
Marie-Philip Poulin named PWHL MVP over former Fleet captain Hilary Knight
After a slow start to her PWHL career in the league's inaugural season, Knight broke out in '24-25. She tied for the PWHL scoring lead with 29 points in 30 games and was one of two players to lead their team outright in goals (15) and assists (14). The points total represented an 18-point improvement from Knight's first year in Boston.
Knight was named a first-team All-Star alongside Poulin, Fast, New York Sirens rookie Sarah Fillier, Ann-Renee Desbiens (Montreal), and Sophie Jaques (Minnesota Frost).
Advertisement
The Fleet opted not to protect Knight during the PWHL expansion process, and
Related
:
Fleet goaltender Aerin Frankel was named a second-team All-Star. The Northeastern product led the league in saves( 642), was second among qualified goalies in save percentage (.921), and was tops in minutes played by 114 more than the nearest contender.
Advertisement
🏆 2025 PWHL Second All-Star Team
They showed up, showed out, and earned their spot.
--
🏆 Deuxième équipe d'étoiles 2025 de la LPHF
Elles ont répondu présentes, ont brillé, et ont mérité leur place.
— PWHL (@thepwhlofficial)
Frankel was also a finalist for Goaltender of the Year, which went to Desbiens. Desbiens led all goaltenders with 15 wins, and her 1.86 goals-against average and .932 save percentage were tops among PWHL starters.
Fast was named Defender of the Year. She tied with Jaques for the scoring lead among defenders with 22 points in 30 games, and she led the league with 63 hits while playing a league-leading average of 24:39 per game.
Rookie of the Year went to Fillier, a runaway favorite for the award after she tied with Knight for the league lead in points; no other rookie had more than 18 points. Fillier's 16 assists were the most by a forward and tied with Fast for the league lead.
Korie Cheverie was named Coach of the Year after leading Montreal to the best regular-season record (12-7-3-8, 53 points) and a trip to the Walter Cup Final. The Victoire were the first team to clinch a playoff spot
Emma Healy can be reached at
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Yankees first-half awards: Aaron Judge for MVP, but who's LVP?
NEW YORK — Will Warren didn't seem worried at all. The bases were loaded. The count was full. Gio Urshela was at the plate, and it was the first inning. Warren reached back and ripped a 94 mph sinker that dotted the outside corner. Urshela didn't swing, the umpire called strike three, and it set the New York Yankees' starting pitcher on a path to yet another big night. Advertisement Warren threw five scoreless innings, striking out seven while walking four, in a 3-0 win over the Athletics at Yankee Stadium on Friday night. The game represented the halfway mark of the regular season for the Yankees, who at 47-34 hold a 1 1/2-game lead in the American League East. And Warren's showing was another example of why he's been the Yankees' rookie of the year for the first half of the 2025 season. Warren has a 5-4 record and a 4.37 ERA, giving the Yankees at least the chance to win just about every day, though he usually offers even more. Over his last four starts, he has a 1.96 ERA. He's allowed three or fewer runs in 13 starts. Warren leads MLB rookies in starts (17) and strikeouts (103). Will Warren, Disgusting Sweeper. 🤮 — Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 28, 2025 Manager Aaron Boone said he wasn't losing faith in the 26-year-old as he walked three of the first five batters he faced Friday, though he did tell the bullpen to have Allan Winans warm up in case Warren couldn't right the ship. 'Honestly a lot of confidence that we don't have to trick 'em,' Boone said. 'He's got the stuff to go right after them.' The biggest difference for Warren this season? 'I feel like he's really starting to use his sinker and his four-seamer really well with a lot of faith in it and in the strike zone,' Boone said. 'He knows he can go in the strike zone with both of those pitches if he executes. He doesn't have to run from contact. Those two pitches really play for him.' Warren has shown that he deserves to remain in the rotation when Luis Gil returns from the injured list sometime after the All-Star break. Here are our other first-half awards for the Yankees. Who else? Judge is in the midst of one of his best seasons, and that's saying something. The 33-year-old is leading MLB in the following categories: batting average (.358), on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.712), OPS (1.170) and fWAR (6.1). Judge's 28 homers are the third-most in baseball. And he hasn't missed a full game. When he was announced as the biggest vote-getter for this year's American League All-Star team, he became the fourth player since fan balloting returned in 1970 to lead the majors in voting at least three times (Ken Griffey Jr., 5; Rod Carew, 4; Ichiro Suzuki, 3). The best player in the game, of course, is the most valuable player on the team. Advertisement LeMahieu brings leadership to the Yankees' clubhouse. He sets an example of how to prepare every day. He has also been the Yankees' least productive everyday player. He didn't debut until May 13 after missing the beginning of the season with a left calf strain. When he first returned, he appeared to be moving better than he had at any point over his last two injury-plagued years. But he's struggled significantly of late. Over 13 games entering Friday, he had posted just a .384 OPS with only one extra-base hit. His season marks of a 92.5 mph average exit velocity and 50 percent hard-hit rate are encouraging. His expected weighted on-base percentage of .304 is not. Fried might start for the AL All-Star team. When the Yankees signed Fried to an eight-year, $217 million deal, the move was almost universally applauded, though some eyebrows were raised at the length. Nobody's questioning it now. The lefty leads MLB in wins with 10, and his 1.92 ERA is second among starting pitchers. He's top 10 in WHIP (0.94) and batting average against (.204). Fried has also become a clubhouse leader in a mold similar to Gerrit Cole. 'Ten wins in half a season is not easy to do, in any era, especially now,' Boone told reporters in Cincinnati this week. 'It's just a testament to how good he's been and how efficient he's been. Needless to say, he's been enormous for us, whether it's coming off a loss or extending a streak. His consistency's been great.' Carrasco's stay was brief but impactful, in the wrong way. The 38-year-old was 2-2 with a 5.91 ERA in eight games (six starts), and it seemed like he just didn't have it anymore in the 16th season of an otherwise impressive career. He made his last Yankees appearance on May 4. Then the team designated him for assignment. He's since hung around Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but he hasn't been good there either, with a 4.95 ERA in six games. Carrasco was a positive force inside the Yankees' clubhouse during spring training and at the beginning of the season, but he didn't get it done on the field.


New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
What the Noah Dobson acquisition means for what the Canadiens are hoping to accomplish
MONTREAL — Team-building in the NHL is a complicated process, one mired with pitfalls and obstacles and plans that go awry. There are numerous examples of teams that went through a rebuilding process that never came out the other side, or at least haven't yet. Even two of the biggest rebuild success stories, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers, have not yet claimed the ultimate prize despite drafting generational players to build around. Advertisement The Montreal Canadiens don't have generational players. They have not even come close to sniffing at that prize. But Friday's acquisition of defenceman Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders signals a seismic shift in how the Canadiens are approaching their rebuild. They have firmly exited a rebuild and entered a team-building phase, which is one step closer to entering a contending phase. In Dobson, the Canadiens believe they have acquired not only a crucial piece of their eventual championship puzzle, but also a player who shares that belief that there is in fact a championship puzzle being put together here. Dobson's fit as a player in that puzzle is almost less important than Dobson's belief in that puzzle, because his belief came from the outside, from an interested observer wondering where to continue his career. As a legitimate top-pairing, puck-moving, right-shot defenceman, Dobson would have been a coveted piece across the league. But what the Canadiens are building excited him and he wanted in, and that should be exciting to Canadiens fans who have been searching for a light in the tunnel of this rebuild. This sign-and-trade with the Islanders, this decision by Dobson to eagerly jump in on what is happening in Montreal, should serve as that light. 'Without hesitation, it was a no-brainer for me,' Dobson, 25, said of the decision to sign an eight-year contract worth $9.5 million a year to commit his prime years to the Canadiens. 'Just the opportunity to be part of the Montreal Canadiens, it's an honour. It's the best hockey market in the world. The fans are incredible. I love playing at the Bell Centre. 'And then just also the group of players they have already, the talent they have on the team and what they've been building. I'm just super excited to join that group and add to it, and I'm excited about what we can do down the road here in the future.' Advertisement It is the last part that is vital to what this means for the Canadiens and where they are in their rebuild, because it has been ages since a player in his prime felt that way about this team. And Dobson got that sense through word of mouth. He played for Team Canada in the most recent World Championships with Canadiens defenceman Mike Matheson and has a history with Nick Suzuki from the 2019 Canadian world juniors team. 'I think Martin St. Louis has a great reputation throughout the league as a coach and a person,' Dobson said. 'What I heard as a group, they enjoy coming to the rink every day. It's a fun group, a tight-knit group. They've got a great mix of lots of young kids and veterans as well. Everyone just enjoys being together as a group and they have a great time. They try and make it fun and make it exciting to go to the rink every day. 'As a player, that's all you can ask for.' And since Dobson feels that way, Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes is hopeful it will lead to more players feeling that way. 'I think it also probably makes it a more attractive place to play for a prospective forward, whether that's this year or in the future,' Hughes said late Friday night. 'We've talked about getting players who could help out in our top-six, but if we could have a team that we hope to have, similar to Florida where they're rolling two real good lines – well, they have three – but both lines would want a puck-moving D out there to get them pucks and moving. 'So I think in that regard, when the puzzle's complete, we're going to have more puck-movers to move through our lineup.' Hughes says he has spent the last three weeks on the phone 'nearly every waking hour' trying to improve his team. The Canadiens continue to say they are not desperate to improve right away, that they are not willing to do anything stupid, but there was definitely pressure on the organization to build on its first playoff berth of this rebuild, to not take a step back, to make a tangible improvement. Advertisement This move accomplished that, in more ways than one. The first is the hockey part, that the Canadiens now have two top-end puck-moving defencemen in Dobson and Calder Trophy-winner Lane Hutson that they can deploy on two pairings, potentially having an elite puck-mover on the ice for 45 to 50 minutes a game. Even if the Canadiens don't succeed in finding a top-six forward to help their second line – and Hughes says he is still trying to do that – that alone should improve the offensive performance of the forwards the Canadiens already have. 'I think if you look at how we play, we try to deny pucks a lot and deny ice and we send a lot of D back, if their D partner's up holding the blue line and they're going back to retrieve,' Hughes said. 'His ability to retrieve pucks and spring the offence for us was a big piece. We've seen how Lane's done that for us this year. We're confident. We did a lot of homework on (Dobson), a lot of people that have coached him.' The reason Hughes felt the need to express confidence in the research the Canadiens did on Dobson is he is coming off a down year, as he followed up a career-high 70 points last season with 39 points this season. Hughes called it an outlier, and over the course of Dobson's career, it would appear to be. But Dobson characterized it more as a learning experience, one that should now benefit the Canadiens. 'I think it was a difficult season at times as a whole, not just individually, but as a team,' Dobson said. 'We struggled to score a lot, collectively as a team, especially earlier in the year. The team dealt with a lot of injuries, a lot of moving parts moving in and out. Like any season, there's highs and lows throughout that. 'I think just taking the learning experience, dealing with, as a team and individually, struggling to score and produce and having to find ways to be effective each night when things aren't going in was something I really tried to learn from and grow and evolve.' Advertisement There is some mild risk here from a hockey perspective, considering how Dobson's season went, but it's mitigated by the three years of excellent hockey he played prior. He is a top-pair defenceman, despite how this season went, and the Canadiens paid a top-pair-defenceman price in both acquisition cost and with the contract, which is structured very favourably for Dobson. Noah Dobson 8 year $9.5M Cap Hit #Isles/#GoHabsGo sign & trade: Yr 1/2/3: 1M Base & 11M Signing BonusYr 4: 5M Base & 5M SBYr 5: 8.4M BaseYr 6/7/8: 7.2M Base Years 2-8: 14 Team No Trade Clause Rep'd by Olivier Fortier @wassermanhockey — PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) June 28, 2025 But more than the hockey fit, the signal the Dobson acquisition sends is almost of greater importance. It signals an emergence from a rebuild, and a willingness to smooth out the imperfections in the Canadiens' roster in order to build one capable of winning the Stanley Cup down the road. It's possible Dobson isn't the right player to drive that forward, but what the Canadiens believe him to be absolutely would drive that forward. And what that means is that every subsequent move will serve the same purpose. The Canadiens are in a different phase, an exciting phase in which a competitive team will continue being added to and improved incrementally with a long view of building a contender and a shorter view of continuing to build momentum. It is the first stepping stone this Canadiens administration has added that didn't require some sort of abstract projection of what an acquired asset could potentially mean if everything went right. Dobson's projection is not very abstract. 'I don't want to say everything happens in phases, but I guess we spent the early part of my time here trying to accumulate assets, which for the most part were draft picks, but there were prospects,' Hughes said. 'But once you go through that phase, I think you come to a time where you start to look at, how are we constructing a hockey team and how do we want to play and what are the players that fit that idea, that mandate. Advertisement 'This is probably a pretty significant sign on our part that, OK, we're adding a piece from the outside, we didn't draft it, and we're going to try to continue to take those next steps. I think part of it was driven by the success the team had and the desire the dressing room has to keep moving this thing forward.' The Canadiens made a significant investment in Dobson, and Dobson committed the prime of his NHL career to the Canadiens. They are both hoping for the same thing, that this marriage will result in rings. That end result is still abstract and still requires more work. But Dobson's acquisition is the first sign that work toward the desired end result has now begun.

Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Game Recap: Valkyries 83, Sky 78
Canadiens: Hughes Is Considering Every Possibility One of the most intriguing names in free agency this Summer was former Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews. The 37-year-old veteran center elected to go home and sign with the Winnipeg Jets earlier this week. Further to the announcement, TSN and The Athletic insider Pierre LeBrun revealed that the Montreal Canadiens were one of the teams interested in Toews. 1:52 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing