PWHL Roster Moves And Other News

While only two trades were completed on trade deadline day, PWHL general managers still had some tweaking to make to their roster, and they only had until the roster freeze at noon on March 19 to do so. This morning, the league revealed the teams’ final moves.

In Montreal, Daniele Sauvageau had to put one of her players on the long-term injured reserve list, but the team’s fans will be happy to hear it’s not captain Marie-Philip Poulin who remains day-to-day. Still, Ann-Sophie Bettez will be missed. She might only have five points in 15 games, but Bettez brought a lot more than points to the team with her experience and leadership qualities. The clock is probably ticking on the 36-year-old’s career, Bettez only signed a one year deal. With a brand new class of college graduates to pick from at the next PWHL draft, who knows if she will be able to sign a new deal. Hopefully, this is not how her career ends. Everyone should be able to retire from the game on their own terms. 

Since Montreal has been hit with a lot of injuries, Sauvageau had to sign a pair of reserve players, Liliane Perreault and Brooke Stacey  Perreault, a 24-year-old American, is the daughter of former NHLer Yanic Perreault and sister of Rangers’ prospect Gabe Perreault. She attended PWHL Ottawa’s training camp as a free agent invite and played in two scrimmages in Utica. Peereault spent the year playing in Sweden, where she gathered 11 points in 12 games with Frolunda HC.

As for their second reserve signing, Stacey is a native of Kahnawake, QC and was a free agent invited to Montreal’s training camp. She spent last season playing for the Montreal Force in the PHF, where she produced nine points in 24 games. She is no relation to Montreal’s forward Laura Stacey.

In Boston, after acquiring the rights to Caitrin Lonergan from Ottawa at the trade deadline, Danielle Marmer signed the Boston native to a reserve contract, and she signed another one with Kelly Babstock. As for Nicole Kosta, she went from being a reserve to signing a 10-Day Standard Player Agreement. Babstock, who is fourth in all-time points in the PHF with 96 in 112 games, spent part of the season playing in the SWHL A in Switzerland with Lugano, where she gathered 13 points in eight games. After being drafted by Ottawa, Lonergan decided to focus on her off-ice career this year, but is now ready to join the league with her hometown team. The 26-year-old Clarkson graduate played with the Connecticut Whale in the PHF last season, gathering 18 points in 23 games. 

Kosta started the season on Boston’s roster, playing three of their seven games before being made a reserve player.

Ottawa also signed a couple of reserve player contracts with Malia Schneider and Audrey-Anne Veillette. The former attended Ottawa’s training camp but couldn’t crack the roster. So, she signed a reserve contract with the team, but left at the end of December to play for Brynas IF in Sweden. While in Sweden, Schneider scored 10 points in 12 games. 

As for the latter, Veillette was injured and unable to compete until now, so the team hadn’t signed its 15th-round pick. To make room on Ottawa’s roster, Mike Hirshfeld released Samantha Ridgewell from her reserve contract.

In the good news category, the PWHL was nominated for a 2024 Sports Business Award in the Sports Breakthrough of the Year category. This is hardly surprising considering all the work accomplished in so little time to put this new league on the rails.

Tickets for the Duel at the Top between Toronto and Montreal at the Bell Center on April 20th went on general sale this morning, and within 20 minutes, they had all sold out. Of course, many tickets were already sold on numerous presales with different groups, but this shows how popular the PWHL is right now. Come April 20th, Montreal should beat the world record for the biggest attendance at a women’s hockey game ever. Move over Toronto! 

If the fans are doing their part to beat their Toronto counterparts, Montreal will be eager to play this game and make sure Toronto doesn’t sweep the season series.