In Hainsight: Here Are your PWHL Montreal players!

Today, a new page of history was written as the PWHL held its first draft in Toronto. Each team took to the stage to make 15 selections in a snake draft that took the better part of five hours. Nobody fell off their chair when Taylor Heise was chosen first overall by the Minnesota franchise and when talented blue-liners were sought after early in the exercise. Since I’ll be covering the Montreal franchise this season, here’s a rundown of Daniele Sauvageau’s team selections.

6^th overall: Erin Ambrose – D

A 29-year-old right shot defenseman, Ambrose is a fixture on Team Canada’s blue line and has previously played in Montreal with the defunct Canadiennes of the CWHL, serving as an alternate captain in 2018-2019. At the last Olympics, she recorded nine points in seven games, helping Canada to capture the Gold medal.

7^th overall: Kristin O’Neill – F

The 25-year-old will bring much-needed youth on a team that has started taking shape with an impressive collection of veterans. In the NCAA, the forward spent four seasons with Cornell University and captained the team in her last year while gathering 40 points in 30 games.

18^th overall: Maureen Murphy – F

An NCAA graduate, Murphy spent the last three seasons playing with Northeastern University and finish her last campaign with 55 points in 33 games. The 23-year-old is a Buffalo native and is the first American selected by Montreal.

19^th overall: Dominika Laskova – D

After going South of the border with her third pick, Sauvageau went overseas for her fourth, selecting Czech right-shot blueliner Dominika Laskova. After playing with Merrimack in the NCAA for four years, Laskova signed a contract with the Toronto Six of the defunct PHF. In her sole season with Toronto, she racked up 13 points in 24 games.

30^th overall: Kati Tabin – D

The former captain of Quinnipiac University in the NCAA played part of two seasons in the PHF, six games with the Connecticut Whale in 2021-2022 and a complete season with the Toronto Six, where she was a teammate of Laskova and gathered 18 points in 24 contests.

31^st overall: Kennedy Marchment – F

The 26-year-old forward is an Ontario native but has played for St.Lawrence in the NCAA before heading to Sweden for three years and landing with the Connecticut Whale, where she spent two seasons in the PHF. Last season, she was an alternate captain and tallied 35 points in 24 games.

42^nd overall: Tereza Vanisova – F

The 27-year-old is another player who spent the last season with the Toronto Six, just like her compatriot Laskova, who Montreal selected in the 4^th round. In 20 games with the Toronto outfit, she gathered 14 points. She’s also part of the Czech national team and had 6 points in 5 games at the last Olympics.

43^rd overall: Madison Bizal – D

Freshly graduated from Ohio State, 23-year-old Bizal is a left-shot defenseman who has showed that she can have an offensive upside in there last two seasons, when she gathered 27 points in 38 games and 19 points in 41 contests.

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54^th overall: Gabrielle David – F

The forward recently graduated from Clarkson University and will be heading back to her native province to start her professional career. The 24-year-old exploded offensively in her last season in the NCAA getting 52 points in 42 contests.

55^th overall: Maude Poulin-Labelle – D

The 23-year-old left shot defenseman was a teammate of 3^rd round pick Maureen Murphy during her last season in the NCAA with the Northeastern Huskies. She spent the previous four seasons at the University of Vermont. A Sherbrooke, Quebec, native will finally get to come back home as she starts her professional career.

66^th overall: Jillian Dempsey – F

An experienced player at 32-year-old, Dempsey, who captained Harvard University in her last season in the NCAA, stayed in Boston after graduating. She’s spent the last 10 seasons playing for the Boston Blades and then the Boston Pride of which she was the captain for the last six seasons. During the 2022-2023 season, she racked up 28 points in 24 games.

67^th overall: Claire Dalton – F

The 23-year-old 5’9’’ forward has spent the last five seasons with Yale University in the NCAA. Last year, she also wore the captain’s C and put up 36 points on the boards in 33 games.

78^th overall: Elaine Chuli – G

Yet another former member of the Toronto Six, the 29-year-old goaltender will be a great back-up for starting goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens. Over the course of the last three seasons with the Six, she has had phenomenal stats with a save percentage of .936, .931 and .917 and a goal against average of 1.61, 1.82 and 2.61.

79^th overall: Ann-Sophie Bettez – F

By the time the season starts in January, Bettez will be 36 years old and the oldest member of the team. The Sept-Iles, Quebec native is as homegrown as they get. She played for both Dawson College and McGill University before playing in Montreal with the CWHL back when they were the Stars and the Canadiennes. She’s been a teammate of Marie-Philip Poulin and just last year, she wore the “C” for Montreal’s PHF team, La Force, after spending three years with the PWHPA.

90^th overall: Lina Ljungblom – F

The final pick of the draft was also the youngest player selected. The 21-year-old member of the Swedish national team played with MoDo in the Swedish Women Hockey League last season, where she served as an alternate captain and gathered 30 points in 32 games. On the international scene, she had 10 points in 7 games at the World Championships. It appears that she’s committed to playing for MoDo this upcoming season, but she’ll be worth the wait for Montreal.

There you have it, Montreal’s 15 selections in a nutshell. Daniele Sauvageau and her staff picked five defensemen, nine forwards, and one goaltender today. Adding Poulin, Desbiens, and Stacey, the Montreal franchise now has 11 forwards, five blueliners, and two goaltenders for 18 players. The six remaining spots on the roster can be filled by free agent signings or players who will try out at training camp in November.

With a solid core of national team members and plenty of players who had a letter stitched to the jerseys in previous years, there is no denying that Montreal has a plethora of experience and leadership.

The composition of the team will hopefully appease the members of the French media who could be worried about identity issues, as exhibited by the press’ reaction to Kori Cheverie’s nomination as coach, since there will be at least five Quebec born players on the roster. It’s also worth mentioning that Melodie Daoust, who had declared for the draft had let it be known to Sauvageau that her priorities right now are her son Mateo and her job coaching the women’s program at College Bourget. She added that she’d like to be a practice player and a reservist for the Montreal outfit.

The Montreal brass would be wise to seek a young goaltender to act as their third string goalie since both of their masked women are already 29 years old and injuries in netminders are unfortunately not rare. Furthermore, I believe that Montreal will be one of the oldest teams in the league and it’s imperative to plan ahead. Winning now might be the objective, but building a team that will contend year in and year out should also be part of the plan.

I enjoyed the draft even though it was a little bit long-winded. In the NHL, for the later rounds, teams make their picks straight from the draft table instead of going up to the stage, that might have saved some time. It was great to see different important faces of women’s hockey over the years show up on stage to announce selections and players already selected too.

Overall, the PWHL can say job well done and move on to the next stage of its plan, or what I imagine is the next stage of the plan, work on the six team’s branding. Judging by the way Toronto announced its selections on “X” though, I believe they will be keeping the Six moniker. Since Montreal is such a traditional market, I’d be shocked if the team wasn’t called Les Canadiennes and didn’t wear red, white and blue, but time will tell.

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