PWHL Teams Release Protection Lists, Who Will San Jose Sign?

The existing PWHL teams have created their protection lists, and now it’s time for PWHL San Jose to offer its first contracts.

The eight PWHL teams released their three-player protection lists — consisting of players they signed in order to protect and already-signed players — on Wednesday evening.

The four expansion teams will be able to sign players starting Friday at noon ET. They will each sign five players during this Expansion Phase.

There are two types of contracts that expansion teams can offer the five players they choose – the Expansion Franchise Offer (EFO) and Foundational Player Offers (FPO). Each team has one EFO – which the player must agree to – while the rest of the contracts will be FPOs.

Here is a list of each existing team’s three-player protection list:

Boston Fleet: Aerin Frankel (G), Megan Keller (D), Haley Winn (D)

Minnesota Frost: Taylor Heise (F), Kelly Pannek (F), Maddie Rooney (G)

Montréal Victoire: Ann-Renée Desbiens (G), Marie-Philip Poulin (F), Laura Stacey (F)

New York Sirens: Sarah Fillier (F), Kristýna Kaltounková (F), Casey O’Brien (F)

Ottawa Charge: Rebecca Leslie (F), Gwyneth Philips (G), Ronja Savolainen (D)

Seattle Torrent: Alex Carpenter (F), Hannah Murphy (G), Anna Wilgren (D)

Toronto Sceptres: Renata Fast (D), Raygan Kirk (G), Ella Shelton (D)

Vancouver Goldeneyes: Sophie Jaques (D), Emerance Maschmeyer (G), Sarah Nurse (F)

Key Takeaways:

In total, seven goalkeepers, seven defensemen, and ten forwards were protected by teams.

Six pending free agents were re-signed by their teams. While existing teams were officially able to sign pending free agents from one of the other existing teams to their protection list, no team ended up going down this road.

Goaltenders were top of mind in this phase. Only one team did not end up protecting a goaltender – the New York Sirens. While that means PWHL San Jose is unlikely to be able to get a cream of the crop goaltender during the expansion process, the PWHL Draft is likely to inject more goaltending into the league, with 40 goaltenders declared. Ian Kennedy of The Hockey News sees Andrea Brändli, from Switzerland, as the top goaltender in the draft. The next two names, Tia Chan and Hailey MacLeod, are both coming out of the NCAA.

The Toronto Sceptres did not re-sign 27-year-old Daryl Watts. The Canadian forward’s 12 goals were the most on the team, while her 15 assists placed her second. League wide, those numbers put her fifth in both goals and assists. Watts – with her connection to PWHL San Jose general manager and head coach Troy Ryan, who previously coached the Sceptres and Team Canada – could be a candidate for one of the expansion teams’ binding EFO contracts.

The biggest surprise among the group was Seattle Torrent protecting Anna Wilgren, while not protecting captain Hilary Knight. Other captains not protected in this stage include New York Sirens’ Micah Zandee-Hart, Ottawa Charge’s Brianne Jenner, Toronto Sceptres’ Blayre Turnbull, Vancouver Goldeneyes’ Ashton Bell, and Minnesota Frost’s Kendall Coyne Schofield. Coyne Schofield has ties to San Jose, as she spent time as a color commentator for the Sharks’ broadcast, starting in 2019, but she also has connections to Detroit. Another major name left unprotected is Boston Fleet’s Alina Muller.

Now it’s time for Ryan to start handing out contracts.