The question is simple but for PWHL general managers the answer could be the difference between looking like a genius and looking at Gold Plan standings. Who are the players who have career years? Or the players who see such a bump in their play that it results in a noticeable boost to the team? We all just saw what Rebecca Leslie did for the Ottawa Charge this season — and she was a free agent signing in the 2024 off-season.
The 30-year-old is a three-year PWHL veteran who had three goals in 51 games coming into this season. Leslie looked like a prototypical bottom six grinding forward with not much further upside. Suddenly, though, she has 14 goals in 30 games — her highest goal rate since the 2017/18 season with Boston University. In 18/19 Leslie did have 11 goals in 27 games for the Calgary Inferno. Since the 22/23 hockey season, though, it looked like the scoring had left her game.
In a different situation we have Mae Batherson on the blueline stepping up for the Minnesota Frost. Offensively, her rookie season was not notable except perhaps for how lackluster it was. Batherson put up three points in 25 games in a mostly third pairing role. Interestingly, her 24/25 5v5 Goals For% was second in the entire PWHL at 70.8%. That’s ahead of even Marie-Philip Poulin, who finished with a 68.8% 5v5 GF%.
Batherson was put into a second pair role and flourished in her second PWHL season. With fifteen points in 30 games, eight of those were primary points. She was also was third on the Frost blueline in even-strength points (7). Her defensive numbers didn’t suffer much, either. Batherson finished with a 63.6% EVGF% despite the Frost finishing sixth in even-strength team SV%.
Significant improvement can come from any player at any time. That’s the great thing about the PWHL: there are a lot of talented players who are just some luck and opportunity away from being game breakers. That’s what GMs are looking for. GMs typically don’t think players who just had a career year will be that productive again because, unless they’re among the elite, the chances of repeating such a season are slim. Just ask the Vancouver Goldeneyes how it worked out bringing in four of the top nine players last season in shooting%.
With expansion coming and coming in with four new teams, GMs are going to be looking even harder in the nooks and crannies of the league to find unexpectedly productive players. A team’s season hangs in the balance of whether or not the GM can find an overachieving forward and blueliner. Ottawa doesn’t make the playoffs this season, for instance, if Leslie doesn’t finish second in the league lead in goals.
Where do you find these players? What are the signs? I think one of the first places to look is teams who have kept players in defensive roles but have the offence to make a difference if put into different roles. You can also look for the PWHL teams that suppress their own offence in exchange for better defence. Two examples of this coming to mind are Julia Gosling and Izzy Daniel. They’ve had very good seasons after playing in the Toronto Sceptres’ bottom six. For eight of the 12 PWHL GMs that’s unhelpful as they’re not going to be able to take players under contract. With the size of this year’s free agent class — and for the sake of article length — we’re going to focus in on unrestricted free agents.
Having finished last again in even strength goals per game (1.13 EVGF/GP), it’s hard not to look at Toronto. There might be a free agent there ready for a breakout season. If you’re an expansion team, obviously you’re looking at Emma Gentry and Kiara Zanon, who were Toronto’s second round picks in 2025. Meghan Turner, for example, can’t get them for free because they have a contract or their rights held with Toronto. I think the target in mind for most teams is Maggie Connors.
Connors’ NCAA career established that she can score goals and be productive, with three seasons above a point per game and two 20-goal seasons. She also finished top two in goal scoring on Princeton in all four seasons. Her first two seasons in the PWHL, Connors found herself in a bottom six role and performed fine. She also added five goals in 54 games, putting her goals/60 at 58th all-time alongside Hannah Brandt. What’s been promising for Connors is her shot quantity and her shot quality.
Connors didn’t shoot much in her first PWHL season with a 5.57 SOG/60. In her next two seasons she found her groove, going to a 7.80 SOG/60 and this season ending at 7.85 SOG/60. She’s established herself as someone who can get pucks to the net. She’s also established that she gets to the areas of the ice where goals happen. Connors feels like the ideal candidate for a breakout season. For one, she is an established NCAA goal scorer. She has improved every year in the PWHL and proven herself as a PWHL depth scorer. She is not afraid to shoot, and finds the scoring areas of the ice to shoot from.
In that vein of finding players who may have been offensively held back on historically struggling offensive teams, why not look at the Boston Fleet? They either struggle to score or they struggle to create offence. With so many UFAs, they are definitely a team to look at for breakout candidates. In scouring the Boston roster, the first one to come to mind is Sophie Shirley.
When looking at the odds of having a breakout season, Shirley is more on the long shot side. For Shirley, what drives the potential for a breakout is she was very good at the University of Wisconsin. She had three straight point per game seasons to start her NCAA career. When Shirley came into the PWHL, like Maggie Connors above, she was put into a bottom six role and there she has stayed. She’s been effective in the role both in terms of being a physical forward and providing depth scoring.
Her NCAA career and her latest season are what put her on this list. Despite missing eight games to injury, Shirley had her most productive season yet. She found some chemistry with Jamie Lee Rattray and Susanna Tapani. If a team is looking for a breakout candidate for goal scoring, I don’t think Shirley fits the bill. She doesn’t shoot a whole lot and this season actually hit 17.6% in SH%. Where Shirley might find her role is being the Maddi Wheeler type who wins puck battles and sets up goals.
