PWHL expansion takes a huge bite out of Sceptres' collection of young talent

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The Toronto Sceptres’ youth movement took a real hit during the league’s expansion draft that helped stock two new teams.

Already having lost a true veteran presence and builder in Sarah Nurse during the exclusive signing window, the Sceptres lost all three of their initial selections during last year’s draft.

Joining PWHL Seattle as the seventh pick in the expansion draft was last year’s first-round pick, Julia Gosling.

And while Toronto fans were still lamenting the loss of Gosling, a player who grew slowly for the Sceptres but was a key member of the team’s power play by season’s end, the very next pick by PWHL Vancouver also came from the Sceptres draft list of 2024 and that was Patty Kazmaier winner Izzy Daniel, the team’s third-round pick.

Both Daniel and Gosling come with team-friendly contracts and haven’t really scratched the ceiling of their potential, but both made strides throughout that first season and leave big holes in Toronto’s roster with their departure.

That theme of youth leaving the Toronto locker room continued with the loss of their second overall pick in last year’s draft in defender Megan Carter.

There was some real thought that Carter might have got some consideration as Toronto’s fourth protected player, a choice they were able to make after Seattle took Gosling.

But having already lost one fan favourite in Sarah Nurse to Vancouver last week and with the local fan base in a tizzy over the prospect of losing another roster mainstay in fiery forward Emma Maltais, the Sceptres did its fan base a solid and protected Maltais, the team’s third-round pick in the league’s inaugural entry draft.

Carter didn’t have the time to build up the kind of following Maltais appeared to have from Day 1, but don’t kid yourself, Carter is going to be missed next season.

Her Toronto debut was held back a couple of months by a lower body injury, but she quickly worked her way into head coach Troy Ryan’s good graces with a dependable presence on the blue line and in front of her own net. Carter’s physicality immediately jumped off the page but watching Ryan throw her into the fray at key moments late in the season and into the playoffs really convinced all those watching that this was only the beginning for Carter.

But that was just Toronto’s news on draft day.

PWHL Vancouver won a lottery to have the choice of first pick overall in the draft or accept the second and third picks. Vancouver GM Cara Gardner Morey opted for the first overall pick.

Morey, a defender herself in her playing days before becoming the face behind the bench at Princeton for almost a decade, stayed true to her roots and selected Ottawa defender Ashton Bell with that first pick.

Bell joins Morey’s first two signings, defenders Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques, on a strong Vancouver blue line.

Seattle took a bit of a different route building offensively first in the exclusive signing window with players such as Hilary Knight and Alex Carpenter.

GM Meghan Turner threw a bit of a surprise into the works by selecting another Ottawa defender in Aneta Tejralova with the second overall pick before reverting to form and grabbing Boston forward Hannah Bilka with the third pick in the draft.

Bilka is another young star on the rise in this league and one that is going to fit in nicely alongside Knight and Carpenter.

Neither club opted to go after a goalie in the draft, preferring to beef up their blue lines and offence with the seven selections each club made.

A notable omission in the draft was forward Grace Zumwinkle, who remains with the Minnesota Frost. Also untouched was Ottawa captain Brianne Jenner, who stays in the nation’s capital.

Defenders left on the board and therefore remaining with their respective clubs included the New York duo of Allyson Simpson and Jaime Bourbonnais, as well as Toronto’s Savannah Harmon and Boston’s Daniela Pejsova, who had a tough first year with Boston but still has plenty of upside in her game.

In the goalie department starters in Minnesota in Nicole Hensley and Toronto in Kristen Campbell were left untouched, as were young backups such as New York’s Kayle Osborne and Toronto’s Raygan Kirk.

The league’s focus now switches to the Entry Draft which will take place June 24 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Ottawa.

Following that, the teams, particularly the original six teams, will set their sights on the free agent class looking to spend some of the money that was freed up in the expansion process but also looking to fill some holes in their lineups created by that same process.

mganter@postmedia.com