The second-ever draft in the Professional Women’s Hockey League history, happened on June 10th at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, Minnesota. Adding up to the roster of the six teams in the league would be 42 women throughout seven rounds. The team from New York, after a not-so-great year but a comeback in the end, which leaves high hopes for the upcoming season, was able to gather the first pick of the draft.
For the new season, the team will take on with these new additions, and a new technical team – Greg Fargo was announced as the new head coach after the team parted ways with Howie Draper at the end of the season.
It is important to remember that the PWHL New York has yet to found an official arena for the team as of the first season of the league. The team played at Total Mortgage Arena (Connecticut), also home of the Bridgeport Islanders; Prudential Center – home of the New Jersey Devils; and UBS arena, home of the New York Islanders. Another thing that has yet to come are the logo and official name of the team, which will be announced on August.
Three New York players are finalists on the PWHL Awards, happening on June 11th. Those are: Alex Carpenter (Forward of the Year and Billie Jean King MVP award); Corinne Schroeder (Goaltender of the Year); and Ella Shelton (Defender of the Year).
The Draft and Selected Players
At the start, the team would select the following picks: the 1# pick (round one), #7 (round 2), #13 (round three), #19 (round four), #25 (round five), and #37 (round seven). However, during the draft, they traded the picks #7 and #37 for Boston’s #10, #16 and #28.
Sarah Fillier – first pick, round one
Sarah Fillier is a Native from Georgetown, Canada. The forward had an impressive college and international career. She played for the Princeton Tigers from 2018 to 2024, being nominated captain in her second season. In her first and second seasons as a Tiger, she achieved an impressive mark of 57 points. In her last one, she was able to gather 30 goals and 13 assists.
She is a three time world and olympic champion with team Canada. She was also won Most Valuable Player and Best Forward in the World’s Championship last year.
She will be a great addition to the team, being not only great on offense but also on defense.
Maja Nylén Persson – pick ten, round two
The first international pick of the 2024 draft, was Persson. She is a defense player from Avesta, Sweden.
She has an extensive career in international tournaments and used to play in the Svenska hockeyligan (SDHL). She has been wearing the Alternative Captain patch since the 2018-19 season for her home team. She was considered a top three players in the Swedish team in the 2024 worlds championship.
Last season in the SDHL, she gathered 38 points in 36 games, being 11 goals and 27 assists. She was nominated Defender of the Year and had the most assists and points by a defensemen in the entire league.
Noora Tulus – pick 13, round three
Another international player, Noora Tulus is from Vantaa, Finland. She is the oldest pick by New York, 28 years old.
Similarly to Persson, she also played in the SDHL. She has been a Luleå HF player for eight years. In the 2023-24 season, which she won the championship, she had impressive 61 points in 36 games, 39 assists and 22 goals. In the playoffs, she was able to gather 12 points in nine games, four goals and 12 assists. Her stats are unique. She had the best face-off percentage 64.72%, most points and most assists in the league.
Allyson Simpson – pick 16, round three
Allyson Simpson is from Frisco, Texas. She has played for Colgate University since 2019. She was nominated Captain of the team for the 2022-23 season. On the last season, during 40 games, she was able to get 25 assists and nine goals.
In two consecutive years, the defense player won gold in the U18 World Championship with team United States.
Gabby Rosenthal – pick 19, round four
Gabby Rosenthal was drafted in her home state, Minnesota. Roshental spent five years as an Ohio State Buckeye, being one of multiple other buckeye players drafted on the PWHL 2024 class. She won the NCAA championship in 2022.
On her last season in Ohio, 2022-23, through her 35 games played, she achieved 37 points (21 goals and 16 assists). She is the sixth player with most points, fourth most points and seventh most assists in the program history.
Elle Hartje – pick 25, round five
Danielle Hartje is a Detroit, Michigan, native. She was a Yale Bulldog for four years. In what would’ve been her second year, she went on to play in SKP Bratislava, EWHL, Russia. During that season (2020-21), she had the most points (25), assists (14) and goals (11) on the team. Also gathering, best plus/minus, most points and goals in the playoffs for the team.
Last season, she played 32 games for the Bulldogs. She got 40 points, being those 28 assists and 12 goals.
Kayle Osborne – pick 28, round five
Kayla Osborne is from Westport, Ontario, Canada. The only goaltender drafted by the PWHL New York team. Like Allyson Simpson, she played for Colgate University for the past four years.
She was a starter for most of the games on her senior year, 30 in total. Having an impressive save percentage of .941 and goals against average of 1.28. Her record for the 2023-24 season was 20-4-1 with six shutouts.
Emmy Fecteau – pick 31, round six
Emmy Fecteau is originally from Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne, Quebec, Canada. She was the first Usports player drafted. She played five years for the Concordia University, taking them to the playoffs for the last three consecutive years. During her third year, she won the championship. In the 2022-23 season, she was assigned as an alternate captain.
On her last season, she played 25 games and gathered the same quantity of points. Those being nine goals and 16 assists. She had an impressive playoff run, in only six games, achieving 13 points – nine assists and four goals.
Draft Overall
The PWHL New York has one of the best draft classes of the year. A quantity of eight players being one goaltender, five forwards, and two defensemen. After having a first draft concentrated on the blue line, the team was already well-rounded. This time, their choices were approached with a very solid and non-specific position interest.
The off-season promises to be even more interesting and the training camps will show more how the team will settle its roster for the 2024-25 season.
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