Latest news with #LauraStacey
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
How Laura Stacey is using road hockey to give back to the 2 cities that have shaped her career
In the summer of 2018, Laura Stacey had an Olympic silver medal to her name, and little sense of what might be next for her. Two years after she'd graduated from Dartmouth College, Stacey had just won the Clarkson Cup, the top prize of the now-defunct Canadian Women's Hockey League, with the Markham Thunder. But pro women's hockey didn't pay the bills back then, and Stacey's spot on the national team was far from guaranteed. "I remember my parents asking me early on when I graduated [in 2016], how long are you going to do this for?" the Montreal Victoire forward recalled. It was at her parents' house one day, after a neighbourhood road hockey game on Stacey's 24th birthday, when her now-brother-in-law asked her: why don't you do this? By "this," he meant organize a road hockey tournament. Stacey, who's from Kleinburg, Ont., north of Toronto, put together a tournament that August with the help of her pro teammates. Since then, it's grown into an annual event, called Sticks In For Charity, and a registered charitable organization, the LS7 Foundation, that has raised nearly $200,000. The money has gone toward helping children access sports and arts programming, among other causes."The reason we started this was just to simply get kids and people and neighbours in that community out on the street, off their phones, off their computers," Stacey said in an interview with CBC Sports. "That worked in that day. But how could we continue on that path of allowing kids, people, individuals the chance to play? And so that's kind of where it all came from." As the PWHL and women's hockey have grown in popularity, so have the number of kids and adults who want the chance to play a road hockey game alongside some of the league's biggest stars. This year's tournament in Toronto included Montreal Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin, New York's Sarah Fillier, Toronto's Renata Fast and Ottawa's Emily Clark, among others. It raised $65,000, blasting past the original target of $50,000. Her work with the foundation also earned Stacey this year's PWHL's Hockey For All Award, A Scotiabank-sponsored prize that recognizes a player's community work. The bank donates $10,000 to a charity of the winner's choice "that supports youth or grassroots hockey, with a focus on accessibility, diversity, and inclusion." And this August, for the first time, Stacey will hold a Sticks In For Charity road hockey tournament in Montreal, the city that has become her home. It's her way of giving back to a city that has embraced her, and grown her career to heights she may not have been able to imagine back in 2018, when the feeling of defeat at the Olympics was fresh in her mind. "They've lifted me up and I think if I can do anything to lift them up, and the community that I'm playing in, then I think that's exactly what I want to do," Stacey said. Evolving on and off the ice Growing up in the Toronto area, Stacey cheered for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The name of her great-grandfather, King Clancy, hangs in the rafters of Scotiabank Arena. She wears the same number 7 on her jersey as he did. But it's been in Montreal where Stacey's career has grown the most over the last five seasons. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when most players were off the ice, now-Victoire GM Danièle Sauvageau got permission for national team players to continue training safely at Centre 21.02, the high-performance centre inside Verdun Auditorium that was built for the best female hockey players. Before the PWHL existed, it was a rare opportunity for players like Stacey to find everything they needed in one place. "The way it's helped me is just the professionalism," she said about training in Montreal. "I'm constantly surrounded by some of the best players in the world. I'm constantly surrounded by the best staff, skills coaches. Everything is just right there at your fingertips. At that point, it's on you to just want to get better." Since moving to Montreal, Stacey has earned an Olympic gold medal and three world championships with Team Canada, and has become one of the best power forwards in the game. Her speed and skill have made her a top-line player and a star with the Victoire, finishing in the PWHL's top 10 in goals and points last season. Stacey also led the league in shots. When she won Olympic gold in 2022, her name was often at the bottom of Canada's lineup. But Stacey's ability to do it all, from the power play to the penalty kill, will earn her a much bigger role in Italy this February. "I see what she does behind the scenes, the amount of work she's put into this foundation," Montreal captain Poulin, who is also married to Stacey, said at the league's awards gala in June. "She's so proud of it, and it's unbelievable. I'm very happy for her to get rewarded. To see what she's done off the ice but also on the ice, I think she's proven herself to be a great player in this league. I'm very fortunate to be able to see her evolve, day in and day out." Foundation to benefit 4 charities this year In Montreal, Victoire fans have embraced Stacey, even though she's not from Quebec. She's even trying to become a Montreal Canadiens fan. "This city treats me as if I'm one of their own," she said. "They've completely welcomed me with open arms. They've supported me. They've cheered me on more than I ever thought they would have." The same neighbourhood where Stacey trains, Verdun, will play host to the Sticks In For Charity tournament on Aug. 23. The proceeds raised by the LS7 Foundation this year will benefit four charities: KidSport Ontario, Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, Fitspirit-Fillactive and Canadian Tire Jumpstart, which is funding youth hockey initiatives led by Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender, Kim St-Pierre. In Montreal, it's a chance for Stacey to connect more with the community where she trains, and to see that impact up close. "If we can help some kids in the Verdun, Montreal community get active, get involved in sport, have that same opportunity me and my sister did, then I think that's a way of giving back and being appreciative of everything they've done for me," Stacey said. "Toronto and Montreal are both my homes, and so I want to be able to have an impact and give back to both those two cities."
CBC
5 days ago
- Sport
- CBC
How Laura Stacey is using road hockey to give back to the 2 cities that have shaped her career
In the summer of 2018, Laura Stacey had an Olympic silver medal to her name, and little sense of what might be next for her. Two years after she'd graduated from Dartmouth College, Stacey had just won the Clarkson Cup, the top prize of the now-defunct Canadian Women's Hockey League, with the Markham Thunder. But pro women's hockey didn't pay the bills back then, and Stacey's spot on the national team was far from guaranteed. "I remember my parents asking me early on when I graduated [in 2016], how long are you going to do this for?" the Montreal Victoire forward recalled. It was at her parents' house one day, after a neighbourhood road hockey game on Stacey's 24th birthday, when her now-brother-in-law asked her: why don't you do this? By "this," he meant organize a road hockey tournament. Stacey, who's from Kleinburg, Ont., north of Toronto, put together a tournament that August with the help of her pro teammates. Since then, it's grown into an annual event, called Sticks In For Charity, and a registered charitable organization, the LS7 Foundation, that has raised nearly $200,000. The money has gone toward helping children access sports and arts programming, among other causes. Laura Stacey on why she loves Montreal and wants to give back 2 minutes ago "The reason we started this was just to simply get kids and people and neighbours in that community out on the street, off their phones, off their computers," Stacey said in an interview with CBC Sports. "That worked in that day. But how could we continue on that path of allowing kids, people, individuals the chance to play? And so that's kind of where it all came from." As the PWHL and women's hockey have grown in popularity, so have the number of kids and adults who want the chance to play a road hockey game alongside some of the league's biggest stars. This year's tournament in Toronto included Montreal Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin, New York's Sarah Fillier, Toronto's Renata Fast and Ottawa's Emily Clark, among others. It raised $65,000, blasting past the original target of $50,000. Her work with the foundation also earned Stacey this year's PWHL's Hockey For All Award, A Scotiabank-sponsored prize that recognizes a player's community work. The bank donates $10,000 to a charity of the winner's choice "that supports youth or grassroots hockey, with a focus on accessibility, diversity, and inclusion." And this August, for the first time, Stacey will hold a Sticks In For Charity road hockey tournament in Montreal, the city that has become her home. It's her way of giving back to a city that has embraced her, and grown her career to heights she may not have been able to imagine back in 2018, when the feeling of defeat at the Olympics was fresh in her mind. "They've lifted me up and I think if I can do anything to lift them up, and the community that I'm playing in, then I think that's exactly what I want to do," Stacey said. Evolving on and off the ice Growing up in the Toronto area, Stacey cheered for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The name of her great-grandfather, King Clancy, hangs in the rafters of Scotiabank Arena. She wears the same number 7 on her jersey as he did. But it's been in Montreal where Stacey's career has grown the most over the last five seasons. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when most players were off the ice, now-Victoire GM Danièle Sauvageau got permission for national team players to continue training safely at Centre 21.02, the high-performance centre inside Verdun Auditorium that was built for the best female hockey players. Before the PWHL existed, it was a rare opportunity for players like Stacey to find everything they needed in one place. "The way it's helped me is just the professionalism," she said about training in Montreal. "I'm constantly surrounded by some of the best players in the world. I'm constantly surrounded by the best staff, skills coaches. Everything is just right there at your fingertips. At that point, it's on you to just want to get better." Since moving to Montreal, Stacey has earned an Olympic gold medal and three world championships with Team Canada, and has become one of the best power forwards in the game. Her speed and skill have made her a top-line player and a star with the Victoire, finishing in the PWHL's top 10 in goals and points last season. Stacey also led the league in shots. When she won Olympic gold in 2022, her name was often at the bottom of Canada's lineup. But Stacey's ability to do it all, from the power play to the penalty kill, will earn her a much bigger role in Italy this February. "I see what she does behind the scenes, the amount of work she's put into this foundation," Montreal captain Poulin, who is also married to Stacey, said at the league's awards gala in June. "She's so proud of it, and it's unbelievable. I'm very happy for her to get rewarded. To see what she's done off the ice but also on the ice, I think she's proven herself to be a great player in this league. I'm very fortunate to be able to see her evolve, day in and day out." Foundation to benefit 4 charities this year In Montreal, Victoire fans have embraced Stacey, even though she's not from Quebec. She's even trying to become a Montreal Canadiens fan. "This city treats me as if I'm one of their own," she said. "They've completely welcomed me with open arms. They've supported me. They've cheered me on more than I ever thought they would have." The same neighbourhood where Stacey trains, Verdun, will play host to the Sticks In For Charity tournament on Aug. 23. The proceeds raised by the LS7 Foundation this year will benefit four charities: KidSport Ontario, Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, Fitspirit-Fillactive and Canadian Tire Jumpstart, which is funding youth hockey initiatives led by Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender, Kim St-Pierre. In Montreal, it's a chance for Stacey to connect more with the community where she trains, and to see that impact up close. "If we can help some kids in the Verdun, Montreal community get active, get involved in sport, have that same opportunity me and my sister did, then I think that's a way of giving back and being appreciative of everything they've done for me," Stacey said.
National Post
06-07-2025
- Sport
- National Post
Laura Stacey's annual charity road hockey tournament brings much-needed smiles
It's been a tough summer for the player's side of the PWHL but there were only smiles at an event Saturday afternoon that included the best of the best from the league that took over a small chunk of Etobicoke. Article content It was Laura Stacey's annual LS7 Sticks In For Charity ball hockey tournament and it brought out the who's who in the PWHL from Stacey to last year's MVP Marie-Philip Poulin to last year's Rookie of the Year Sarah Fillier and last year's defender of the year Renata Fast to name just a few who took part in the tournament. Article content Article content For the first time, Stacey, her friends and family didn't have to organize this all on their own with her LS7 charity gaining national standing, and with it a year-round foundation that took over some of the planning duties. Article content But it was still very much a Stacey family and neighbourhood event with four rinks closing off a handful of suburban roads in Etobicoke just south of Dundas St. Article content Article content View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laura Stacey (@laurastacey7) Article content It was the sixth annual tournament for Stacey and her family, and for the second year in a row surpassed the $50,000 goal that goes to support youth access to sport. Article content Later this summer Stacey and her foundation will host her first Montreal tournament and hopes to match what they raised Saturday in Toronto. Article content Saturday's all-day tournament was won by a team captained by former Toronto Sceptres goalie Erica Howe over a Fillier-led squad. Article content Fillier, who played goal in the tournament as did most of the PWHL celebs taking part, showed plenty of skill in the net but was the victim of a bad bounce off the end boards that allowed the Howe-led green team to prevail in overtime in the championship game. Article content Howe, who has been a participant all six years the tournament has existed, still marvels six years in at the support her good friend Stacey receives from the Etobicoke neighbourhood where she grew up and her family still resides. Article content 'Every year coming here you just feel the impact it has on this community,' Howe said. 'As soon as you walk in, I mean it's not a big thing. It's just neighbours playing road hockey, and raising money for sport. But both community and sport have been huge in my life, especially the past year, so you feel it. It's genuine and wholesome and I just love it here.' Article content Article content Howie, as she is affectionately known by teammates and friends, saw that support this past year in her battle with cancer as both the hockey community and her work community within the firefighting profession rallied to keep her spirits up and her outlook positive as she went through chemotherapy. Article content For Stacey, the day is a labour of love and togetherness as all the people in her life rally to make her tournament the roaring success is has become. Article content But Stacey also saw the lift a get-together like this can be for her teammates and league mates who may have struggled these past couple of months watching as their teams were somewhat dismantled in order to bring two expansion teams right up to speed. Article content 'There's a lot of emotions, right,' Stacey said of the expansion process. 'People are on teams that they love but now they are going to different teams. We are losing teammates. It's all those emotions, but I think at the end of the day all of us, even here, you just zoom out a little and remind yourself we're playing professionally now. There's not really much to complain about. Yes, maybe we are moving far and yes, maybe our friends are leaving and going to different cities, but at the end of the day Seattle and Vancouver are phenomenal cities and those women's sports markets are going to thrive and so many new girls are going to get the opportunity to watch pros play which is a great perspective to have.'
Toronto Sun
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Sun
Laura Stacey's annual charity road hockey tournament brings much-needed smiles
Get the latest from Mike Ganter straight to your inbox Montreal Victoire player Laura Stacey hosted her sixth annual LS7 Sticks In For Charity ball hockey tournament in Etobicoke on Saturday, July 5, 2025. Photo by Laura Stacey / Instagram It's been a tough summer for the player's side of the PWHL but there were only smiles at an event Saturday afternoon that included the best of the best from the league that took over a small chunk of Etobicoke. It was Laura Stacey's annual LS7 Sticks In For Charity ball hockey tournament and it brought out the who's who in the PWHL from Stacey to last year's MVP Marie-Philip Poulin to last year's Rookie of the Year Sarah Fillier and last year's defender of the year Renata Fast to name just a few who took part in the tournament. For the first time, Stacey, her friends and family didn't have to organize this all on their own with her LS7 charity gaining national standing, and with it a year-round foundation that took over some of the planning duties. But it was still very much a Stacey family and neighbourhood event with four rinks closing off a handful of suburban roads in Etobicoke just south of Dundas St. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account It was the sixth annual tournament for Stacey and her family, and for the second year in a row surpassed the $50,000 goal that goes to support youth access to sport. Later this summer Stacey and her foundation will host her first Montreal tournament and hopes to match what they raised Saturday in Toronto. Saturday's all-day tournament was won by a team captained by former Toronto Sceptres goalie Erica Howe over a Fillier-led squad. Fillier, who played goal in the tournament as did most of the PWHL celebs taking part, showed plenty of skill in the net but was the victim of a bad bounce off the end boards that allowed the Howe-led green team to prevail in overtime in the championship game. Howe, who has been a participant all six years the tournament has existed, still marvels six years in at the support her good friend Stacey receives from the Etobicoke neighbourhood where she grew up and her family still resides. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Every year coming here you just feel the impact it has on this community,' Howe said. 'As soon as you walk in, I mean it's not a big thing. It's just neighbours playing road hockey, and raising money for sport. But both community and sport have been huge in my life, especially the past year, so you feel it. It's genuine and wholesome and I just love it here.' Howie, as she is affectionately known by teammates and friends, saw that support this past year in her battle with cancer as both the hockey community and her work community within the firefighting profession rallied to keep her spirits up and her outlook positive as she went through chemotherapy. For Stacey, the day is a labour of love and togetherness as all the people in her life rally to make her tournament the roaring success is has become. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But Stacey also saw the lift a get-together like this can be for her teammates and league mates who may have struggled these past couple of months watching as their teams were somewhat dismantled in order to bring two expansion teams right up to speed. 'There's a lot of emotions, right,' Stacey said of the expansion process. 'People are on teams that they love but now they are going to different teams. We are losing teammates. It's all those emotions, but I think at the end of the day all of us, even here, you just zoom out a little and remind yourself we're playing professionally now. There's not really much to complain about. Yes, maybe we are moving far and yes, maybe our friends are leaving and going to different cities, but at the end of the day Seattle and Vancouver are phenomenal cities and those women's sports markets are going to thrive and so many new girls are going to get the opportunity to watch pros play which is a great perspective to have.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Fast, the smooth-skating, hard hitting Sceptres' defender, sees it much the same way, but admitted watching good friends and great teammates leave in droves this summer has not been easy. 'You lose key pieces like Sarah Nurse or even Izzy Daniel, Julia Gosling and Megan Carter, three players we just drafted,' Fast said. 'You could see their development throughout the year and then just really great people on top of that, so it's just tough to see people like that go. Just a really weird off season. Fast, though, said the bigger picture is it's just part of what every player in the league has always wanted. 'At the end of the day, the fact we are expanding when we are is incredible and you do want parity across the league,' Fast said. 'This is what we wanted. We wanted to be treated like professionals and this is the reality of being pros. Yes, it's new for all of us and we are all navigating it together, but I think the women's hockey community is very supportive. And no matter what team you are on, you are going to have great teammates. There's comfort in knowing everyone will eventually be happy wherever they end up just because of the group of people.' mganter@ Toronto Maple Leafs Columnists Crime Toronto & GTA Ontario
Forbes
25-06-2025
- Sport
- Forbes
Marie-Philip Poulin Is 2025 MVP As PWHL Rosters Are Reshaped At Draft
Montreal Victoire forward Marie-Philip Poulin was named MVP and top forward at the 2025 PWHL Awards. ... More (Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Wednesday morning, Marie-Philip Poulin and Montreal Victoire cleaned up at the 2025 PWHL Awards. The Montreal captain, who led the league with 19 goals in 30 regular-season games, was named the league's top forward and winner of the Billie Jean King MVP Award. Amid a decorated career that includes three Olympic gold medals, four world championship golds and, last week, the IIHF's 2024-25 female player of the year award, the 34-year-old called her latest honors 'pretty special.' After acknowledging the support of her teammates, she admitted that 'Honestly, I would exchange these trophies for the bigger one — that's for sure.' Despite finishing comfortably atop the regular-season standings, the Victoire failed to advance out of the first round of the Walter Cup playoffs for the second-straight year. Montreal netminder Ann-Renee Desbiens was also named the league's goaltender of the year, coach Kori Cheverie was named coach of the year, and forward Laura Stacey received the 'Hockey for All' award, which recognized the player who made the biggest impact in her community during the 2024-25 season. Stacey raised over $100,000 through her 'LS7 Sticks In For Charity' Road Hockey Tournament, with funds supporting under-resourced communities in Toronto and Montreal. Laura Stacey was named the winner of the PWHL's 2025 'Hockey for All' award. (Photo by Troy ...) 'As I'm starting to get older and realize that I do want to have an impact and we could leave a legacy,' said Stacey, 31. 'There's so many leaders, trailblazers and community heroes who have done so much for sport and for women, so it was a huge honor to receive this award today. I definitely don't take it lightly.' Renata Fast of the Toronto Sceptres won the league's defender of the year award, and Sarah Fillier of the New York Sirens was named the league's top rookie. Sirens Take Big Swings At The Draft New York Sirens GM Pascal Daoust with 2025 1st overall pick Kristyna Kaltounkova and PWHL hockey ops ... More boss Jayna Hefford. On Tuesday, Fillier's Sirens had a dramatic evening at the PWHL's third entry draft. After his team finished last in the standings for a second-straight season, GM Pascal Daoust elected to shake things up with the league's first-ever draft-day player trade, moving defender Ella Shelton to Toronto in exchange for the third-overall pick and the No. 27 pick. After scoring the fewest total goals over the league's first two seasons and losing top forwards Jessie Eldridge and Alex Carpenter to Seattle during the expansion process, the Sirens made Kristyna Kaltounkova of Colgate University the first Czech player ever to be selected first overall at the PWHL draft. Then, Daoust followed up by choosing 2025 Patty Kazmaier Award winner Casey O'Brien out of the University of Wisconsin, thus boosting his forward group with arguably the two top talents available this year. Later, Daoust dealt forward Abby Roque to Montreal in exchange for gritty forward Kristin O'Neill and the 28th pick. When the dust settled, the Sirens had made nine picks in the six-round draft — six forwards, one defender and two goaltenders. 'We felt that it was an opportunity for us to gear up and cover a new angle,' Daoust said. 'We're very happy with it.' Vancouver And Ottawa Take International Approach As the PWHL prioritized competitive balance when setting the stage for its expansion process and with more expansion on the horizon, it has become apparent that teams might not get the opportunity to develop their draft prospects over a period of time. Five of last year's six first-round picks were claimed by the two new expansion teams, with Seattle bringing in Danielle Serdachny (Ottawa), Hannah Bilka (Boston), Cayla Barnes (Montreal) and Julia Gosling (Toronto), while Vancouver signed Claire Thompson away from Minnesota. Rather than look for NCAA prospects to develop at the draft, the GMs for Vancouver and Ottawa looked to Europe to add immediate offensive pop. Vancouver GM Cara Gardner Morey used her team's first-round pick at No. 7 to select Michelle Karvinen, a 35-year-old Finn who is a legend in the international game. Her eight world championship medals include a silver from 2019, and she served as captain of Finland's bronze-medal group in 2025. Lately, Karvinen has been playing in Sweden. Earlier in her career, she spent three years at the University of North Dakota. She also won a championship with the KRS Vanke Rays in Russia's women's league in 2021-22, on a team coached by new Vancouver bench boss Brian Idalski which also included PWHL Vancouver players Michela Cava and Hannah Miller. 'I just kept hoping that no one picked her ahead of us,' said Gardner Morey. 'We obviously wanted a top forward and Michelle is a proven winner — she's got the experience. I think that leadership, and veteran players, are really important in this league. We had a chance to get one of those in an entry draft that's usually not available. I've gotten to know her personality through some players, and she's going to be one of those special players in the locker room.' Gardner Morey also shored up her crease through a trade. Former Toronto Sceptres netminder Kristen Campbell headed west along with the 19th pick in a deal that saw Vancouver send the 16th and 23rd picks to the Sceptres. Vancouver then selected North Vancouver native Nina Jobst-Smith with that 19th pick and closed out the draft by choosing the PWHL's first-ever South Asian player and the only player this year from Canada's USports program — local product Chanreet Bassi from the University of British Columbia. After the Walter Cup finalist Ottawa Charge lost 15-goal-scorer Tereza Vanisova to Vancouver as well as seeing Serdachny go to Seattle, GM Mike Hirshfeld set his sights on two veteran forwards from Russia's women's league. With the fifth pick in the second round, he selected 28-year-old Anna Shokhina. He added her 27-year-old St. Petersburg teammate, Fanuza Kadirova, in Round 6. 'We think Anna Shokhina — we had her as probably the fourth-most-talented player in this draft. That's how highway we thought of her,' Hirshfeld said. 'To get her at 13 was really exciting for us. We think she's going to be a superstar in this league.' One other veteran from the European leagues was also selected. Sara Hjalmarsson, a 27-year-old Swedish defender, went to Toronto in the fifth round. Roster Rebuilds After the shocking losses of the expansion process, the inaugural six teams and their fanbases can now breathe a little easier. Forty-six new roster spots were created by adding the Vancouver and Seattle franchises, and 48 players were selected in Tuesday's draft. That breaks down to 30 forwards, 13 defenders and 5 goaltenders, with 43 players coming out of NCAA programs. Ohio State University led the way with six players selected, followed by the University of Minnesota Duluth with five. Of the 48 players, exactly half hail from the United States, followed by 17 from Canada, two each from Czechia, Finland and Russia and one from Sweden. With 192 players declaring for the draft this year, the next step for undrafted players will be to try to earn training-camp invitations for a chance to play their way onto a team or its reserve squad. Will the next Marie-Philip Poulin emerge from the PWHL's class of '25?
