Today on the Hockey Edition of The IX Sports Podcast, host Maya Smith and guest Giselle Velazquez introduce the 20 players headed to expansion teams in this phase of Professional Women’s Hockey League Expansion. They also talk about the Hilary Knight situation — and whether or not PWHL Detroit made the right decision to give up a draft pick.
Smith and Velazquez took time to break down the five players headed to each expansion team:
Detroit: Cayla Barnes, Hannah Bilka, Jesse Compher, Britta Curl-Salemme, Daryl Watts
Hamilton: Emily Clark, Nicole Gosling, Brianne Jenner, Alina Müller, Kayle Osborne
Las Vegas: Erin Ambrose, Mae Batherson, Kendall Cooper, Hilary Knight, Hayley Scamurra
San Jose: Anne Cherkowski, Rory Guilday, Kristin O’Neill, Corinne Schroeder, Maddi Wheeler
Velazquez said she really liked the selections in this phase of expansion.
“I think that there are some teams that just kind of did a really good job of finding that kind of gem from each team that they could, that they could take, right, because the teams, the existing teams had to protect three players, and so being able to kind of find the player that the team would have protected if they got a fourth and stealing that player is really, really smart,” she said.
Smith said it probably was not as fun for fan bases of teams who had more players taken, like New York and Seattle. She also noted that Vancouver had two players who were offered contracts with expansion teams, but didn’t take them.
“I think it really shows the culture that Vancouver has created in their locker room, and the fact that all of these players, despite having, you know, not the best season last year, they all want to stay together,” Smith said.
The pair then jumped into discussion of the situation surrounding Knight, who originally said she wanted to sign in Detroit but was then picked up by Las Vegas. Las Vegas will trade her to Detroit when the trade window opens. But this has raised questions, Smith said, about who the systems of the PWHL really apply to.
“I also want to add to that it’s also really difficult to sometimes get clear information of how things work from the PWHL itself,” Velazquez said.
“So we could all be mistaken, maybe to us it looks like tampering, because we’re going based off of other leagues in hockey, like the NHL things of that sort, right, where their whole system is completely different from the PWHL,” she added.
The pair also break down the upcoming PWHL draft, where the Goldeneyes will have the first pick.
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