyes will have the first pick in the PWHL Draft. Montreal’s Marie-Philip Poulin and Maureen Murphy were both back in action after being on long-term injured reserve.
Montreal won all four of its games against Minnesota this season, though two of those wins came in overtime.
While Cheverie didn’t offer much in the way of detail about some of the factors her team looked at, she said it wasn’t just about those four games.
“Every game against Minnesota is a close one,” she said. “They’re fierce competition.”
The choice wasn’t just about who Montreal would play in the first round. With only four teams in the playoffs, Montreal also had the power to pick the second-place Boston Fleet’s opponent.
By picking Minnesota, Montreal ensured Boston would play the team it struggled more against this season. Ottawa and Montreal are the only teams Boston didn’t beat in regulation
It’s also a re-do of a decision that didn’t go in Montreal’s favour last year. Given the same responsibility and the choice between the Frost and the Charge, Montreal picked Ottawa last year. The Charge won that series, 3-1.
It’s the second time the Frost have been picked as a first-round opponent. The first time, in the league’s first season, was bulletin board material for the Frost en route to a Walter Cup championship.
This time around, Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said the choice didn’t matter much.
The Ottawa Charge defeated the Toronto Sceptres 3 to 0 in their regular season finale, securing a playoff spot. CBC’s Emma Weller was at TD Place for the game.
“We knew we were going to be going on the road,” he said. “They’re a great challenge and we’re just excited to get going.”
Game 1 in Montreal is set for Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. Game 2 will be on Tuesday, May 5 at 7 p.m.
Boston will host Game 1 against Ottawa on Thursday at 7 p.m., followed by Game 2 on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Building around Harvey
In Vancouver, a win over Minnesota on the weekend sealed the Goldeneyes’ place atop the Gold Plan standings.
“I was so proud of the players in the locker room that continued to fight and fight for every point,” GM Cara Gardner Morey said on Monday during the team’s season-ending press conference.
Vancouver’s certainty comes in the form of Caroline Harvey, a generational defender projected to be taken first overall at this year’s entry draft.
Harvey has won just about everything before playing a single game in the PWHL. She won three NCAA championships with the Wisconsin Badgers, and was named the winner of the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top player in college hockey to go along with the NCAA title this season.
She’s also a two-time world champion with the U.S. team, and most recently, an Olympic gold medallist. She was named the Olympic tournament’s MVP in February.
CBC Sports’ Karissa Donkin explains the Gold Plan, which the PWHL is using, in an attempt to discourage teams from tanking.
A significant portion of the PWHL is slated to hit free agency next season, including Goldeneyes stars Claire Thompson and Sarah Nurse.
On top of that, more teams are expected to be added via expansion ahead. That means it’s hard to say what any team will look like next season.
It’s uncertainty for general managers and coaches, but also for players, who are waiting to hear more about how expansion will affect them.
“Information is the biggest piece to start to make that decision,” Nurse said about her plans next season. “I think that obviously what’s been built here in Vancouver, I think Cara’s done an absolutely incredible job.”
It’s not yet clear where any possible expansion teams would pick, meaning it’s not guaranteed that Seattle will pick second overall or New York will pick third.
The only certainty is that Vancouver will get the first pick of each round, and that they will have a star to build around in the future. It’s a big advantage, with so much up in the air.
“There’s a lot of great talent in that class,” Gardner Morey said. “There’s a lot of good players that are going to come out of there. But it is pretty exciting that you have the control of the first pick of who you would like to bring into this city and make a big impact on our program.”
Sophie Jaques lifts Vancouver to a 4-3 overtime victory over Minnesota. The Goldeneyes, who had already been eliminated from post-season contention, finish the season in 6th place, while the Frost had already locked down the third seed in the Walter Cup Playoffs.
‘Nerve wracking’ wait for information
The Toronto Sceptres came within one regulation win of making the playoffs.
Instead, a 3-0 loss to Ottawa on Saturday means the Sceptres will miss the postseason for the first time in three seasons.
The team lost several key players in expansion and free agency last season, and struggled to find offence with those players gone.
Now, the Sceptres enter the offseason with nearly all of its key players hitting free agency, including captain Blayre Turnbull, star forward Daryl Watts, and top defender, Renata Fast.
Uncertainty was weighing on some of those players on Monday, too.
“We haven’t heard any details on expansion yet other than it’s happening,” Turnbull said. “I guess we haven’t even heard that but we assume it’s happening. But we don’t know the rules around it. All I can say is that I want to be in Toronto and play for the Sceptres for a few more years, so that’s where I’m at.”
Fast, who also said she’d like to return to Toronto, described the uncertainty as “nerve wracking.”
A four-team expansion would bring the league to 12 teams, a magic number that league leadership have talked about as they look toward securing a U.S. national broadcast rights deal and more corporate partnerships.
It would also mean more stability across the league. Players could sign longer contracts with some security, and coaches would have more time to work with young players signed to multi-year deals, something Toronto GM Gina Kingsbury believes her coaching staff could capitalize on.
“We may be able to really set a good foundation where athletes could spend two or three years with our coaching staff, which we believe our coaching staff will do a great job at developing athletes long term,” she said.
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