Losing Sarah Nurse hurt the Toronto Sceptres, but the hurting is far from over

Article content

As tough as that first week of the PWHL expansion process was here in Toronto, it’s tonight’s expansion draft that is really going to determine the Toronto Sceptres’ future.

Losing a foundational and instrumental piece in Sarah Nurse during the five-day exclusive signing window for the league’s two new teams was devastating on its own.

But tonight, the Sceptres will lose three more players with the ability to add just one more to its protection loss after the next member of its roster is taken.

Toronto’s primary issue has to be goaltending. In Kristen (Soupy) Campbell, they have a goalie who can be lights out for long stretches of time and won the league’s goaltender of the year in Season 1, but has shown a penchant — three stretches over the first two seasons — in which her game falls apart.

It occurred to begin the year in Season 1 before Campbell rallied and then again early in the season in year two. Then it fell apart in the playoffs, at the worst possible time as the Sceptres went from a 1-0 series lead and a hold on Game 2 to losing that game and eventually the series, with suspect goaltending high on the list of reasons why that happened.

Backup Raygan Kirk was able to step in during the regular season this past year and righted the ship, going 5-1 in her rookie season in the PWHL. But Kirk got hurt just before the season ended and was unavailable when Campbell tilted in the playoffs.

Which brings us to tonight’s expansion draft where the Sceptres will lose three more players.

Both expansion clubs in Vancouver and Seattle have already signed a goaltender but there’s a very good chance they will be looking to get some insurance at that position in tonight’s draft.

Kirk, who had the advantage of both youth and what we assume is a cap-friendly contract could very well be one of those young goaltenders that is being targeted tonight.

If Toronto does view Kirk, as we think they do, as the future in the Toronto net, they may have to spend their fourth on final protection on her. Of course, that’s assuming they even get to that point before Kirk’s name is heard.

The likely bet, and this will come as another blow to the Toronto fanbase, is that the next member of the Sceptres’ roster to be cherry-picked by one of the incoming teams will be fan favourite Emma Maltais. It will be after that selection that Sceptres’ GM Gina Kingsbury will have to determine whether to use that final protection on a goaltender who has made a total of seven starts and played in just 10 games for this team.

Even that will come at a cost, perhaps to the Sceptres’ defensive corps or maybe even more likely to its stable of young forwards with last year’s first round pick Julia Gosling the likely first target there.

No matter which way things go, tonight’s draft is going to take a big chunk out of Toronto’s roster.

If you start with losing Maltais, and no one wants that, then you are also looking at losing two of Kirk, Gosling, possibly young defender Megan Carter (last year’s second round pick), Izzy Daniel (the team’s third round pick a year ago), or a veteran like Savannah Harmon who was a big piece in the Jocelyne Larocque trade last season and half of Troy Ryan’s top defensive pairing.

Again, in total, the Sceptres are going to lose three more players tonight. That’s definite.

They will have a minute amount of control in who goes among that group with that one protection decision remaining but that will be the extent of their control.

It really is going to come down to what direction the new teams decide to take.

If Kingsbury and her staff are convinced their goalies aren’t in play – specifically Kirk – then perhaps they can use the protection on a Gosling.

If they believe the two incoming teams are focused on defence, they might put the protection on Carter who played a strong physical game on the Sceptres’ blue line and really has yet to scratch her offensive potential from that position.

Should Toronto’s goaltending become a target in this draft, there are options for Kingsbury after the draft.

Both Boston backups – Czechia sensation Klara Peslarova and Sweden’s Emma Soderberg could be available in free agency, assuming neither is taken in the expansion draft.

Soderberg has made it known that she’s likely returning to Sweden to play in her native league though no signing has yet been announced.

Peslarova hasn’t made her intentions known yet for next season – it being an Olympic year could factor in the plans for both goalies who are starters for their respective national teams – but she is intriguing.

She’s been lights out on the international stage for years and in very limited action for Boston, just two games and only one start, she has lived up to the hype.

Could she be a target for the Sceptres should Kirk be one of the Toronto losses in the expansion draft?

There’s also the possibility of luring Maddie Rooney, the Minnesota Frost goaltender, to Toronto. Rooney was a primary reason for both of Toronto’s playoff failures to date and she is a free agent.

The hitch there is that Minnesota could yet lose its other starter – the Frost net has been shared by Rooney and Nicole Hensley through the first two years – as Hensley is available in tonight’s draft. If she is selected, the Frost will be highly motivated to re-sign its other starter.

Whatever happens in tonight’s draft, it’s going to make for some very interesting roster maneuvering in the coming weeks for Kingsbury and all the league GMs.

The expansion draft begins at 8:30 p.m. tonight and can be watched live at PWHL.com or on the league’s YouTube channel.

mganter@postmedia.com