The PWHL is expanding from six to eight teams this season, and even though the Walter Cup was only won last week, the off-season is ramping up. All six teams had to protect three players in the first phase of the process. The Montreal Victoire used those three protection slots on the three players who started the franchise: Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, and Ann-Renée Desbiens.
Montreal is the only team to use their three protection slots on their three foundational signings, and really, the only team where it made the most sense to do so.
What this means is that Montreal has left top defenders 2023 first-round pick Erin Ambrose and 2024 first-round pick Cayla Barnes unprotected as well as Kristin O’Neill and Jennifer Gardiner, their 2023 and 2024 second-round picks respectively. Other players under contract for 2025-26 left unprotected include defender Amanda Boulier, and forwards Maureen Murphy, Abby Boreen, and Lina Ljungblom.
Also unprotected are 2024 draft picks who Montreal still owns exclusive rights on: defender Anna Wilgren and forwards Amanda Kessel and Dara Greig.
What is next?
From June 4-8, Seattle and Vancouver will have the opportunity to sign up to five players each prior to the PWHL Expansion Draft on June 9 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.
The players available to sign prior to the Expansion Draft are any players currently under contract or pending unrestricted free agents. Any players without a contract for 2025-26 cannot be taken in the Expansion Draft, they can only go to Seattle or Vancouver if they choose to sign there (either in the exclusive window or when the league’s free agent period opens up for all eight teams).
Once an original six team loses two players, they get to protect a fourth player. Every team will lose four players in this process and both Vancouver and Seattle will have 12 players. There is a salary cap in the PWHL, where every team needs to have an average salary of $58,349.50 for their 23-player roster. This amount was $55,000 for the first season and goes up 3% every year per the league’s CBA.
The PWHLPA does not make salaries public.
What is the most likely scenario for Montreal?
The wrinkle in this entire process is the 2024 Draft Class. The players who played in the league’s first season and were signed to three-year contracts (six players per team) are all making at least $80,000. The 2024 Draft Class, as a result, is for the most part underpaid, especially first-round picks who are in the $50,000 range. Second and third round picks are likely under that mark.
That means that this exclusive window allows these players to sign with Seattle or Vancouver at a term much closer to their true market value. It also secures the players long-term into their new market and gives the teams a semblance of a core to build around as opposed to unsigned players or players on expiring contracts. It also provides the expansion teams with a base of players who want to be there and not players who may resent having to move across the country.
What this means is that there is a conventional thinking that players like Montreal’s Cayla Barnes (a California native) and Jennifer Gardiner (a Vancouver native) will take this opportunity to get raises and move to a team closer to their hometown. It isn’t unique to Montreal draft picks, anyone taken in 2024 is likely to be in this scenario as well as any pending UFAs.
What is the disaster scenario?
Every team will lose very good players in this process. That is part of the design. The league wants and expects the expansion teams to compete from Day 1. Losing Gardiner, who led the most recent World Championships in goals and finished second in points (to Poulin), is not ideal in the grand scheme of things, but in this scenario you will lose good players regardless.
The reason why losing Gardiner in the pre-draft period would be a benefit is that then the team will be able to protect one of Erin Ambrose or Cayla Barnes. The disaster for this team would be to lose both Ambrose and Barnes. That would not only leave Amanda Boulier as the only defender under contract for next season, but it would mean that a team that already needs to improve their secondary scoring will also need to rebuild their defence without a pillar to build around.
The team can afford to lose Ambrose or Barnes, like I said every team will lose great players. The way they are built, they cannot afford to lose both. Losing Gardiner and one of the two other defenders will allow Montreal to protect the other with their fourth protection slot.
Who else is likely to be taken?
Besides Gardiner, Barnes, and Ambrose, there are talented players who be taken from the Montreal roster. Kristin O’Neill is a mainstay on Team Canada, and is a player with potential. Abby Boreen has experience in the league. Lina Ljungblom is also someone who can be attractive to an expansion team for the same reasons she was to Montreal.
Anna Wilgren is a defender who played her way onto Team USA’s World Championship roster and made a lot of people wonder how Montreal only nabbed her in the fifth round.
There is also a small possibility that Amanda Kessel gets picked up. It was reported that Kessel had specific places she wanted to play last year, which is why she fell to the seventh round where Montreal drafted her. It’s unlikely, but if she wants to play in Seattle or Vancouver, there’s a scenario for her to go. As a 2024 draft pick, she’s eligible to be drafted.
Unrestricted free agents from Montreal including, but not limited to, goaltender Elaine Chuli, defender Kati Tabin, and forwards like Mikyla Grant-Mentis and Claire Dalton could also be potential signings but a team can also wait until true free agency and not lose a player under contract who is unprotected.
This will all happen, and there’s still the PWHL Entry Draft which will be held on June 24 in Ottawa.
