Goldeneyes place Sarah Nurse on long-term injured reserve

One of the game’s top stars is on the shelf once again.

On Friday, the Vancouver Goldeneyes placed forward Sarah Nurse on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury. In response, the team has signed Malia Schneider off its reserve roster to a standard contract.

Nurse was one of the Goldeneyes’ biggest signings during the expansion process this past summer, immediately giving one of the PWHL’s newest teams some star power. Unfortunately, her start with the team has hit a roadblock. She scored a goal in the team’s first-ever game, a 4-3 overtime win over fellow expansion team Seattle Torrent. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for the Hamilton, Ont. native, as she registered 20:20 of ice time in the win.

She’s missed the last three games due to the ailment. Her absence has been noticeable, as Vancouver was swept on its three-game road trip, scoring just twice in defeats at the hands of the Ottawa Charge, New York Sirens and Boston Fleet.

With Nurse’s placement on LTIR retroactive to Nov. 21, she won’t be eligible to return to the lineup until Dec. 16, when the Goldeneyes come out of the international break against the Charge. With Vancouver hosting the Sirens on Saturday afternoon, there’s a chance that the 30-year-old might miss just one more game.

This isn’t the first time Nurse has missed a considerable amount of time. After getting hurt in the Rivalry Series last year, the then-Toronto Sceptres star missed over a month on LTIR, limiting her to 21 games. Nurse scored six goals and eight assists for 14 points in her second season with Toronto.

Schneider started the 2025-26 season with SDE HF of the SDHL in Sweden, the team she spent all of last season with. In 10 games, the 27-year-old had registered two assists. In 2024-25, the former Colgate star potted 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points. Schneider did play a pair of games late in the 2024 regular season with Ottawa after Becca Gilmore was placed on LTIR.