Expansion draft rules and bumped up ticket prices aside, Ottawa Charge set for PWHL final

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In the leadup to the first Walter Cup final in Canada, the Professional Women’s Hockey League is stealing its own thunder.

When the focus should be solely on the present, on an Ottawa Charge-Minnesota Frost championship series that starts Tuesday at TD Place, the PWHL has inexplicably turned attention to the future.

By announcing rules for a June 9  expansion draft to stock the new Vancouver and Seattle entries with a press release hours before the Charge and Frost held final on-ice tuneups at TD Place on Monday — rather than, say, on May 29, the day after a potential fifth and deciding game — post-practice questions to players were as much about where they might be next season as they were about the big stage they’re on now.

It’s not the only quizzical call made by the PWHL, which has bumped up ticket prices for the final to as high as $150 in two end zone sections and $130 between the blue lines, while charging $63 for low-end seats.

That hasn’t completely turned off fired-up Charge fans, however, with Ticketmaster showing only about 650 tickets still available as of noon Monday.

But if Game 1 isn’t completely sold out, after a PWHL playoff high for this season was reached when 8,012 fans turned out for Thursday’s series clincher against Montreal, this might explain why.

And what will ticket-gouging do to fans in Minnesota, who showed up just 3,107 strong to see the Frost eliminate the Toronto Sceptres at the 20,554-seat Xcel Energy Center (which does curtain off top sections for PWHL games) last Wednesday?

Ticket prices for Game 3 of the final on Saturday range from $60-to-$157 (U.S.).

As popular as the PWHL has become, it also seems to be getting a little ahead of itself with its pricing.

Meanwhile, Charge players were notified of the expansion draft rules before they were made public, but say they put them where they belong: on the back burner.

“I got an email today about what’s going to be happening, but I didn’t read it,” said defender Jocelyne Larocque. “I’ll read it at some point, but it’s not my concern right now. Right now, we’re focused on (Tuesday) and taking (the series) one game at a time. If I was (on) one of the other four teams, I’d be looking at that email pretty closely, but right now it’s definitely not on the top of my priority list.”

Coach Carla MacLeod and GM Mike Hirshfeld expect players won’t be distracted from the task at hand and have told them, if they have questions, their door is always open.

“At the end of the day, the league is going to do what they’re doing and they’re going to roll things out as they see fit,” said MacLeod. “Obviously, what we’re doing is our priority and our only focus. I can’t control those variables. All we can do is control what we’ve been doing, and what we’ve been doing has been a lot of fun.

“There are two teams competing their hearts out here for a Walter Cup and we’re really excited that we’re going to have Game 1 at TD Place. There’s just so much noise outside of what’s going on, it’s what’s happening inside these walls that matter for us. (The players are) human. They’re going to understand what was announced, of course, but boy, oh boy, if you were to overstep this next opportunity in front of us, you’d be out to lunch, and we’re not out to lunch.”

The Frost has a similar mentality, according to defender Lee Stecklein.

“Obviously it’s information we’ve been hoping to have and want to know what’s going on in the future,” she said of the expansion draft rules, “but it is the future at this point, and these games are right in front of us. It’s nice to be able to talk to each other and have some questions answered about what that June might look like, and then being able to put that aside, so that we can focus on these games.

“It always helps your brain maybe settle a bit, but we’re pros, and we know as much as we’d like to know about what’s going to happen later. But that’s later. This is now, and that’s where our brains have to be.”

As for the expansion draft rules …

Teams will lose a total of four players but can initially protect only three. Once they’ve lost two, they can add another to their protected list.

Players with expiring contracts can not be protected, which in Ottawa includes the likes of top scorer Tereza Vanisova, Shiann Darkangelo, Jincy Roese, Zoe Boyd, Alexa Vasko and Victoria Bach. As free agents, they can sign with any team.

The 15 protectable Charge players are:

Ashton Bell (D)
Emily Clark (F)
Gabbie Hughes (F)
Brianne Jenner (F)
Jocelyne Larocque (D)
Stephanie Markowski (D)
Emerance Maschmeyer (G)
Mannon McMahon (F)
Anna Meixner (F)
Kateřina Mrázová (F)
Gwyneth Philips (G)
Ronja Savolainen (D)
Danielle Serdachny (F)
Aneta Tejralová (D)
Madeline Wethington (D)

“It’s obviously disappointing that we’re not going to run all the players back that we have here this year … when you see a team break up,” said Hirshfeld. “But more importantly, it’s a real testament to the success of this league, and really exciting for the new expansion teams, that we’ve been able to grow, and that there are enough people who watch this game and who provide all these new jobs. So I think it’s a really positive thing.”

Deciding on what players to protect will be a difficult part of Hirshfeld’s own job.

“They’re tough decisions, and obviously people’s lives are involved,” he said. “But we’re going to make the best decisions we can.”

And they won’t be based on a player’s performance in the final.

“We don’t approach it like that,” said Hirshfeld. “We’re much more strategic and long-term thinking. It’s the volume of work.”