In Part One we looked at Toronto Sceptres’ Maggie Connors and the Boston Fleet’s Sophie Shirley as potential breakout candidates. To start off Part Two we’re going to stick with the Boston Fleet, who have a few more players that piqued my curiosity. I’ll nip this in the bud and say that Jamie Lee Rattray didn’t make the list. Any improvement made by Rattray is more of a bounce back rather than a breakout season. Keeping with the Boston Fleet, there’s a name that immediately stands out: Hadley Hartmetz.
Hadley Hartmetz is intriguing because she had a great end to her college career but also an injury prevented her from playing in the 24/25 season. This season she’s been in a third pair role to better ease her into the PWHL. In Hartmetz’s ATOI of 12:54 she was extremely productive, tied with Kati Tabin and ahead of Ronja Savolainen in primary points/60 (0.86). All her production was also at even-strength and finished with a 68.2% EVGF%. The eye test and the stats test both say she should get a bigger role next season. With Hartmetz, you’re getting a top four blueliner who provides an offensive push.
Last but not least for Boston is a player a lot of people are begging to get more ice time to see what she can do. I’m talking about Loren Gabel, of course. Her NCAA career is impeccable and it took seven years for another NCAA player to hit the 40-goal mark. Not to mention she is a Patty Kaz winner—and two NCAA national championships. There was also that one remarkable season in the PHF. She put up 20 goals in 22 games to go along with her 40 points altogether.
Between Courtney Kessel and Kris Sparre, though, none have wanted to play her in a top six role. Gabel was on the reserve list for 14 games this season, despite being an extremely productive goal scorer. Even in so few minutes she had the 23rd highest career goals/60 in PWHL history heading into this season. Gabel shoots a lot in her few minutes and has proven she can score in the PWHL. Will she finally get her chance to this season?
Teams are going to be looking deep for blueline help. With expansion and her overall play, New York Sirens blueliner Nicole Vallario is worth a look for teams looking to bolster their blueline. It’s a very small sample size as she only played 11 games this season. However, Vallario did have a 1.38 PTS1/60, putting her on par with Megan Keller and Sophie Jaques. Vallario isn’t going to be Keller or Jaques with more minutes. But it is hard not to like how promising the production was, especially on a team that struggled to score. Her defensive numbers also looked good as Vallario finished on par with expectations in EVGA/GP despite New York finishing with the second lowest team even-strength SV%.
Speaking of free agent blueliners being underplayed, PWHL GMs should also be looking at Stephanie Markowski. If not for the trade with the Vancouver Goldeneyes, Markowski wouldn’t be in this article. She was well on her way to being a breakout player this year for the Charge. Everything about her numbers looked great pre-trade roster adjustments. She averaged 18:23 a game, had a 0.70 PTS1/60, 3.96 SOG/60, and a 62.5 EVGF%. I’m going to bring up Mae Batherson again, but apart from personal offensive numbers, Markowski was right up there with her.
Through half a season Markowski had proven she’s capable of playing a second pairing role — even when Ottawa decided they wanted Emma Greco to be a regular and Markowski was to be the seventh blueliner. In the last 16 games of the season, Markowski averaged 9:03 a game. Despite the drop in minutes, her numbers didn’t really suffer. Her EVGF% dropped a bit, but Markowski’s SOG/60 and PTS1/60 actually went up. This is every sign a GM needs to believe Markowski can be a steady top four blueliner. She just needs to be on a team that wants to play her.
This final intriguing player is more of a long shot than the names above. She was featured in a trade that might have made teams more curious about her. The player I’m talking about is Theresa Schafzahl. For the millionth time this article, she’s been in a bottom six role nearly her entire PWHL career. Upon getting to Seattle she put up nine points in 11 games while seeing her ice time bumped up to around 16 minutes a game. This is notable when compared to the 19 games she played in Boston, where she put up six points. In the same vein of Sophie Shirley, her breakout might be the cause of winning a lot of puck battles and getting the puck to the offensively skilled players. Her SOG/60 has never hit +6.00 until this stretch with Seattle.
The offensive boost in moving to Seattle and being given top six minutes puts her in the right spot for a breakout season. What I think teams will be looking at is seeing if she’s willing to be more of a scorer. She had two +20 goal seasons to finish off her NCAA career on two Vermont teams that didn’t provide much help offensively. Secondly, while her SOG/60 isn’t great for someone who you’re hoping to be more than just bottom six depth scoring, what she’s been very consistent in is her SH%. Three straight seasons of averaging about 10% shooting and she stayed just as steady when she was moved to Seattle. If a coach can get her to shoot more, there’s a legitimate threat in her scoring ability.