TIG Roundtable: PWHL 2024-25 Midseason Award Winners

Welcome to The Ice Garden PWHL 2024-25 Midseason Roundtable! As the PWHL is about to come back off break and nearly every team at 15 games now is a great time to see who are the frontrunners are for the various PWHL awards. Eight Ice Garden staff members participated in filling out ballots for every award and four of them have written explanations for why they voted the way they did.

Billie Jean King MVP: Sarah Fillier

J Gray: I did not find this an easy decision, but I ended up going with Aerin Frankel over Sarah Fillier. While New York looks significantly better than last season and Fillier’s stats are extremely impressive, I can’t lay all of the team’s success at her skates. New York’s systems have taken a big step forward from last year. In Boston, however, not much has changed year-to-year. The team is still struggling to score, and Frankel is still performing at an elite level.

I predict that Boston will squeak into the playoffs again even if they don’t see significant improvement on offense. It’s Frankel who is keeping this team in the running, and to me, that embodies the definition of this award: “most valuable to their team’s success throughout the regular season.” Over in Montréal, Marie-Philip Poulin has been a great contributor to her team’s success, even more so in the last week, and I may have voted her higher if this poll came after another week of play.

Maya: This is probably dumb because I don’t think they’ll pick a player from a team who misses the playoffs, or doesn’t have the most wins, but I definitely think Emerance Maschmeyer deserves to be in the conversation. She is the main reason that Ottawa has a chance to win in any game, even when they don’t support her by scoring. Despite now having a more reliable backup goalie, Maschmeyer still has the most minutes and games played, the most shots against and the most saves of any goaltender this season.

While she may not have the most wins or the best save percentage, she’s playing behind the weakest offense in the league. Ottawa has only scored 27 goals in 15 games. They are last in the league in offense and in the standings. But, thanks to Maschmeyer, they don’t have the most goals against. To me, the MVP makes the most difference to their team, regardless of their team’s overall success, so I think it has to be Maschmeyer. 

Lydia: This was a really difficult decision, and each of my three picks has a real case for it, but I picked Aerin Frankel to win the MVP award right now. Like J mentioned, the definition of this award is “most valuable to their team’s success throughout the regular season.” The key word there to me is success, and it’s the reason I ultimately left Emerance Maschmeyer off my ballot despite her stellar play. She’s giving her team a chance to win, but I don’t think you can call their results a success. It’s not her fault, but strictly by the definition of the award, I think Frankel, Sarah Fillier and Marie-Philip Poulin all deserve it more. Frankel has been lights-out for the Fleet again, and they’ve needed that from her. You don’t become the first goalie to make 1,000 regular season + playoff saves by accident (or because you have good defensive support). 

As for Poulin and Fillier, it was essentially a coin flip between these two, but I decided to go with Fillier in second because of Poulin’s slow start. However, I have a feeling that will change by the end of the season. Fillier has been unbelievable this season, but she and frequent linemates Jessie Eldridge and Alex Carpenter often factor into each other’s goals, which, to me, slightly decreases each player’s direct impact on team success. You can’t have multiple MVPs on one team, and right now, there’s not a big gap between those three on the Sirens. Meanwhile, Poulin has really roared to life in the past three games, and in two of them, she scored five of her team’s six goals. No one that can take over a game like her when she’s on. If she keeps it up, she’ll have a great case for this award.

Geremy: Voting Sarah Fillier first was an easy decision. She leads the league in points (15), primary points (12), points per game (1.07), primary points per game (0.86), even strength primary points per game (0.57), and tied for the lead in even strength primary points (8). All this has gotten the Sirens into a playoff spot which it’s held for a while after finishing dead last in the previous season. I know Emerance Maschmeyer’s numbers have slipped some since looking unbeatable to start the season but she’s still among the top three goalies in the league and Ottawa would already be out of the playoff race without her heroics. 

Ottawa has a 1.79 GF/60, lowest in the league, while also sporting a 47.2 SF% which is also lowest in the league. The only reason they have a chance for playoffs is because Maschmeyer is a monster at even strength. Anyone who knows me knows what a big fan I am of Hannah Miller and I think she’s fully deserving of a third place vote. She’s second in the league in primary points per 60 (2.62) behind only Alex Carpenter. Toronto wouldn’t be in a position to strike for a playoff spot if not for her.

Forward of the Midseason: Sarah Fillier

J Gray: Among players with more than four games played, Hannah Miller is second in the league in primary points per 60 minutes after Alex Carpenter. She is also second in goals per 60 minutes behind Marie-Philip Poulin, who has two empty net goals in her tally. And she’s done this while centering Toronto’s third line. She is a physical player and strong defensively. If she hadn’t already played internationally for China, I’d say Hockey Canada ought to be trying to fit her into their lineup. 

Kendall Coyne Schofield has looked so good playing for Minnesota. I don’t have anything new to say about her speed or her skill, but the Frost couldn’t ask for a better winger who is able to compliment whatever linemates end up beside her. And similarly, I don’t have anything new to say about Sarah Fillier, other than that the Sirens couldn’t ask for anyone to better fit in alongside Alex Carpenter.

Maya: It’s hard to say at this point in the season, especially with the scoring race so close, but I think it will come down to one of these three: Marie-Philip Poulin, Hannah Miller, and Sarah Fillier. Ultimately, if the teams stay in the same place in the standings, I don’t think Hannah Miller will be in the conversation, just since Toronto has been having a subpar season. 

Poulin has had a bounce back season from last season (not that she’s ever been bad) and she’s making headlines. She currently leads the league in goals with 10, but she’s in seventh when it comes to points. Pou may have to up her passing game to make this award stick. 

Fillier, on the other hand, is leading the league in points, is second in assists and tied for third in goals. Depending on her second half of the season, I can see her running away with the points lead and capturing the award. It helps that she’s a rookie and helping to turn New York’s season around. 

Lydia: This is another tight awards race, but right now, I have to give a very slight edge to Kendall Coyne Schofield as the forward of the midseason. Minnesota’s injury run was ridiculous, and Coyne Schofield was a huge reason why they stayed afloat. Her speed and skill are otherworldly, and she can elevate her linemates like few others. On the other hand, Hannah Miller is a huge part of how Toronto remains in the playoff race without Natalie Spooner.

It was a tough choice between them, but outside of points, I think Coyne Schofield brings a bit more to the table, so she’s my pick for now. As for third place, Sarah Fillier leads the league in points but has the most support from linemates of my three picks, so she’s in third place for me right now. All of this said, this is one ballot I fully expect to look different by the end of the season.

Geremy: Just go look up at my reasoning for why I voted Sarah Fillier first for MVP and apply that here. She’s been the most productive forward in the league and is still producing while Alex Carpenter is out. Marie-Philip Poulin would have been expected to be on this ballot before the season started but during the first part of the season she was ice cold. Recently she’s been on fire and has nailed the 10-goal mark first while being the only player to have an above 0.50 goals per game (0.71). Third spot was tough but went back to Hannah Miller who with and without the puck has been an absolute problem for many teams. Go look at goals Toronto has scored with her on the ice and more likely than not she’ll have played a part in getting that play started. 

Defender of the Midseason: Claire Thompson

J Gray: Erin Ambrose leads the league in plus/minus with a +11, three higher than the second-place skater. She is also fourth in scoring among defenders. She plays at evens, on the power play, and on the penalty kill for Montréal and is a reliable defensive presence in all situations. Ambrose won Defender of the Year last season, but I think her case is even better this year. Claire Thompson has been the offensive boost that Minnesota’s blueline didn’t really need, but I don’t think they regret taking her in the first round of the draft. She hasn’t missed a beat despite taking a year off. Meanwhile, the Sirens showed exactly how valuable Ella Shelton is to their power play and offensive play in general while she was injured. 

Maya: There really is no competition for me for who takes this award. I think it’s Claire Thompson’s award to lose. Thompson and Fillier have been going back and forth for the lead in points, which is crazy because Thompson is a defender. Aside from the statistical anomaly of Jess Kondas having one point in one game, Thompson leads defenders in points per game with 0.93. And, she took an entire year off of playing hockey to go to med school. Queen stuff 👑. 

Stick taps also to Ella Shelton, who leads all defenders in goals despite missing 5 games due to injury. 

Lydia: Another award, another razor-thin margin between first and second. However, I ultimately went with Claire Thompson because it’s simply absurd that halfway through her first PWHL season, she’s tied for second in the league in points. I don’t typically like using points to rank which defender is best, but when you combine her offense with the fact that she’s playing more minutes than Erin Ambrose on a worse (but still very good) team and achieving similar results, I think she has the upper hand for now.

That said, Ambrose is also having an unbelievable season and is one of the best all-around defenders in the world, so I would not be mad at all if she wins. As for Ella Shelton, she may find herself rising up my ballot by the end of the season. She missed five games due to injury, but upon her return, it didn’t look like she missed a beat. She continues to be a rock on the back end for Sirens while also chipping in four goals and four assists in nine games, and overall I don’t think she gets enough recognition for how good she is.

Geremy: There’s a really good chance my ballot changes on this award at the end of the season and maybe one blueliner remains on the end-of-season ballot. For now though I have Claire Thompson as my first place vote. She’s been a huge boost to the Frost blueline and is tied for second in the league in points among all skaters, not just blueliners. Thompson has been a big weapon for the Frost who struggled generating offence apart from a few players last season. The points have been coming slowly for Erin Ambrose but are finally starting to come in. While she remained off the scoresheet her impact on the ice was headlining the best playing defensive unit in the PWHL. 

She didn’t really need to put up points when she was shutting down the best her opponents had to offer. Ella Shelton has missed five games this season but the impact she’s provided at both ends of the ice has been so great she’s deserving of a third place vote. Shelton ranks second in points per 60 (2.43) among blueliners just barely behind Claire Thompson (2.46) and the difference is stark in defensive play for New York when Shelton is on the ice vs off the ice. 

Goalie of the Midseason: Corinne Schroeder

J Gray: I know it may seem somewhat contradictory considering my MVP vote, but I’m going with Corinne Schroeder in this category. I think her performance has been just as good as last season, when she was snubbed for a Goaltender of the Year nod (or the award itself), but she’ll get more credit this year since her team is winning. Aerin Frankel has been the reason her team is in games for a good portion of this season. Meanwhile, Ann-Renée Desbiens has been playing behind a stronger team, but she has been extremely reliable when dangerous shots do find their way to her, giving her team the confidence to take offensive risks.

Maya: Ugh, this is the most difficult category of all. From a statistical perspective, I think Desbiens or Schroeder take this one. Desbiens leads all goalies in basically every single statistical category. With a 1.77 GAA and a 0.935 save percentage, you really cannot go wrong with Desbiens in net. And Montréal isn’t, they’ve only lost once with her in net. If I was building a team from scratch right now, she would be my choice. 

The only stat that Desbiens doesn’t own right now is shutouts, and Corinne Schroeder is the only one hanging out in that category. Her two shutouts are the only ones recorded this season. She is also a huge reason the Sirens have had success this season. She’s been in goal for six of the seven wins this season. Schroeds had a great season least year despite her team’s lack of success, and I hope she gets her flowers this year. 

Lydia: For me, Aerin Frankel and Corinne Schroeder have the two best cases for the award right now. I was on the “Schroeder for Goaltender of the Year” train last year, although I wasn’t surprised she didn’t get it since the Sirens were not good. However, I have to give the edge to Frankel for now since she’s dealing with the same issues in front of her as last year and she plays nearly every game. As I said in my MVP reasoning, you don’t become the first PWHL goaltender to make 1,000 saves by accident. Sure, that includes playoffs, but if you remove those, her 25.5 saves per game is still good for third (minimum 15 games played), behind Corinne Schroeder (30.2) and Ann-Renée Desbiens (27). However, this season, Schroeder is getting more offensive support and playing behind improved systems. Plus, Kayle Osborne is really helping lighten her load, and she’s even gotten a handful of games fully off thanks to Greg Fargo trusting Abbey Levy to back up sometimes. 

All of this said, I expect Schroeder to get more love in awards voting this year, and I wouldn’t be shocked if she takes it home. As for Emerance Maschmeyer, don’t get me wrong, she has been absolutely brilliant this season. Nine times out of ten, if a Charge game has been close, it’s because Maschmeyer has done everything she can to will her team to a win. However, I’m placing her third for the admittedly unfair reason that the results just haven’t been there. She’s doing as much as she can, but when this many goalies are playing this well, you have to find some way to distinguish between them. If Ottawa ever manages to turn it around, she’ll rise up my ballot quick for both this award and MVP.

Geremy: There’s one goalie who has given their team the best statistical chance at winning each game and it’s been Ann-Renée Desbiens which is why she has my first place vote. When Laura Stacey, Marie-Philip Poulin, and Erin Ambrose were struggling to produce to their expected levels, Desbiens was performing to her elite level. She has the highest SV% (0.935) and the highest QS% (0.900). Desbiens’ only start that wasn’t a quality start was still above a 0.900 SV%. Second place was pretty clear for me with Corinne Schroeder.

She has the second highest SV% (0.933), tied for the second highest QS% (0.800), and has the highest GSAA (7.300). Third place was a very tough decision but I went with Emerance Maschmeyer because she’s seeing nearly the same results as Aerin Frankel but in a worse environment. Ottawa can’t score, they get outshot the most, have the worst PK, and yet have a chance at playoffs through the play of Maschmeyer who keeps them alive at even strength. 

Coach of the Midseason: Kori Cheverie

J Gray: Montréal had an excellent draft this year, which left them with solid players at every position and options for building their lines and pairings. Kori Cheverie has not been shy to try out new combinations throughout the season, or to move on from things that are working in order to find something that could work better. When the power play wasn’t finding the back of the net, they changed things up; when it still wasn’t scoring, but the underlying metrics promised success, they stuck with the program and were rewarded for it.

She has shown a healthy mix of flexibility and perseverance that has paid off so far this season. Although Toronto has not been winning many games, they have been playing well, and the adjustments that Troy Ryan has made as his team has struggled to finish games have been good ones. I didn’t like Minnesota’s draft very much, but I like the way Ken Klee has managed the talent the Frost found themselves with, for the most part. 

Maya: If Kori Cheverie doesn’t get this one, what are we doing? The Victoire are the only team that’s been able to replicate the same success that they had last season (kudos in part to GM Danièle Sauvageau for keeping the team mostly the same in the off season) and a huge part is because Cheverie knows when to change things up and when to keep them the same. The team is still finding success despite their top players just starting to find their stride, and Cheverie has still managed to keep them winning in the meantime. She deserved a good look at this award last year, and her consistency has shown into this season too. 

Honourable mention to Greg Fargo, who started off strong in his first season in the PWHL. He has managed to find some success for the Sirens early, despite being the only coach to not have two seasons under his belt. If they continue to be successful, he could definitely give Cheverie some competition.  

Lydia: Right now, there’s simply no scenario Kori Cheverie shouldn’t win this award. It was the easiest call to make, so I’m not surprised to see we voted unanimously here. Like others have mentioned, Cheverie has found the right balance between shaking things up that aren’t working and giving her players time to work it out, and the results speak for themselves. The Victoire are the best, most complete team in the PWHL, and most nights, I don’t feel it’s close. 

Greg Fargo has been outstanding in turning the ship around for New York and deserves some flowers, but this is absolutely Cheverie’s award to lose. Lastly, I think Ken Klee should finish third for the way he led the Frost through their injury troubles. They were down a lot of key players at one point, but they still managed to gut out enough points to sit in second place. He does a good job of making little adjustments when needed, and so far, his team has responded with results.

Geremy: There’s one team that’s been playing above and beyond everyone this season, the Montréal Victoire coached by Kori Cheverie. She has them playing the best team hockey in the PWHL. It feels like every line of theirs is a scoring threat and also hard to score no matter what line is on the ice. For second place it’s hard to ignore the work Greg Fargo has done with the New York Sirens. 

They’ve been playing good hockey and this is almost the equivalent of a midseason hire considering he was hired too late to join the draft process in a meaningful way. He’s made New York relevant again and fans everywhere are excited. In the same vein as Cheverie, Ken Klee gets my third place vote as the Minnesota Frost are also playing very good team hockey. Defensively there’s still some issues there but they come at you in waves offensively as Klee as the forward lines at maximum chemistry.

Rookie of the Midseason: Sarah Fillier

J Gray: Sarah Fillier has become the player you hate to see entering the offensive zone if you’re rooting for the other team, and that’s quite an achievement in a league with so much talent. Whether you’re looking at the numbers or the tape, she has been the best rookie on the ice this season. Cayla Barnes has earned her top-pairing minutes with the Victoire, along with her spots on the power play and the penalty kill. While there have been some moments in her game that could stand to be improved, she is primarily playing alongside another rookie in Anna Wilgren, and she has acclimated very easily to the level of play. By the end of the season, she might be challenging Fillier for this award. Jennifer Gardiner has also looked like she belongs at this level, while playing top-line minutes against some of the league’s heaviest competition.

Maya: I don’t really see anyone other than Sarah Fillier getting this award. She may even take the forward of the year award (as discussed above) and is leading in so many categories while being a rookie! We knew when she entered the draft that she is one of the best young players in the world, and she’s clearly shown that. It’s a feat to come into the league without having much of a fall off, and she’s certainly kept up her performance. 

The other rookies on my list are Jennifer Gardiner and Raygan Kirk, but unless they really come alive in the last half of the season, I don’t really think they are in the discussion. If Kirk manages to wrestle the starting spot from Campbell, I think that puts her in contention, but otherwise, it’s Fillier’s to lose. 

*Note: Thompson isn’t technically a rookie or she’d be my number two choice. 

Lydia: If Thompson hadn’t played that season in the PWHPA and thus been considered a rookie, this race would be much closer in my eyes. However, right now, Sarah Fillier is running away with it. It’s not every season you see a rookie leading the league in points at the halfway mark, but that’s what Fillier is doing. Everyone knew she was going to make an impact, but I’m not sure many expected her to be quite this good this quickly (or at least I didn’t). As for second place, Raygan Kirk’s stats aren’t the best, but she’s done an admirable job in an unexpectedly complicated situation. Kristen Campbell was really struggling for a while and still doesn’t look like herself, and Kirk stepped up and has earned a nearly evenly split starts. She wasn’t supposed to have to take on so much responsibility so quickly, but she’s taking it in stride, so I think she deserves some love for this award. 

Finally, I picked Hannah Bilka for third place, but it was a close race between her, Cayla Barnes, and Jennifer Gardiner. I could even see Kayle Osborne making a good case if she starts getting more starts. However, I decided to give the midseason edge to Bilka because her speed and skill have been massive for an offensively-struggling Fleet group. She’s been a big part of Hilary Knight’s bounce back from a rough season last year. She’s also being rewarded for her stellar play with big minutes, which isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to get from head coach Courtney Kessel, especially as a young, not very physical player. That said, this is another ballot I expect will change some by the end of the season, although I don’t expect anyone to knock Fillier out of her spot.

Geremy: Sarah Fillier being a contender for MVP and Forward of the Midseason are all I really need to say about her being my first place vote for Rookie of the Midseason. It’s not easy to step into the PWHL and be a big piece of one of the best bluelines in the league but Cayla Barnes has done it. When Ambrose was struggling to produce, Barnes was there providing that offence. Barnes is 18th in the PWHL in TOI/GP (20:16) and seventh among blueliners in PTS/60 (1.48). I know Raygan Kirk’s numbers aren’t jumping off the page but she’s come into a chaotic situation that Kristen Campbell has struggled to find a groove and been a decent stabilizing force. Kirk has only allowed more than two goals in two of her six starts. The other four starts she’s allowed two goals or fewer.