PWHL Vancouver expansion team lands star power, signing Sarah Nurse
Women's hockey league smartly made expansion rules that will benefit new entries at both the Pacific Coliseum and in Seattle
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The PWHL is giving the new Vancouver team that will play out of the Pacific Coliseum next fall every opportunity to be instantly competitive and compelling for fans.
Vancouver general manager Cara Gardner Morey announced Thursday morning that she has inked a one-year deal with Sarah Nurse, 30, who played this past season with the Toronto Sceptres, as part of this five-day window granted to the new Vancouver and Seattle clubs to sign free agents and players left off the six existing teams’ protected lists. The existing squads were only permitted to protect three players initially.
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Vancouver and Seattle will take part in an expansion draft on Monday, alternating picking players until they both have 12-women rosters.
Nurse is one of the game’s best spokeswomen, and one of its more recognizable players. She will resonate with mainstream sports fans. The forward from Burlington, Ont., was the first woman to appear on the cover of an EA Sports NHL title when she shared the front of NHL 23 alongside Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor Zegras.
Nurse is also a cousin of Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse, who is currently playing in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals against the Florida Panthers.
Sarah Nurse has been battling injuries of late, but her player resume is top notch. She has a gold and a silver medal at the Olympics with Team Canada, along with three world championship gold medals.
“Sarah is one of the sport’s biggest stars, both on and off the ice, and she will play a significant role in growing professional women’s hockey in Vancouver,” Gardner Morey was quoted as saying in a media release. “Her outstanding on-ice abilities will help establish our foundation at forward, and her unwavering commitment to building an inclusive hockey community makes her a fan favourite everywhere she goes.”
Nurse said in the release: “I am so honoured to be joining PWHL Vancouver, finally bringing professional women’s hockey to the West Coast. I already got a taste of the passion last year during the Takeover Tour and can’t wait to experience that daily. The vision for this organization could not be more exciting, and I am so humbled by Cara’s confidence in me as a player and as a person. The love and support I’ve felt already has meant so much to me. Puck drop can’t come soon enough.”
The Takeover Tour featured nine neutral-site regular season games, and the Jan. 8 game at Rogers Arena between the Sceptres and the Montreal Victoire drew an announced crowd of 19,038, which was the fourth-highest single-game attendance in league history.
Vancouver fans can place a deposit to secure priority access to season tickets for the inaugural season once ticket packages are released. Fans can subscribe to the Vancouver newsletter for updates as well.
The team also announced Thursday afternoon that it had signed Surrey product Jennifer Gardiner, a 23-year-old forward who played last season with the Victoire. She had five goals and 18 points in 30 games this season, leaving him second on scoring amongst rookies. She’s one of the finalists for the PWHL rookie of the year.
“Simply put, it’s a dream come true,” Gardiner explained in a press release. “Ever since I was a little girl on the Surrey Falcons and Greater Vancouver Comets, I have wanted to play professional hockey for my hometown team. I am so excited to help build a legacy that makes other girls in British Columbia dream big, and I am thrilled to play in front of my friends and family again. The Takeover Tour proved that Vancouver’s fans are passionate and loud, but I already knew that. I cannot wait to make them proud. Happy to say I’m coming home.”
Gardner Morey confirmed the signings Wednesday of Minnesota Frost defenders Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson, as well as Ottawa Charge goalie Emerance Maschmeyer. Five is the maximum number of players that Vancouver can sign ahead of the expansion draft.
Jaques, 24, and Thompson, 27, are among the three finalists for the league’s defender of the year award. Maschmeyer, 30, was the starter for Ottawa for its first two years and the first PWHL goalie to reach 1,000 career saves.
The window for Vancouver and Seattle to sign players was a product of offering players who thought they might be picked in the expansion draft an opportunity to decide on their landing spot ahead of time.
Expansion drafts in sports have historically been about castoffs and hand-me-downs. The PWHL benefits from the fact that it owns all the teams — L.A. Dodgers principal owner Mark Walter heads up the league — and credit the PWHL braintrust for realizing that if they were going to continue growth they needed Vancouver and Seattle to have a chance to be contenders as soon as possible.
Seattle’s first signing was American star winger Hilary Knight, 35, who is up for the league’s most valuable player award after finishing tied for the scoring title with the Boston Fleet.
Come the fall, the PWHL becomes the first full-time tenant at the Pacific Coliseum since the Vancouver Giants departed after the 2015-16 WHL season for their current digs at the Langley Events Centre. They moved out because they couldn’t make the finances work at the Coliseum, and their announced attendance average that last regular season there was 5,169.
According to the PWHL, announced attendance across the league jumped 27 per cent this season from their inaugural campaign, going from 5,689 to 7,230.
Granted, the WHL teams were playing a 36-game home schedule in the Giants’ days in the Coliseum, and the PWHL teams will probably be half that. They also have single operator in charge of all the teams, so all the money goes into one pot rather than each team being on their own in the WHL.
The Giants comparison still suggest things won’t be simple. The PWHL will draw well the first few games at home in Vancouver. What happens after the honeymoon period is the question, but the expansion regulations are helping create a Vancouver roster that will have stories that should connect with fans.
Maschmeyer is another good example of that. The Bruderheim, Alta., product is the little sister of Bronson Maschmeyer, a defenceman who started his WHL career at the Coliseum with the Giants before playing his final three years in the league with the rival Kamloops Blazers.
“Joining Vancouver is an incredible opportunity, and I’m thrilled to be a part of such an exciting chapter of the league’s expansion,” Maschmeyer was quoted as saying in a media release. “Vancouver has proven to be a vibrant hockey city and I’m thrilled to play in front of such passionate fans. I’m aligned with Cara’s vision and values and honoured to have the opportunity to help build this organization’s culture from the ground up.”
There has been no announcement on next year’s schedule, but each of the teams played a 30-game regular season this year, and opening night was Nov. 30.
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