Toggle sidebar

Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) News

JMCx4

JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Sep 3, 2017
14,066
8,862
St. Louis, MO
Some gap-filling speculation from THN ...
Three Free Agency Targets For Each PWHL Team

With free agency underway, here are three players each PWHL franchise could be targeting and already in negotiations with.

IAN KENNEDY
8 HOURS AGO (September 3, 2023)

Free agency for the PWHL is underway, albeit with a slow start as teams and general managers work to meet and negotiate with players, navigate salary and the CBA, and plan not only for free agency, but the draft.

With the draft the only opportunity to take NCAA and USports graduates, it seems that the initial free agency will be used to secure veteran talent. Looking at a mix of professional, geographic, and NCAA allegiances for players, as well as age and position, here's a look at three targets for each of the PWHL's six franchises. ...


Read more at: https://thehockeynews.com/womens/pwhl/three-free-agency-targets-for-each-pwhl-team
Click to expand...
 
  • Like
Reactions: uncleben

FrHockeyFan

Registered User
Dec 25, 2017
353
237
Kind of confirming what I thought 2 months ago... they weren't planning to launch the league for at least another year...
 
JMCx4

JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Sep 3, 2017
14,066
8,862
St. Louis, MO
Should we be labeling this thread as "Speculation" (or whatever the equivalent HFB tag)? "News" has been an awful lot of "sounds like" guessing. I'm losing enthusiasm for this "soft start" in a time crunch. :confused:
 
Gigantor The Goalie

Gigantor The Goalie

Speak for the Goalies
Feb 4, 2012
13,078
2,538
New London
caymanmew said:


Not exactly who I'd choose but getting a solid goalie locked up as well as a star forward is good. Can now focus on getting a top D in the draft hopefully.
Click to expand...


I would have gone either Clark or Jenner and then sign two top pairing defenders. There's so much forward talent available and goalie talent available compared to the defensive talent available it makes sense to wait on the first two in favour of building a great defense. Luckily for Ottawa every other team decided to opt for name recognition so the draft is going to be huge especially picks 5 and 7.
 

caymanmew

Registered User
May 18, 2014
1,895
144
Ottawa
Gigantor The Goalie said:
I would have gone either Clark or Jenner and then sign two top pairing defenders. There's so much forward talent available and goalie talent available compared to the defensive talent available it makes sense to wait on the first two in favour of building a great defense. Luckily for Ottawa every other team decided to opt for name recognition so the draft is going to be huge especially picks 5 and 7.
Click to expand...

I actually really like how we are set up here. We have a good goalie so we don't need to worry about picking one early, whereas Toronto does not have one. If their first pick doesn't go to a goalie they might end up with slim pickings. Montreal is basically the same as us, 2 forwards and a goalie, but we draft before them. Hopefully, that means we can get a top pair D, Either Thompson or Ambrose would be my pick. I'd suspect Montreal would take the other if both are on the board come our pick.
 

FrHockeyFan

Registered User
Dec 25, 2017
353
237
Maschmeyer confirmed Geneviève Lacasse will not play in the PWHL and will retire from hockey. So one less contender for a goalie spot.

 
Gigantor The Goalie

Gigantor The Goalie

Speak for the Goalies
Feb 4, 2012
13,078
2,538
New London
caymanmew said:
I actually really like how we are set up here. We have a good goalie so we don't need to worry about picking one early, whereas Toronto does not have one. If their first pick doesn't go to a goalie they might end up with slim pickings. Montreal is basically the same as us, 2 forwards and a goalie, but we draft before them. Hopefully, that means we can get a top pair D, Either Thompson or Ambrose would be my pick. I'd suspect Montreal would take the other if both are on the board come our pick.
Click to expand...

I think it's a fine and safe trio. You get name recognition and high end talent. If you're looking at making the most of your signings though and picking from the pool that has the least amount of high end talent available at the most important position then teams are making a mistake by not grabbing at least one defender if not two. Defense that provides offence wins championships. There's actually a lot of forward and goalie talent available. You could wait till almost every team has two goalies before you pick your first goalie and not be worried about the goaltending position.



Instead by every team not going defense you can grab a very good top pair at picks 5 and 7 from a group of: Bourbonnais, Thompson, Shelton, Ambrose, Harmon, Jaques, Poulin-Labelle, Bell. That's pretty much it for top pair defenders though with vets like Fortino and Mikkelson maybe having enough in them to provide one more year of top pair play.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JMCx4 and uncleben
JMCx4

JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Sep 3, 2017
14,066
8,862
St. Louis, MO
Gigantor The Goalie said:
Yup! Only GM to make it look like they're actually trying to build a team and not just grab the best players within 100KM.
Click to expand...
Could it be that adding players on a compressed schedule (which somehow seems long & drawn out from where the fans sit) while dealing with visa issues is dictating the free agent signing patterns? Plus there's the matter of this process (among many others) being new to the GMs & team/league staffs. The learning curve is mighty steep.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FrHockeyFan, uncleben and Roadhog
You must log in or register to reply here.

Ad

Latest posts

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

Top Bottom