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Women’s North American Pro Hockey

https://www.theicegarden.com/platfo...&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true

The NWHL is holding an international draft on Sunday. I think this is basically a promotional event to raise awareness about their league as well as create some summer content. The draft will be presented by Discover, on Twitch hosted by Katie Gaus.

They also hired Tim McGhee yesterday. He will be in charge of finding business partnerships, sponsorships etc. very curious to see what he delivers, has a great bio, and the bar was raised to a new height last year when the league got the Discover partnership.
 
Lindsay said:
https://www.theicegarden.com/platfo...&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true

The NWHL is holding an international draft on Sunday. I think this is basically a promotional event to raise awareness about their league as well as create some summer content. The draft will be presented by Discover, on Twitch hosted by Katie Gaus.

They also hired Tim McGhee yesterday. He will be in charge of finding business partnerships, sponsorships etc. very curious to see what he delivers, has a great bio, and the bar was raised to a new height last year when the league got the Discover partnership.
Click to expand...

In terms of McGhee's hire, it appears they've contracted his consulting firm as opposed to him as an employee.

The Beauts have hired RIT goaltending coach to also coach the Beauts goalies Caty Flagg and Carly Jackson. They have also signed the second of their two third-round picks, F Missy Segall (Hamilton '21).

The Whale have signed their second-round pick F Emma Polaski (Syracuse '21).

The Six have re-signed D Lindsay Eastwood (Syracuse '20). Eastwood was a silver medalist for Team Canada at the U18 World Championships.
 
The international draft is over. Here are the picks:

Buffalo Beauts: G Lovisa Berndtsson. This 32-year-old goalie has spent the last six seasons with Djurg?rdens IF of the SDHL. She has a 1.96 GAA in 22 games last season. The article has quotes from her and seems to indicate she will sign.

Connecticut Whale: F Tsubasa Sato. This 28-year-old forward is the captain of the Karuizawa Fairies and had 9 points in 7 games last season. She gained individual fame and awareness for the sport in Japan when she appeared on the Netflix Japan reality show Terrace House: Opening New Doors. The premise seems to be that singles move into a house to find love. It looks like her breakup with her beau from the program made online tabloids. Captain Tsubasa, as she was nicknamed on the show, was not quoted in the draft recap article but did appear in a video on Twitter introducing herself to the Whale fandom and appears to be signing. Maybe Netflix Japan will have a crew follow her around and document her journey in the US if she in fact comes over.

Boston Pride: F Evelina Raselli. The 29-year-old won Olympic bronze with the Swiss team in 2014 and a bronze at the 2012 IIHF Women's Worlds. She was part of five SWHL A championships including 2020-21, where she scored 33 points in 20 regular-season games. There are no quotes or videos from Raselli indicating she will sign.

Toronto Six: F R?ka Dabasi. The 24-year-old Hungarian competes with KMH Budapest and had 16 points in 10 games in 2020-21. She has six medals with the senior team at various World Championship competitions. Hungary competes in Division IA internationally. Debasi is not quoted in the article nor has posted a video so unknown if she will sign.

Metropolitan Riveters: F Romana Košeck?. The 22-year-old Slovakian plays in the EWHL for SKP Bratislava where she had four points in five games. She has won three medals in U18 competition and two golds in the IIHF Division B World Championships. She posted a video thanking the fans and team for making her a part of the international draft, but didn't indicate if she was coming over to play for the Rivs.

Minnesota Whitecaps: F Fanni Gasparics. The 26-year-old is a teammate of Dabasi in 2019 but would then move over to MAC Budapest. She would lead the league in scoring in 2019-20, scoring 46 points in 18 games. She has two medals (2018 bronze and 2019 gold) at the IIHF Division IA World Championships. She led both tourneys in scoring and was Best Forward both years. Gasparics has not indicated if she intends to leave Budapest for Minnesota.
 
Scott_TG said:
The international draft is over. Here are the picks:

Buffalo Beauts: G Lovisa Berndtsson. This 32-year-old goalie has spent the last six seasons with Djurg?rdens IF of the SDHL. She has a 1.96 GAA in 22 games last season. The article has quotes from her and seems to indicate she will sign.

Connecticut Whale: F Tsubasa Sato. This 28-year-old forward is the captain of the Karuizawa Fairies and had 9 points in 7 games last season. She gained individual fame and awareness for the sport in Japan when she appeared on the Netflix Japan reality show Terrace House: Opening New Doors. The premise seems to be that singles move into a house to find love. It looks like her breakup with her beau from the program made online tabloids. Captain Tsubasa, as she was nicknamed on the show, was not quoted in the draft recap article but did appear in a video on Twitter introducing herself to the Whale fandom and appears to be signing. Maybe Netflix Japan will have a crew follow her around and document her journey in the US if she in fact comes over.

Boston Pride: F Evelina Raselli. The 29-year-old won Olympic bronze with the Swiss team in 2014 and a bronze at the 2012 IIHF Women's Worlds. She was part of five SWHL A championships including 2020-21, where she scored 33 points in 20 regular-season games. There are no quotes or videos from Raselli indicating she will sign.

Toronto Six: F R?ka Dabasi. The 24-year-old Hungarian competes with KMH Budapest and had 16 points in 10 games in 2020-21. She has six medals with the senior team at various World Championship competitions. Hungary competes in Division IA internationally. Debasi is not quoted in the article nor has posted a video so unknown if she will sign.

Metropolitan Riveters: F Romana Košeck?. The 22-year-old Slovakian plays in the EWHL for SKP Bratislava where she had four points in five games. She has won three medals in U18 competition and two golds in the IIHF Division B World Championships. She posted a video thanking the fans and team for making her a part of the international draft, but didn't indicate if she was coming over to play for the Rivs.

Minnesota Whitecaps: F Fanni Gasparics. The 26-year-old is a teammate of Dabasi in 2019 but would then move over to MAC Budapest. She would lead the league in scoring in 2019-20, scoring 46 points in 18 games. She has two medals (2018 bronze and 2019 gold) at the IIHF Division IA World Championships. She led both tourneys in scoring and was Best Forward both years. Gasparics has not indicated if she intends to leave Budapest for Minnesota.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this very informative summary.
 
Some signings:

Buffalo has signed 4th-round pick D Allison Attea, a Buffalo native who played for both the Monsignor Martin co-op and Nichols School of the WNY Girls' Fed before playing collegiately at Holy Cross. She is the seventh blueliner to sign for the Beauts for the coming season.

Buffalo has also signed their international draft pick G Lovisa Berndtsson. The 32-year-old goalie has played 14 seasons of pro hockey in Europe, including nine in the SDHL. In six seasons with her most recent team (Djurg?rdens IF) Berndtsson has 92 wins in 150 games and one league championship. She made Team Sweden for the first time at age 27 when she was on the 2017 Women's World Championship roster. Beauts GM Nate Oliver refers to her as a veteran number 1 goalie, so it presumed she will start over Caty Flagg and Carly Jackson, the two goalies who re-signed to play next season.

The Connecticut Whale have signed F Cailey Hutchinson, an alternate captain for the Metropolitan Riveters. Hutchinson is one of the many University of Maine alumnae in the league.

The Toronto Six have re-signed backup goalie Samantha Ridgewell. Ridgewell had one start and one relief appearance in the Lake Placid bubble last season. Prior to that, Ridgewell platooned with Buffalo's newest goalie Berndtsson. Both goalies made 22 appearances for Djurg?rdens IF in 2019-20. Ridgewell posted a 2.03 GAA in that season and had a 92% save percentage (Berndtsson had a 1.96 GAA and a 90.3% save percentage, so fairly even). A native of Outlook, Saskatchewan, Ridgewell spent her collegiate career with DI upstarts Merrimack. Career highlights included posting the first two shutouts in program history and leading Hockey East in save percentage as a senior in 2019 and was the runner up for Hockey East Goaltender of the Year (the award was won by current Northeastern goalie Aerin Frankel who is the three-time reigning and defending winner of that award).

The Riveters have re-signed F Hayley Frade (Providence '15), F Kendall Cornine (RIT '19), D Allie Olnowich (Syracuse '20), F Theresa Knutson (UConn '19), F Mallory Rushton (RIT '19)

The Riveters have signed D Kristen Barabara, who played for the Toronto Six last season. The York University alumna played three seasons for the Brampton/Markham Thunder of the CWHL and appeared in PWPHA barnstorming games prior to joining the Six last year.


I have not seen any signings, new or re-signed on the sites or the Twitter accounts of Boston or Minnesota.
 
Buffalo has signed CT Whale veteran F Grace Kleinbach (Neumann '17). Kleinbach is the 2021 NWHL Foundation Award winner, which is awarded to the individual who "most actively applies the core values of hockey to her community." She was also an All-Star in 2020. This will be Kleinbach's fourth NWHL season.

The Whale have re-signed F Janine Weber. Weber was the first player to ever sign an NWHL contract, and would play for the Riveters and Pride before returning to Europe. Weber would return to the league as a late-season addition to the Whale in the 19-20 season and played again for them in the bubble.

The Whale have signed free agent F Catherine Crawley (UConn '20). The former Huskies alternate captain did not play organized hockey in 2020. In her senior season in college, Crawley scored 31 points on the ice and off the ice was nominated for the 2020 Hockey Humanitarian Award (sponsored jointly by the Hobey Baker Award, USCHO, AHCA, etc) and the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

The Riveters have signed F Nora MacLaine (U'Conn '19). MacLaine played in Australia in 19-20, scoring 23 points in 12 games for the Perth Inferno.

The Riveters have also signed G Brooke Wolejko (Plattsburgh '18). Since graduating college, Wolejko had played for the Whale in her native state of Connecticut. She will be reunited with G Sonjia Shelly who she played with when she was at St. Lawrence prior to transferring to Plattsburgh and with the Whale in 2018-19.
 
The Buffalo Beauts have made a second international signing: winger Jenna Suokko of Finland. The 26-year-old lefty shot is described as a very speedy winger and the Beauts GM describes her as a top-6 forward in the release. Suokko has 223 points in 249 Naisten Liiga games in her career and was second in league goals in 2020-21. She played one season in the Swedish SDHL in 16-17 when she played with Leksands IF. She represented Finland at three different U18 World Championship tourneys, coming away with bronze in 2011. Suokko appears to have 3 games with the senior Finnish squad.
 
The Beauts have signed their first-round pick F Emilie Harley (RMU).

The Whale have announced that they will play at Milford Ice Arena in 2021-22, moving from Danbury. The Whale have also signed longtime Riveters defender Rebecca Morse (Providence '14) and fourth-round pick D Hannah Bates (St. Cloud State '21).

The Toronto Six have signed G Tera Hoffman (Yale '20) who played in the bubble with the Whale last season. They have two other goalies on the roster in Elaine Chuli and Samantha Ridgewell. They have re-signed forward Brooke Boquist (Providence '18).

The Metropolitan Riveters have re-signed forwards Rebecca Russo and Brooke Avery. They signed free agent veteran defenders Lenka Curmova (Buffalo Beauts/SKP Bratislava) and Rachel Ade (Connecticut Whale/PWHPA).


The Boston Pride have finally started announcing their roster (on Twitter as opposed to the web, same as the Rivs):

New signings:
- F Kayla Friesen (Clarkson '20/CT Whale)
- G Kaitlin Burt (BC '18/PWPHA) - Burt played one season for the Pride, playing 16 games to a 2.26 GAA but left when the PWPHA formed.
- D Abby Cook (BU '20/Djugardens IF [SDHL])
- F Katelynn Russ (Union '20/ CT Whale)

Returning players:
- D Lauren Kelly (Northeastern '18)
- F Tori Sullivan (Northeastern '19)
- D Jenna Rheault (UNH '19)
- F Taylor Wenczkowski (UNH '20)
- F Sammy Davis (BU '20)
- D Paige Capistran (Northeastern '20)
- F Christina Putigna (Providence '19)
- F Meghara McManus (UNH '20)
- D Mallora Souliotis (Yale '18)
- D Kaleigh Fratkin (BU '14)
 
Lindsay said:
https://apnews.com/article/sports-canada-hockey-b838d147ddfed7af41efbe5ed42eccff
The NW renamed itself. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Premiere Hockey Federation? They now just get mucked into the crowded field of "a hockey league", of which there are too many to list. It sounds like it's a league from behind the old Iron Curtain. You have no idea who plays in it or where they play. I completely disagree with Madison Packer. The NWHL was easily associated with the NHL, it made a lot of sense in connection that way and if made it easy to find where great women were playing. Any negative feeling towards the NWHL is an internal thing with the players. People outside the players have very little knowledge of anything negative with the NWHL name. This just mucks the whole thing up in the eyes of the general public. It's ok to celebrate their gender. My daughter loves to see women play hockey. I love the style of women's hockey, it's more pure than the men's game. It's a way too overthought change.
 
Is this a women's league anymore? I get they want to be inclusive and make sure anyone who identifies as any gender or identity can play, but is that open to cis-men as well? They seem to really side-step that in the press release. As a matter of fact Parker seems to take a shot at cis-men in the press release. If it is open to cis-men (or if it is open to everyone BUT cis-men - possible lawsuit?) how is it any different than any other league then. Women have played in the ECHL and most recently in the SPHL so how is this any different then if the goal is to get the best possible athletes on the ice? What is the criterion to play in this league?
 
Cornholio said:
Is this a women's league anymore? I get they want to be inclusive and make sure anyone who identifies as any gender or identity can play, but is that open to cis-men as well? They seem to really side-step that in the press release. As a matter of fact Parker seems to take a shot at cis-men in the press release. If it is open to cis-men (or if it is open to everyone BUT cis-men - possible lawsuit?) how is it any different than any other league then. Women have played in the ECHL and most recently in the SPHL so how is this any different then if the goal is to get the best possible athletes on the ice? What is the criterion to play in this league?
Click to expand...

What a mess eh? Stop. The. Madness.
 
Timothy A said:
Premiere Hockey Federation? They now just get mucked into the crowded field of "a hockey league", of which there are too many to list. It sounds like it's a league from behind the old Iron Curtain. You have no idea who plays in it or where they play. I completely disagree with Madison Packer. The NWHL was easily associated with the NHL, it made a lot of sense in connection that way and if made it easy to find where great women were playing. Any negative feeling towards the NWHL is an internal thing with the players. People outside the players have very little knowledge of anything negative with the NWHL name. This just mucks the whole thing up in the eyes of the general public. It's ok to celebrate their gender. My daughter loves to see women play hockey. I love the style of women's hockey, it's more pure than the men's game. It's a way too overthought change.
Click to expand...

Well stated!
 
Lindsay said:
https://apnews.com/article/sports-canada-hockey-b838d147ddfed7af41efbe5ed42eccff

The NW renamed itself. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

What's wrong with having the word "women" in the name of a women's league? I thought that was a source of pride. Being "NWHL" also better aligned it with the NHL, at least in name. I also don't understand the "reflect the international makeup of its players" explanation. Who was confused about the name "NWHL" because they have international players in the league? I wonder why the NHL doesn't have that problem. I hate change for the sake of change, and this one doesn't make any sense. I didn't even mention the amateurish new logo...whose kid whipped that one up?
 
Is this their way of creating separation and closure from Dani Rylan or something?!?! This is a big big step in the wrong direction! What an amateurish name and logo. Are they going to start calling themselves the PDF? Oh sorry. I meant the PHF? What an absolute cluster puck! NWHL has a much better ring to it in general, and overall just a much more professional sound to it! I wonder whose brilliant idea this was. I have a very strong feeling they did NOT poll the players on this one. There's no way the players as a body would have gotten excited by this new name and logo. No way.

The top priority of this league SHOULD have been and should still be on finding a way to unite with the PWHPA, as I think Lindsay said already. They need to bring all the best female players in the world into one unified league. No offense to the many D3 players who have been given a chance to play "pro hockey" because of the separation between the 2 groups, but let's get serious and bring our sport together at the highest level. We're still a small sport comparatively speaking, so to have 2 separate groups has always been stupid, and that includes going back to when there were separate "pro" leagues on each side of the border. We need to grow our sport TOGETHER, not apart!

P.S. Is anybody else getting headline links at the bottom of these pages to ancient articles like when RMU fired their women's coach 8 games into their inaugural season in 2005, or when the RIT coach was facing charges because of a bar brawl in 2012? I'm getting these links to these old stories and I find it very strange that they are popping up, but what great memories of some of the classiest (LMAO) coaches in women's hockey from days gone by (Thank God they're gone!).
 
Last edited:
shelfit said:
The top priority of this league SHOULD have been and should still be on finding a way to unite with the PWHPA, as I think Lindsay said already. They need to bring all the best female players in the world into one unified league. No offense to the many D3 players who have been given a chance to play "pro hockey" because of the separation between the 2 groups, but let's get serious and bring our sport together at the highest level. We're still a small sport comparatively speaking, so to have 2 separate groups has always been stupid, and that includes going back to when there were separate "pro" leagues on each side of the border. We need to grow our sport TOGETHER, not apart!
Click to expand...

YES! It is completely stupid these leagues are not together. Let's take a niche sport, split it further and create more confusion. Great business plan, right?!
 
Nice to read people’s opinions. I also don’t like change. also no longevity to any league in women’s pro hockey, just constant churn which feels prohibitive to advancement and retaining of history. So many good league names and jerseys just set aside. :-(

I understand being gender inclusive but don’t like the word federation. I suspect they could not get trademarked for other names using the word league and settled here.

agree some of this is about Rylan erasure, sad.

Tuminnia said plain as day the are still a women’s league. They are a women’s league that is inclusive of other gender identities which is a good thing. They also did some advertising about “raising the w” ie celebrating women. If Tumminia starts saying they are not a women’s league I will struggle with it. Like others have said, let’s celebrate women. I support taking out the women’s (even though I personally like it) but still say it’s a women’s league, still celebrate women. It’s a compromise, which is what grownups should do.

I’m guessing there were 3 reasons for the change:
1- some people think including women’s suggests the men version is the default. (Ie March madness).
2- being gender inclusive sort of but not dealing with the elephant in the room of what their trans policy is. Good luck to the PH navigating that.
3- new name opens the door for PW people to save face and come back. The PW people have nothing to be ashamed of. They drove progress their own way. Why rename a league to avoid discomfort? Get a mediator and reconcile properly without erasing history.


Tumminnia has said the change is not about attracting back the PW people tho. I thought the logo might represent two old leagues (half stars) and the future: 1 star elevated, whole, but I guess not.

on the topic of logos: the T6 logo has a rip in the Maple Leaf that has always bugged me, if we are looking for symbolism.

finally, I’ve always felt the Whitecaps logo which Is awesome looks like a pair of cartoon breasts (in addition to looking like whitecaps and an m and a w). No one has ever agreed with me so if you don’t see it, I understand. But to me while we don’t have women’s in the league name, we do have boobs on a team logo. So there’s that.

you had an interesting and in many ways successful run NW, here we go PH.
 
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