Some tough times for some big names in growing PWHL

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Until this past week, the majority of the best players in women’s hockey have been shielded from the dirtier side of the business side of professional sports and how that could impact their day-to-day lives.

An expansion process focused on maintaining league-wide parity ended that shielding once and for all.

And kudos to the women — the likes of Hilary Knight, Sarah Nurse, Alex Carpenter and Emerance Maschmeyer to name just four — who handled this all with so much grace.

It can’t have been easy for hockey players who all their lives have been told they are at the very elite level of their sport, to suddenly hear from the general managers of the teams they helped form that there were three other players they would rather protect going forward.

All four of the aforementioned players were foundational signings — the three players on each of the six original clubs that the teams would be build around — and two years later all four, one of them a captain, were left unprotected.

Then put the shoe on the other foot and imagine being the GM told they can protect just three players and having to weigh factors such as age, financial flexibility and long-term goals to say nothing of the personal relationships built over two years and some longer than that, and then having to approach a player who has probably never been cut from a team and tell them they would not be protected.

But that was the hand dealt both GMs and many of the league’s biggest stars over the past few weeks.

Soft — read wildly popular — landing spots in Seattle and Vancouver helped cushion the blow for the players, but that didn’t stop it from being a roller coaster ride these past few weeks for some of the most highly respected women in the game.

Here is a look at how those four handled the news and eventually dealt with what had to be one of the most unique moments of their professional careers.

SARAH NURSE

Nurse was as much the face of the Sceptres franchise as anyone on the team. She was one of three foundational signings along with defender Renata Fast and eventual team captain Blayre Turnbull. She was part of the marketing campaign that introduced the PWHL to Toronto. She was even part of the Player’s Association Executive that helped negotiate the collective bargaining agreement this league will play under for another six seasons yet.

In short, Nurse was Sceptres and league royalty and a few weeks ago she learned she would not be one of Toronto’s three protected players. It was inevitable at that point that she would be in either Seattle or Vancouver, the league’s two expansion markets, this coming season.

Those three protected spots in Toronto went to the other two foundational signings and forward Daryl Watts, who was signed as a free agent last season from Ottawa.

If it was a tough pill to swallow, Nurse kept that mostly to herself as she discussed these past few weeks after signing a one-year deal with PWHL Vancouver earlier this week.

“I think I didn’t know what to expect,” Nurse admitted of the whole expansion process. “I took a little bit of comfort in that first free agency period we had before the PWHL actually started so I kind of knew how that one went and how everything happened so quickly. So going into the morning the other day I kind of had a feeling that things were going to move quickly. I had conversations with Seattle and Vancouver and when Cara (Vancouver general manager Cara Gardner Morey) wanted to speak to me directly and kind of shared her vision and what she saw for the organization and how I could fit into the free signings before and the signing that came after me, I really believed in her and I think she believed in me so the day was kind of crazy. It was very unexpected. I was able to speak to Gina (Sceptres GM Gina Kingsbury) in Toronto just to thank her for everything and understand that I think both organizations will be in a pretty good place going into next season …

“It was definitely a very difficult and emotional conversation that really started with the protection conversation a few days prior just because the team in Toronto is deep. There are a lot of players who are worthy of being protected and all power to that group moving forward because they do have a great group. So definitely an emotional conversation with Gina but again, nothing but respect between us both.”

As hard as this hit, Nurse said a trade earlier in the year by the Sceptres that sent highly respected associate captain Jocelyne Larocque to Ottawa at least set the table for something Nurse just went though.

“We love Jos so much,” Nurse said. “She’s an incredible leader, an incredible person, somebody that I have looked up to for so long. And after she got traded, so many of us looked back and said, ‘Wow, we thought Jos was untouchable,’ and that made us all realize no, this really is a business. People are going to make decisions and GMs are going to make decisions that are best for their team and their organization and ultimately what they want. I think looking back that definitely was a wakeup call, a welcome to pro hockey moment.”

EMERANCE MASCHMEYER

One of Ottawa’s three foundational signings, and like Nurse a long-time fixture on Canada’s national team, goaltender Maschmeyer was as much the victim of injury as anyone in this process. Maschmeyer was humming along having a brilliant season for the Charge when a lower body injury ended her season in March.

Backup Gwyneth Philips stepped into the net and was the primary reason the Charge made its run to the Walter Cup Final before eventually falling to the Minnesota Frost in the championship.

Philips was named playoff MVP despite being on the losing side and Maschmeyer’s tenure in Ottawa was basically over.

Maschmeyer saw the writing on the wall — a younger, less expensive option to protect in Philips and rather quickly began to turn the page. Earlier this week she signed a two-year extension on her Ottawa deal with her new employers in Vancouver.

“It’s definitely been a journey, a bit of an emotional roller coaster I must say,” Maschmeyer said. “Gwen? I can’t say enough amazing things about her … she’s obviously an incredible goalie and had a standout playoff series. So, I have no ill will against her. Honestly I am very happy for her. I think that we both deserve starting roles so this is the best scenario where we aren’t competing for ice time. We both get to own the net. There were some tough conversations, yes, but at the end of the day I got injured and that is a tough part of the sport. Sometimes you are dealt a hand of cards you don’t expect, but you have to manage and that’s exactly what I have been doing this season.

“I’m just excited I’m in a really great place right now and will be ready to go when the pucks drops next season.”

HILARY KNIGHT

The American version of Canada’s Marie Philip-Poulin is a player few, if any, management types have ever said no thanks to, but that was what Boston GM Danielle Marmer did recently.

The captain of the Boston Fleet since the PWHL launched two years ago is admittedly into the latter stages of her professional career but is coming off a season in which she tied for the league lead in points with soon-to-be-named rookie of the year Sarah Fillier. Like Nurse, no one who wore Boston colours over these two years had more to do with establishing the culture of her team than Knight did.

Marmer, though, had the future to consider when announcing her list of three protected players, and as much as Knight has done for the team already there is just more in the tank for the three she chose to use the protections on in defender Megan Keller, goalie Aerin Frankel and young and rising star Alina Muller.

Knight, who signed for one year with Seattle but cautioned media types that term did not reflect her desire to stay with her new club for longer, was asked about her surprise in being left off the protected list and how she has navigated the time since learning she would be exposed in the draft.

“I think whenever the expansion was announced and the rules of engagement you knew it was going to be an exciting opportunity and also some bittersweet feelings as well,” Knight said. “Obviously only three get protected and different clubs need different things and players need different opportunities as well or fresh starts or whatever that looks like. There’s definitely a lot of conversations that go on behind the scenes and you kind of have to meet people where they are and figure out which pieces work and what people want to do and how to build a successful franchise. I’m really excited about this opportunity in Seattle … I think things aligned personally for me in the right way and I cannot wait for puck drop.”

ALEX CARPENTER

The New York Sirens centre and the third highest scoring player over the first two years in the league is not one to open up publicly, so she kept her thoughts about being unprotected to herself for the most part. Carpenter left it at this when asked if she was surprised the Sirens chose to leave her unprotected to protect the trio of Sarah Fillier, Ella Shelton and captain Micah Zandee-Hart.

“Yeah for sure,’ she said of being surprised. “It’s definitely always unexpected or surprising but at the same time I think I took that as a chance to have a new opportunity and the past is the past, kind of behind me now and just really excited to get it going in Seattle.”

WHERE IT STANDS

PWHL Vancouver wrapped up its five selections in the exclusive signing window period on Thursday when they grabbed B.C. native Jen Gardiner from Montreal. Gardiner joins an initial four selections by Vancouver of Minnesota defenders Claire Thompson, Sophie Jaques, Toronto forward Nurse and Ottawa goaltender Maschmeyer.

PWHL Seattle finished off its five picks in this portion of the expansion stocking process with the signing of New York’s Carpenter and, in perhaps the biggest surprise of the process to date, New York goaltender Corinne Schroeder.

Those two join former Fleet captain Knight, Ottawa forward Danielle Serdachny, and Montreal defender Cayla Barnes in Seattle.

The two teams will now have the full weekend to prepare for Monday’s expansion draft in which each club will select seven more players. Boston and Toronto will each lose three more players while Minnesota, Montreal, Ottawa and New York will lose only two more.

The draft begins at 8:30 p.m. EST on Monday and can be seen live at thepwhl.com or on the PWHL YouTube Channel.

mganter@postmedia.com