2023 PWHL Mock Draft

Last night I sat down with a panel of reporters that represented each of the teams. I had Jared Book of Habs Eyes on the Prize for Montreal, Nate Wells of Gopher State for Minnesota, Michael Lopez of Tendy Love and Care was New York, Alyssa Turner represented Toronto and Anne Tokarski was our person for Ottawa, both of the last two are currently with The Ice Garden.

We did the standard 15 rounds in snake draft style as the league will be doing so. In addition we did two rounds to fill a standard roster of four forward lines, three defense pairs and two goalies and then did a final round of picking a third goalie for the roster. The final three rounds we took consideration would a player willingly sign in that location as they are not being drafted and are instead also free agents.

The Boston team had already locked up a starting goalie in Aerin Frankel, a star winger in Hilary Knight and a top defender in Megan Keller.

3rd (BOS): Alina Mueller, F

With my first pick I really wasn’t sure if Mueller would fall past Toronto, Heise was the clear Minnesota pick, but Toronto had a few options at 2, Mueller being a good one. In our draft they went with the most recent Patty Kay Winner in Sophie Jacques which makes sense allowing Alina to fall to Boston, which has been her clear preference after she signed with the Boston Pride of the PHF before dissolution. She is a generational young talent that has proven herself on the international stage. If she stays healthy she will be a cornerstone for this franchise.

10th (BOS): Jocelyn Laroque, D

With the top line in good shape and the net taken care of I was always planning add a top D to pair with Megan Keller, while Montreal decided to go big here too a talent like Laroque being available was too big to pass up.

15th (BOS): Natalie Spooner, F

Spooner was a player I was looking at the 3rd pick if Mueller went to Toronto, though I also saw her as a possibility of going to Toronto in the 2nd spot so the fact that a winger like her was available this late I had no options but to take her.

22nd (BOS): Chloe Aurard, F

This one might have been a slight reach I probably could’ve had her at 27 but she was going to be gone for sure before 34. Aurard has a deep connection with my 3rd pick Mueller and keeping them together will only benefit both.

27th (BOS): Jamie Lee Rattray, F

I’ll be honest I did not think she would fall this far, I was very tempted to take her at 27 but I took a gamble and it paid off. Rattray was some one I thought would be a free agent signing by Ottawa, and honestly come Monday I expect her to go a lot higher than this, probably at either 8 or 17, but again when you have a player of this caliber available and, as this is essentially an expansion draft, the slot to play her you pick her. She slots in on the second line which is showing how much depth this league is going to have up top.

34th (BOS): Jill Saulnier, F

We were starting a run of defenders here but I wasn’t really in love with the level at that point and Saulnier has always been player I have admired. The Halifax-Boston connection would be a fun angle to play up for the team and I wanted to round out my second line.

39th (BOS): Maude Poulin-Labelle, D

At this point he run on defenders was in absolute full swing, so I had to get my second pairing squared away. This might be viewed as a homer pick and I could easily see Montreal trying to grab her a bit early too, but Poulin-Labelle has been a very solid defender throughout her career. She has strong connections to Boston these days after her transfer to Northeastern and would be a great member of a second pairing.

46th (BOS): Dominika Laskova, D

This was the end of our defender run, I wanted to add a bit of international talent and Laskova has been a big part of Czechia’s meteoric rise in the international rankings. As the person rounding out my second pairing I was very happy to see her available.

51st (BOS): Denisa Krizova, F

Another key member of the Czechia squad Krisova both played at Northeastern and for the Boston Pride before she moved to the Minnesota Whitecaps. She is great at distributing the puck and has great ice awareness. At this point she would be considered a veteran after being on the international stage for 10+ years, and will be a great fit to lead the third line.

58th (BOS): Brooke Hobson, D

Once again this draft was going on a run at defender, so there was some reaching here, but Hobson is a shut down stay at home defender someone you can trust to protect your goalie and is a luxury in a third pairing.

63rd (BOS): Sophie Shirley, F

At this point I am focusing on filling out my third line. I was hoping for a mix of youth and veteran presence and Shirley is a high ceiling type player that has done a lot of winning, something you better be used to to survive in Boston, which made her a pretty easy pick as I decided to get out of the defender rush, of note we had just had our first goalie taken since the 3rd round here and some of the mock GMs were clearly doubting their strategy of plenty of goalies in free agency.

70th (BOS): Shiann Darkangelo, F

The fact that Darkangelo was available this late in the draft exemplifies how dense talent will be on each team, I could easily see her going a bit earlier if teams stay true to their rankings and don’t allow runs on a position to color their picks.

75th (BOS): Maggie Flaherty, D

With my third to last official pick I knew I wanted to round out my D corp as the depth wasn’t quite as heavy as the forwards. Flaherty is a very good defender that has been playing against the top talent her entire NCAA career. Plenty of potential for long term and this was a pretty easy pick to close out my third pairing.

82nd (BOS): Akane Shiga, F

I had a strategy for my last pick so with my penultimate pick I wanted to go for a high ceiling forward we might not know as much about. Shiga has been great for Japan on the international stage. We don’t know how she lines up with the big North American names in the same lineup, though she has played well against them.

87th (BOS): Noora Räty, G

I really wasn’t planning on picking a goalie at all in the draft as we already have a young generational talent in Frankel locked up. But with a veteran like Räty available and this being the last pick that you can own their rights I thought why not go for a veteran that can help Frankel develop and push her to be even better. I fully expect her to compete for playing time and earn a chunk but she likely isn’t a long term solution but a presence like hers in a locker room is a big deal.

94th (BOS): Jillian Dempsey, F

We agreed to pick out free agents to round out the roster and Dempsey probably should get drafted, I do not know if she filed for a waiver but if she is available after Boston has to take her, she is worth a pick if there is no waiver but I was able to let her fall and still get her so I was satisfied.

99th (BOS): Maureen Murphy, F

The Northeastern top line is reunited. Murphy will almost certainly get picked if she doesn’t have a waiver in my mind but again she fell and I was able to snatch her up. Maureen will be a great fit for anyone that can get her and has a knack for scoring high impact goals.

106th (BOS): Elaine Chuli, G

At the end we also agreed to pick our 3rd goalies with the unbelievable depth of players that registered to play. For me with who was taken already it was Chuli or Levy. I know Chuli has strong ties to Toronto and I personally think she will end up there being drafted but she is also connected to Darkangelo. If she falls to be a free agent does she follow? This is another waiver situation that we just don’t know about. Boston would not be upset to have her as a back up though so if she comes here it would be a very good thing.

Overall I am pretty satisfied with this lineup, honestly I think it is a little better then Boston will be able to get in the real draft come Monday but we don’t know what each GM will focus on, like we really could see Montreal focus on more home grown talent to cement the loyalty of fans, and New York go heavy on the international talent due to a lack of local players or a lot of colleges. We will find out for sure though on Monday September 17th at 1PM as the draft occurs in Toronto. For those of you in the US not able to drop everything on a week day to travel internationally the event will be live streamed on CBC Sports’ YouTube page linked here.

Here are the complete results of our mock draft:

ROUND 1

1st (MIN): Taylor Heise, F

2nd (TOR): Sophie Jacques ,D

3rd (BOS): Alina Mueller, F

4th (NY): Lina Ljungblom, F

5th (OTT): Erin Ambrose, F

6th (MTL): Claire Thompson, D

ROUND 2

7th (MTL): Savannah Harmon, D

8th (OTT): Brittany Howard, F

9th (NY): Emma Soderberg, G

10th (BOS): Jocelyn Laroque, D

11th (TOR): Loren Gabel, F

12th (MIN): Jincy Dunne, D

ROUND 3

13th (MIN): Jesse Compher, F

14th (TOR): Kristen Campbell, G

15th (BOS): Natalie Spooner, F

16th (NY): Katerina Mrazova, F

17th (OTT): Susanna Tapani, F

18th (MTL): Elizabeth Giguere, F

ROUND 4

19th (MTL): Emma Maltais, F

20th (OTT): Kennedy Marchment, F

21st (NY): Lexie Adzija, F

22nd (BOS): Chloe Aurard, F

23rd (TOR): Melodie Daoust, F

24th (MIN): Ashton Bell, D

ROUND 5

25th (MIN): Hannah Brandt, F

26th (TOR): Mikyla Grant-Mentis, F

27th (BOS): Jamie Lee Rattray, F

28th (NY): Madison Packer, F

29th (OTT): Emily Brown, D

30th (MTL): Ella Shelton, D

ROUND 6

31st (MTL): Jaime Bourbonnais, D

32nd (OTT): Abby Cook, D

33rd (NY): Kaleigh Fratkin, D

34th (BOS): Jill Saulnier, F

35th (TOR): Kali Flanagan, D

36th (MIN): Grace Zumwinkle, F

ROUND 7

37th (MIN): Amanda Boulier, D

38th (TOR): Taylor Girard, F

39th (BOS): Maude Poulin-Labelle, D

40th (NY): Amanda Pelkey, F

41st (OTT): Sydney Brodt, F

42nd (MTL): Jessica DiGirolamo, D

ROUND 8

43rd (MTL): Jessie Eldridge, F

44th (OTT): Lauren MacInnis, D

45th (NY): Emma Nuutinen, F

46th (BOS): Dominika Laskova, D

47th (TOR): Liz Schepers, F

48th (MIN): Daryl Watts, F

ROUND 9

49th (MIN): Gabbie Hughes, F

50th (TOR): Tereza Vanisova, F

51st (BOS): Denisa Krizova, F

52nd (NY): Fanni Garat-Gasparics, F

53rd (OTT): Hayley Scamurra, F

54th (MTL): Kristin O’Neill, F

ROUND 10

55th (MTL): Victoria Bach, F

56th (OTT): Patti Marshall, D

57th (NY): Allie Munroe, D

58th (BOS): Brooke Hobson, D

59th (TOR): Saroya Tinker, D

60th (MIN): Sidney Morin, D

ROUND 11

61st (MIN): Maddie Rooney, G

62nd (TOR): Michela Cava, F

63rd (BOS): Sophie Shirley, F

64th (NY): Minttu Tuominen, D

65th (OTT): Madison Bizal, D

66th (MTL): Theresa Schafzahl, F

ROUND 12

67th (MTL): Becca Gilmore, F

68th (OTT): Maggie Connors, F

69th (NY): Blanka Skodova, G

70th (BOS): Shiann Darkangelo, F

71st (TOR): Kati Tabin, D

72nd (MIN): Natalie Snodgrass, F

ROUND 13

73rd (MIN): Clair DeGeorge, F

74th (TOR): Claire Dalton, F

75th (BOS): Maggie Flaherty, D

76th (NY): Olivia Zafuto, D

77th (OTT): Becca Leslie, F

78th (MTL): Audrey-Anne Veillette, F

ROUND 14

79th (MTL): Catherine Daoust, D

80th (OTT): Amanda Leveille, G

81st (NY): McKenna Brand, F

82nd (BOS): Akane Shiga, F

83rd (TOR): Jonna Albers, F

84th (MIN): Olivia Knowles, D

ROUND 15

85th (MIN): Gigi Marvin, F

86th (TOR): Tori Howran, D

87th (BOS): Noora Räty, G

88th (NY): Kendall Cornine, F

89th (OTT): Caitrin Lonergan, F

90th (MTL): Ann-Sophie Bettez, F

Supplemental FA picks Round 1

91st (MTL): Gabrielle David, F

92nd (OTT): Paetyn Levis, F

93rd (NY): Aoi Shiga, D

94th (BOS): Jillian Dempsey, F

95th (TOR): Taylor Woods, D

96th (MIN): Nicole Hensley, G

Supplemental FA picks Round 2

97th (MIN): Allie Thunstrom, F

98th (TOR): Carly Jackson, G

99th (BOS): Maureen Murphy, F

100th (NY): Leah Lum, F

101st (OTT): Alena Mills, F

102 (MTL): Corinne Schroeder, G

Third Goalie Selections

103rd (MTL): Alex Cavallini, G

104th (OTT): Sydney Scobee, G

105th (NY): Sandra Abstreiter, G

106th (BOS): Elaine Chuli, G

107th (TOR): Abbey Levy, G

108th (MIN): Lauren Bench, G