NCAA Players to 2026 Olympics

[Timothy A]

She is NOT a defenseman

I agree. The film from the game 1 against the rodents game is especially damaging, but SHE thinks she can do it. Maybe she can. I am frightful of what Canada is going to do to her, unless they are just too old and slow to take advantage of her. She could be electric on the PP shooting off the pass from the circle, but Canada knows that too......

 

[BuckyB]

I agree. The film from the game 1 against the rodents game is especially damaging, but SHE thinks she can do it. Maybe she can. I am frightful of what Canada is going to do to her, unless they are just too old and slow to take advantage of her. She could be electric on the PP shooting off the pass from the circle, but Canada knows that too......

She’s a powerplay specialist … absolutely.
You let her stand there for the one timer and 80% of the time it’s in the back of the net.
Defensively she’s a complete liability. No lateral mobility whatsoever and a turnover machine.
As a forward she has one direction and that’s towards the attacking zone and that is done at about half speed She does not play a 200 ft. game by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[Timothy A]

She’s a powerplay specialist … absolutely.
You let her stand there for the one timer and 80% of the time it’s in the back of the net.
Defensively she’s a complete liability. No lateral mobility whatsoever and a turnover machine.
As a forward she has one direction and that’s towards the attacking zone and that is done at about half speed She does not play a 200 ft. game by any stretch of the imagination.

A lot of that is coachable, whether it's the skating or hockey skills driven. I just hope someone has the patience in the PWHL to develop her to her full potential. I don't feel that there is a lot of patience in the PWHL because the talent pool is so deep.

 

[BuckyB]

A lot of that is coachable, whether it's the skating or hockey skills driven. I just hope someone has the patience in the PWHL to develop her to her full potential. I don't feel that there is a lot of patience in the PWHL because the talent pool is so deep.

There is no patience whatsoever in the PWHL for development of a player who on a whim wants to switch positions.
It will be tough enough to hone her skills at forward.

 

[ARM]

I don't feel that there is a lot of patience in the PWHL because the talent pool is so deep.

People who can contribute offensively at the PWHL level are still at a premium, particularly if they also bring size. The women's hockey world is enamored with players on the blue line who can score, and they seem to be willing to put up with defensive deficiencies to get that pop. One thing that I observed when UM had nothing but tall D is that even after she gets beat, a six-footer can still disrupt a lot of plays with the reach of her stick.

 

[eastcoastgopher]

People who can contribute offensively at the PWHL level are still at a premium, particularly if they also bring size. The women's hockey world is enamored with players on the blue line who can score, and they seem to be willing to put up with defensive deficiencies to get that pop. One thing that I observed when UM had nothing but tall D is that even after she gets beat, a six-footer can still disrupt a lot of plays with the reach of her stick.

I remember the "Megan Keller is a forward" discourse on social media quite well.

 

[Lindsay]

There is no patience whatsoever in the PWHL for development of a player who on a whim wants to switch positions.
It will be tough enough to hone her skills at forward.

Do we really believe she announced she wants to play D? It doesn’t really make sense that someone would lead the ncaa in goals and decide to ask for a new position. That narrative didn’t come out until after she was at D and people were judging the move negatively (criticizing USA Hockey) .

I can’t imagine Edwards is a non team player and would just expect she gets to dictate what position she plays for Team USA. Like that is non-sensical. There had to have been a conversation where the federation was like “this is your only option “ or “this is where we think you can best help us” . I mean 10 year olds on AA teams don’t even get to choose where they play.

 

[Lindsay]

Non development emphasis in pw is interesting. I assume a culture will evolve where players work on getting better in the off season. No development league is fascinating, but understandable. It would be interesting to do an assessment of “who is actively getting worse?” Speaks to the college environment for coaching, development and of course lower skill of competition

 

[robertearle]

Do we really believe she announced she wants to play D? It doesn’t really make sense that someone would lead the ncaa in goals and decide to ask for a new position. That narrative didn’t come out until after she was at D and people were judging the move negatively (criticizing USA Hockey) .

I can’t imagine Edwards is a non team player and would just expect she gets to dictate what position she plays for Team USA. Like that is non-sensical. There had to have been a conversation where the federation was like “this is your only option “ or “this is where we think you can best help us” . I mean 10 year olds on AA teams don’t even get to choose where they play.

There is an article from last spring in "The Athletic" that retells what I remembered hearing somewhere previously.

"Last summer [ie, 2024], Edwards played defense at the Bob Suter Memorial Classic, a charity hockey tournament in Wisconsin, and enjoyed it, telling a member of the U.S. staff about her experience. “I just knew the forward group for USA was so competitive,” Edwards explained.

So competitive, in fact, that Edwards was told she would actually have a better chance at staying on the roster at defense than forward. Given the choice of switching positions, or potentially being on the outside looking in with the 2026 Milan Olympics approaching, Edwards chose the former.

Initially, head coach John Wroblewski said, he was not on board with the idea."

That she would play "out of position" in an off-season "for fun" event is completely believable. (I attended the pre-cursor event, before it became the "Bob Suter" event, and they had men playing with women, people playing out of position, 'celebrity' participants - a surprisingly good JJ Watt, for example.) Couple that with big sister Chayla having been a defender her whole career, I don't find any of it hard to believe. I will also point out that Laila is on the Olympic team, and UW teammate and Patty Kaz winner Casey O'Brien is not.

Why is Laila Edwards, one of the top young forwards in the world, playing defense?

Edwards, a Patty Kazmaier Award finalist, led the NCAA in scoring this season. Why is she playing out of position at women's worlds?

www.nytimes.com

 

[BuckyB]

There are so many dynamics in play as to the why

 

[Lindsay]

Right - I understand there are lots of reasons as to why. I think minimizing it to “Laila dreamed up she wanted to play defense all of a sudden” is incorrect. I get that authors can’t write a big long story about why every time but I don’t think it was just a whim from Laila.

 

[ARM]

I mean 10 year olds on AA teams don’t even get to choose where they play.

Yes, such decisions should be reserved for the parents of 10 year olds!