Author: admin

On Friday, September 1st, 2023, it would be a busy day in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) with hiring’s and signings.

Naming General Managers

Kicking off the day the PWHL would announce at 9a EST the General Managers for all six clubs.

The six individuals that would be named General Manager for the league’s six teams would be:

Boston

Danielle Marmer – Marmer comes from the Boston Bruins where she served the last year as a Player Development and Scouting Assistant, where she would become the first woman to hold an on-ice role with the organization. Marmer was previously the Director of Player Development at Quinnipiac University and an assistant coach for Connecticut College’s Women’s Hockey team. Raised in Dorset, Vermont, Marmer’s playing experience includes being a member of the winningest class in Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey history.

Minnesota

Natalie Darwitz – Darwitz’s playing career included winning three Olympic medals, three IIHF World Championship gold medals, and two NCAA National Championships at the University of Minnesota. She is also a former U.S. Olympic Team Captain and three-time NCAA All-American. Darwitz spent the last two seasons as an Associate Head Coach of the Gophers NCAA D1 women’s hockey team.

Montreal

Danièle Sauvageau – Originally from Deux-Montagnes, Quebec, Sauvageau’s wide range of experience includes coaching Canada’s National Women’s Team to its first ever Olympic Gold Medal in 2002, becoming the first woman to coach in the Canadian Hockey League (QMJHL), and founding the women’s hockey program at the University of Montreal. Sauvageau also held the GM role for the PWHPA’s Montreal region from 2020-23 and head coach from 2020-22.

New York

Pascal Daoust – Daoust’s hockey career has spanned nearly three decades across a multitude of roles in the game. Most recently, he served as the General Manager of the Val-d’Or Foreurs of the QMJHL from 2016-23. Prior to the QMJHL, Daoust was also an Assistant Coach for the startup University of Montreal’s women’s hockey team, winning two national championships, along with three additional national podiums, in seven seasons.

Ottawa

Michael Hirshfeld – For the past seven years Hirshfeld served as the Executive Director of the NHL Coaches’ Association (NHLCA). His role included fostering the NHLCA’s relationships with hockey federations and associations across North America, Europe, and Asia., as well as support to coaches of all levels across the NHL and AHL.

Toronto

Gina Kingsbury – Kingsbury most recently served as Vice President of Hockey Operations at Hockey Canada and has also been the General Manager of Canadian Women’s National Team Programs since 2018. As General Manager of the CWNTP she has won Olympic gold in 2022 and back-to-back gold at the 2021 and 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championships.

The PWHL Draft

Then at 10a EST the PWHL announced the results of the draft lottery that was conducted to to establish the order for the inaugural PWHL Draft which will take place on Monday, September 18th, 2023.

The lottery was administered by PWHL Hockey Operations using a computerized list randomizer during a video conference call with all six General Managers. Teams had equal odds of securing the top pick in the lottery process.

The draft will consist of 15 rounds and 90 total picks, and will use a snake format in which, once a round is completed, the following round will be conducted with the teams selecting in the reverse order of the previous round. There will be no draft picks traded until at least the completion of the 2023-24 season.

Any player who is interested in competing in the 2023-24 PWHL season must declare for the draft by Sept. 3. Prior to the Sept. 18 draft, a 10-day free agency period will commence at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sept. 1 allowing each team the opportunity to sign three players to Standard Player Agreements.

After conducting the draft lottery, the Montreal franchise was awarded the first overall pick in the PWHL Draft. The draft order is as follows:

Results are in! Here is the order of the first round picks for the inaugural PWHL Draft:

📰Learn more about the draft lottery process:https://t.co/zLNp1aTq5V pic.twitter.com/BVrvgJpSld

— PWHL (@thepwhlofficial) September 1, 2023

2023 PWHL DRAFT ORDER OF SELECTION

Round 1:
1. Minnesota, 2. Toronto, 3. Boston, 4. New York, 5. Ottawa, 6. Montreal.

Round 2:
7. Montreal, 8. Ottawa, 9. New York, 10. Boston, 11. Toronto, 12. Minnesota.

Round 3:
13. Minnesota, 14. Toronto, 15. Boston, 16. New York, 17. Ottawa, 18. Montreal.

Round 4:
19. Montreal, 20. Ottawa, 21. New York, 22. Boston, 23. Toronto, 24. Minnesota.

Round 5:
25. Minnesota, 26. Toronto, 27. Boston, 28. New York, 29. Ottawa, 30. Montreal.

Round 6:
31. Montreal, 32. Ottawa, 33. New York, 34. Boston, 35. Toronto, 36. Minnesota.

Round 7:
37. Minnesota, 38. Toronto, 39. Boston, 40. New York, 41. Ottawa, 42. Montreal.

Round 8:
43. Montreal, 44. Ottawa, 45. New York, 46. Boston, 47. Toronto, 48. Minnesota.

Round 9:
49. Minnesota, 50. Toronto, 51. Boston, 52. New York, 53. Ottawa, 54. Montreal.

Round 10:
55. Montreal, 56. Ottawa, 57. New York, 58. Boston, 59. Toronto, 60. Minnesota.

Round 11:
61. Minnesota, 62. Toronto, 63. Boston, 64. New York, 65. Ottawa, 66. Montreal.

Round 12:
67. Montreal, 68. Ottawa, 69. New York, 70. Boston, 71. Toronto, 72. Minnesota.

Round 13:
73. Minnesota, 74. Toronto, 75. Boston, 76. New York, 77. Ottawa, 78. Montreal.

Round 14:
79. Montreal, 80. Ottawa, 81. New York, 82. Boston, 83. Toronto, 84. Minnesota.

Round 15:
85. Minnesota, 86. Toronto, 87. Boston, 88. New York, 89. Ottawa, 90. Montreal.

Free Agency Opens

Then at 1p ET Free Agency would officially open. All six teams will have an opportunity to sign three players before the Draft. Free Agency will be open until September 10th.

Any player that is not drafted will be able to sign with any team as an undrafted free agent.

TXHT may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through Cool Hockey and Dr. Squatch ads/links in this article.

Today we welcome the PWHL as the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the six team locations are officially announced.

In today’s conference call that was used to introduce the PWHL, we would hear from Board member Stan Kasten, and Hockey Operations Senior Vice President Jayna Hefford.

Brian Burke would also be officially introduced as the Executive Director of the PWHLPA.

"We are committed to a platform of fairness, equity and equality."

Executive Director of the PWHLPA, Brian Burke, spoke to the media about the plans for the new Professional Women’s Hockey League. pic.twitter.com/y0BCNYyhnp

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 29, 2023

Notes

Per Stan Kasten, the League is officially the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), and the website is officially thePWHL.com. Today is also officially day one for the League.

The PWHL 2023-24 season will officially begin in January 2024 with a 24 game season. The 2024-25 season to begin in November 2024 with a 32 game schedule.

Locations

On the call we would learn of the six locations for the new PWHL teams. The six teams will be located in:

Boston

New York (City area)

Minnesota (Minneapolis-St. Paul)

Montreal

Toronto

Ottawa

Team names, jerseys, logos, and arenas/training facilities are still in a work in progress.

The NHL is working with the PWHL on helping schedule neutral site games in markets that won’t have teams this season. NHL is working in a consultative state currently.

The schedule for the 2023-24 season is expected to released in October 2023.

Player Selection Process

Also on the call we would learn of the Player Selection Process for the PWHL.

A list of over 300 players from around the world that has been deemed eligible for the PWHL has been compiled, and will be supplied to the General Managers. General Managers are expected to be named soon.

All players will need to declare their eligibility for the Draft by Sept. 3rd. The Draft will take place in Toronto on Sept. 18th. There will be 15 Rounds in the Draft.

Per the PWHL release for the Draft Selection Process, the order of selection for the first round will be determined by a draft lottery. The following rounds will follow the “snake format” which will see the subsequent rounds be conducted with the teams selecting in the reverse order of the previous round. No draft picks can be traded until the completion of the 2023-24 season.

Once a player is drafted, the team will hold their rights for two years. If a player goes unsigned for two years, they will become eligible to enter the draft again. However, a player can not declare for more than two drafts.

Sept. 1st Free Agency will open, and for the first ten days the General Managers will be allowed to sign three players. Any player who does not get drafted will become a free agent immediately following the draft, and can sign a Standard Player Agreement with any team.

No more than 20 Standard Player Agreements per team are permitted to be executed in advance of 2023-24 Training Camps, which will commence in November. Six players on each team will be signed to three-year SPAs of no less than $80,000 per league year. In 2023-24, up to five players on each team will be signed to two-year SPAs. A player will become a free agent following the termination or end date of a signed SPA.

PWHL Press Release

Per the CBA, Training Camp is required to have 28 players attending. Training Camp is expected to begin in early November and run for about six weeks.

Final Thoughts

At this time the jury is still out for me. There was a lot of information thrown our way, but still a lot of questions to be answered. One question will be about the Transgender Policy and how inclusive it will truly be. We know Brian Burke is a full fledged ally of the LGBT+ community, so it will be interesting to see how this policy comes out.

Hefford says the #PWHL is working on their transgender policy and that will be available soon.

Q from @TheIceGarden’s Mike Murphy.

— Anne Tokarski (@annetokarski) August 29, 2023

I’m interested in seeing who the six General Managers are going to be, and what comes of Free Agency which starts this Friday. I’m also interested in seeing who all of the players were that made the list of 300 plus that were deemed eligible for the Draft. I’m genuinely interested in seeing how many players from the PHF were placed on that list.

Lastly, I’m really interested in seeing how the PWHL wins over the fans that are going to hold out over how the sale and shuttering of the PHF went down. There are a lot of fans who were loyal to the PHF, and are bitter about how the PHF is no longer around. So I’d like to see how the PWHL addresses those fans and how they plan to build a bridge to close that divide.

The PWHL has hit the ground running for it’s first official day, and there is a lot more to come in the coming days, weeks, and months, so stay tuned.

TXHT may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through Cool Hockey and Dr. Squatch ads/links in this article.