More losses for PWHL's Toronto Sceptres, but a few key retentions too

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As all six members of the PWHL’s original clubs deal with the losses that have had to suffer to welcome in two new teams at (or some would argue better) than league levels, Monday provided the Toronto Sceptres its first real chance to add to its roster.

The opening of the period to sign players on expiring contracts didn’t begin that way for the Sceptres, instead resulting in the loss of yet another key player in forward Hannah Miller, who is going home to sign with Vancouver.

But it wasn’t an all together bad day for the local side.

Before the day was out, news would start to filter that they also had lost Hayley Scamurra, who had been obtained mid-season from Ottawa in the Jocelyne Larocque trade. Scamurra was signed by the Montreal Victoire, who announced the transaction Tuesday, but the day and days ahead could have been so much worse.

And that’s where we get to the re-signings of some of Toronto’s other key veterans.

Forwards Natalie Spooner and Jesse Compher were re-signed Tuesday. Defender Kali Flanagan was as well, but her deal has yet to be announced officially.

They aren’t new faces coming in but having already sustained the loss of Sarah Nurse, Julia Gosling, Izzy Daniel, Megan Cater and now Miller and Scamurra, holding on to this trio is huge.

In retaining Flanagan GM Gina Kingsbury and the Sceptres hold on to all four of their top four defenders in Renata Fast, Savannah Harmon, Allie Munroe and Flanagan.

Defences were decimated in the expansion process around the league. Two-time defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost lost two of its three main cogs on the blue line right off the jump when Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques were scooped up by Vancouver in the exclusive signing window for the two new clubs.

Seattle then took a massive bite out of Montreal’s defence corps snapping up two prized rookie rearguards in Cayla Barnes and Anna Wilgren.

Ottawa lost both Ashton Bell and Aneta Tejralova, putting a dent in its collection of rearguards and then Tuesday lost Zoe Boyd as well who signed with Boston. There’s still talk Jincy Roese, another key defender on Ottawa’s roster, could find a new home.

Toronto suffered its own losses on the blue line losing coveted rookie Megan Carter, but compared to the rest of the league minus perhaps New York, they got off easy.

In retaining Renata Fast, Savannah Harmon, Flanagan and Allie Munroe, Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan can at least look at his blue line and know the losses he suffered are manageable.

The same can’t be said up front where both his young corps and a chunk of his veteran corps will be playing elsewhere when the season opens in November.

Replacing Nurse and Miller along with Gosling and Daniel and now Scamurra is going to be tough, but how much tougher would that be had you added Spooner and Compher to that list?

Spooner, the league’s MVP in Year 1, returned from a potentially career-ending torn ACL last season and, while the numbers weren’t there so much by the end, there were certainly indications that she was making her way back to that form.

Any time a member of the media brought up Spooner’s progress during the season, Ryan was quick to point out that not only was she coming back from a major injury, it came on the heels of another off-season that had Spooner getting her body back to playing shape following the birth of her son.

Neither that off-season nor this past one was focused on improving or fine-tuning her already-impressive skill set. It was all about getting back to where she had been. While the rest of the league was adding layers to their talent base, Spooner for three years was just getting hers back.

It’s what gives Ryan and the Sceptres plenty of belief that given a full “regular” off-season to prepare, Spooner will come back better than ever in Year 3.

Compher had a slow start to her PWHL career, but in Year 2 found her path and simply took off. It was no surprise to hear that teams like the Boston Fleet and Montreal Victoire were sniffing around trying to lure Compher away following a season in which she established herself as a feared scoring threat and one of those players opponents would prefer not to play against just because they know every shift against her is going to mean a battle.

Retaining Spooner and Compher isn’t going to offset the loss of Nurse and Miller, but losing them in addition to those two top-line forwards would have made the build-back so much longer and so much tougher.

But Kingsbury and her team of roster builders are far from done.

There are still plenty of forwards on expired contracts that could be lured to Toronto and a few defenders that help fill some of those holes in the roster as it currently stands, assuming Toronto has the money under the cap to do so.

But the biggest question in Toronto remains in the net. Some of the answer came early Tuesday when the Sceptres announced the signing of Montreal backup Elaine Chuli.

That announcement coincided with the announcement of an agreement with Montreal forward Claire Dalton, a Toronto native, on a one-year deal similar to Chuli’s.

With Chuli coming in, it probably makes sense that Kristen Campbell is on the way out, but it would mean Kingsbury has to find a taker for her No. 1, who carries a sizable contract.

It might mean taking back salary in a trade that would offset Campbell’s deal or even retaining responsibility for some of her salary while she goes and plays elsewhere.

Either way, it’s not an easy transaction to pull off and this roster is far from settled.

mganter@postmedia.com