2025-26 PWHL team preview: Toronto Sceptres

LAST SEASON

The Toronto Sceptres went into last season with high expectations, hoping to avenge their first-round defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Frost. But Toronto struggled off the bat with reigning Billie Jean King MVP Natalie Spooner out with an injury suffered the previous spring. 

The team would eventually find its way, thanks to breakout seasons from Daryl Watts and Hannah Miller, as well as an elite campaign from Renata Fast on the blue line. The Sceptres finished with a 12-3-6-9 record and 48 points, second in the league. 

Facing the Frost again in the first round of the playoffs, Toronto would take Game 1 but lose the next three, including a 4-3 overtime loss in Game 4, ending their season early for the second consecutive season. 

Fast was named the PWHL Defender of the Year and became the first-ever defender who was named a finalist for the league MVP. 

KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES

Additions

Elaine Chuli, G
Claire Dalton, F
Ella Shelton, D

Departures

Lauren Bernard, D (NYS)
Kristen Campbell, G (VAN)
Megan Carter, D (SEA)
Izzy Daniel, F (VAN)
Julia Gosling, F (SEA)
Carly Jackson, G (SEA)
Laura Kluge, F (BOS)
Rylind MacKinnon, D (BOS)
Hannah Miller, F (VAN)
Sarah Nurse, F (VAN)
Hayley Scamurra, F (MTL)

OFFENSE

The loss of Miller and Nurse is a major loss for a Sceptres group that was two goals away from last place in offense. Daryl Watts, who joined Toronto after a 10-goal season with the Ottawa Charge, led the team in goals and points with 12 and 27, respectively, often looking like the best player on the ice*. She will need to replicate that production if the Sceptres want to keep up with the rest of the league.

*Not named Fast, of course

Starting the season fully healthy, Spooner hopes to find some of the success she had in 2023-24 when she scored a league-record 20 goals. While it’s not easy for a 35-year-old to come back from ACL surgery, Spooner’s pedigree and the motivation to return to form after scoring just three times in 14 games could give Toronto a motivated star winger. 

Expect Emma Maltais and captain Blayre Turnbull to take on bigger offensive roles. After a 15-assist, 19-point campaign in 2023-24, Maltais took a step last season, finishing with just nine points. She will need to find the same spark that helped her record four points in four playoff games. Both her and Turnbull must be down the middle, being relentless in corner battles and on loose pucks and generating chances for their linemates. 

The acquisition of Shelton brings a massive boost on Toronto’s blue line from New York, as the Clarkson alumnus led all PWHL defenders in goals with eight and finished fourth in points with 16. The combination of her and Fast give the Sceptres arguably the best offensive blueline in the league, rivalling the Vancouver Goldeneye’s combination of Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson. 

Toronto was far-and-away the best power play in the league at 25.8%, seven points ahead of the next team. However, the combination of Miller, Gosling and Nurse scored 11 of their 24 goals with the extra skater, so head coach Troy Ryan will need to make adjustments if they want to maintain their power-play production.  

DEFENSE

As mentioned, the addition of Shelton to an already-stacked Toronto defensive corps makes this the team’s greatest strength. We mentioned Fast’s Defender of the Year award and her elite production, but she was also one of the best defensive blueliners in the game, leading the league with 63 hits and finishing third with 49 blocked shots. Shelton also brings a physical edge to her game, finishing ninth in the league with 32 hits. 

Fast and Shelton were also the No. 1 and 2 leaders in ice time, each averaging more than 24 minutes per game. The two of them anchoring their own defensive pairs will give the Sceptres an advantage against every team’s top-two lines, with teams facing at least one elite blueliner for more than two-thirds of the game. 

Savannah Harmon is expected to have a bounceback season after being traded to Toronto just a handful of games into 2024-25. The coaching staff tested her early and often during her first month in Toronto, nearly skating 30 minutes per game. She would eventually find her game and looked strong during their first-round series against the Frost. 

While the previously mentioned trio is expected to carry the load, Kali Flanagan and Allie Munroe will provide some reliable depth. The departures of Megan Carter and Rylind MacKinnon could pave the way for Anna Kjellbin, who re-signed with the club after being acquired in a trade with the Montreal Victoire.

GOALTENDING

The Sceptres shocked PWHL fans when they benched Campbell, the 2024 Goaltender of the Year, for Game 4 against the Frost, starting Jackson instead, who only appeared in one regular-season game. Toronto went on to trade Campbell to Vancouver at the 2025 PWHL Draft.

Last season’s backup Raygan Kirk suffered a season-ending injury in March, finishing her rookie campaign with a 5-1-1-1 record, a .917 save percentage (SV%) and 2.26 goals against average (GAA). With the offseason departures of Campbell and Jackson, Kirk now enters the 2025-26 season hoping to get the starting job. 

She will have to battle Chuli for the job, who comes to Toronto after two successful seasons with the Victoire. Through 20 career PWHL games, Chuli has a .927 SV% with a 2.05 GAA, and that may only improve as she joins a defensively sound Sceptres group. 

ROOKIES

The Sceptres traded their first-round pick to the Sirens in the Shelton trade, but Toronto and its management group have made it clear they value proven veterans over undeveloped prospects, letting their top-three 2024 draft picks in Gosling, Carter, Daniel and Bernard. 

Kiara Zanon and Emma Gentry, the team’s 2025 second-round picks, have looked strong in the preseason, each scoring a goal and neither being afraid to throw the puck at the net. Zanon finished her college career averaging more than a point-per-game in four of her five NCAA seasons, while Gentry’s 5-foot-11 frame and strong defensive instincts make her an ideal option in the bottom-six of Ryan’s lineup. 

COACHING

Ryan has won Olympic gold and World Championships as the head coach for the Canadian National Team, and will have a chance to win another Olympic medal this February in Italy. He’s found plenty of success in the PWHL regular season, being named the 2024 Coach of the Year after finishing with the best regular-season record, and the Sceptres were only a few points shy of another first-place finish last season. 

But Ryan hasn’t been able to get his group over the roadblock of the PWHL’s first round, and some are wondering what that means for both him and general manager Gina Kingsbury if we see another premature exit for a Toronto group that’s skated future Hockey Hall of Famers. 

This season will be Ryan’s greatest test with the departure of key offensive weapons and the desperation of generating postseason results. If the Sceptres can get over the hump and compete for the Walter Cup, it may be his greatest accomplishment. If they fall short again, it may be time for a fresh start in the 6ix. 

PREDICTIONS

The Sceptres are icing arguably the best defensive corps in the league, but question marks up front and in the crease could cause this team to take a step back in 2025-26. Once we know who will get the majority of starts in net — and if they will be quality starts — we’ll have a better idea of how far this team goes into the postseason. But they still have to make it to the postseason before we go that far. 

That being said, my early prediction has the Sceptres finishing fourth and being eliminated in the first round.