SHUFFLING THE DECK: PWHL Ottawa to make ‘7 or 8’ player changes after missing playoffs

‘We’re just going to start the evaluation process now, but as a team that missed the playoffs we’re going to look at improving across the board’

Published May 06, 2024 • Last updated 35 minutes ago • 5 minute read

PWHL Ottawa forward Gabbie Hughes (17) celebrates her goal against PWHL New York. Photo by Spencer Colby /POSTMEDIA

As proud as the PWHL Ottawa coaching staff and management is of the way the players battled through adversity before falling just short of making the playoffs in Toronto, there should be a few tears shed at “locker clean out” on Tuesday.

With a number of changes on the way, it will be the last time they assemble at TD Place as a team.

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Needing just one win in its final three games to qualify for the post-season tournament, Ottawa came up empty against second-place Montreal, last place New York and finally Sunday night in a 5-2 fate-sealing road loss to Toronto, the league’s first-place team.

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“There are lots of emotions,” coach Carla MacLeod told reporters after the final defeat. “We wanted to get this game. You could see by how we played. We were pretty determined to punch our own ticket into the playoffs. It hurts in the coaches’ room. It hurts in the players’ room. It’s a pretty simple message in the end: We couldn’t be more proud of our group. Throughout this season there have been ups and downs. We have never wavered from making sure that we were a team and that we needed to take care of each other.”

GM Mike Hirshfeld “of course we’re disapointed” in an interview on TSN1200 Monday morning.

“We’ve worked incredibly hard over the last eight months to build this organization, and I know that players put their hearts and souls into it,” he said. “We definitely had our opportunities to win one of those final three games and I can’t really pinpoint (why it didn’t happen) … things didn’t go our way. It wasn’t through lack of effort. This is a really competitive league and games are really tight, and even teams that are out of the playoffs or even teams that are in the playoffs are playing for that Gold Plan for the first pick overall.

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“Our group and went through a lot of ups and downs this year but really stuck together as a team and played incredibly hard all the way through. We’re really proud of them.”

The “Gold Plan” awards the first draft pick to the team that earns the most points in games that follow its elimination from playoff contention.

That means Ottawa will pick second after New York in each round of the 2024 draft next month in Minnesota.

Ottawa has six players on three-year contracts — Brianne Jenner, Emerance Mashmeyer, Emily Clark, Gabbie Hughes, Ashton Bell and Savannah Harmon — while Jincy Roese and Hayley Scamurra have two-year deals.

All the rest will be free agents.

“We’re just going to start the evaluation process now, but as a team that missed the playoffs we’re going to look at improving across the board,” said Hirshfeld. “We definitely need some more scoring, we need some more help up front. The defensive depth hurt us at the end with some injuries, and we want to keep keep building on our goaltending depth as well. So there’s lots of areas to focus on.”

In a list of top ranked prospects for the 2024 draft on The Hockey News website are Sarah Fillier, a 23-year old forward out of Princeton from Georgetown, Ontario, who plays on the Canadian national team, Hannah Bilka, a 23-year old forward out of Ohio State from Coppell, Texas who plays on the US national team, and Cayla Barnes, a 25-year old defender out of Boston College from Corona, California who also plays on the U.S. national team.

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Rounding out the Top 10 are Edmonton-born forward Danielle Serdachny, Finnish defender Ronja Savolainen, Czech defender Daniela Pejsova, defender Claire Thompson from Toronto, Finnish forward Noora Tulus, Swedish defender Maja Nylen Persson and Izzy Daniel, a Minneapolis-born forward who this year won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top college player in the U.S.

“There’s definitely some some forwards at the top of the draft that will be interesting for us,” said Hirshfeld. “But the (lack of) defensive depth definitely hurt us down the stretch with a couple of injuries. We’re really excited having the number two pick in the draft and then number eight. We’re going to be allowed to really draft great quality players and that’s going to help us for next year.”

Hirshfeld said the team will work at locking up some of its free agents over the next week or so.

“With seven rounds in the draft, we’ll be probably looking to add seven or eight new players this offseason,” he said, then later adding that attracting free agents from around the league will not be a problem, thanks largely to the exceptional support the team received from the community with capacity crowds. “Coming into this season, something we faced off the bat …. there were players from Minnesota, for example, who knew nothing about the city and didn’t know what they were walking into and were reluctant to come to Ottawa. That’s one of the things I’m most proud about from this season is I think we’ve changed that impression. We’ve changed that dynamic. Players now want to come to Ottawa. Players have seen the success in the fan hood, and what happens every home game at TD Place. I have players calling me saying ‘how do I get to Ottawa?’ So I think that dynamics changed over this year and we’re really proud that we’ve been able to do that.

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“That’s also a huge testament to Carla and her staff, and the culture they’ve built. Now everyone wants to come to Ottawa.

“We’ve targeted a couple players that we’d like to add, and financially (within the salary cap) we’re in a position to be able to do that.”

Next season, when teams are expected to have nicknames, camps will open in November and the regular campaign will be extended from 24-to-36 games.

Hirshfeld said MacLeod and the entire Ottawa coaching staff will be back.

“We’re really pleased with the job they did building the foundation, building the culture,” he said. “That’s what’s so attractive to all these players from other markets. (They) want to come to Ottawa.”

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