PWHL 2023 schedule includes the draft date on September 18. The regular season games will begin in January with dates yet to be announced.
The draft results include Taylor Heise as the no. 1 pick by Minnesota, first in the draft pick order. Toronto had the second pick and Boston, New York, Ottawa, and Montreal were the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th in the draft order respectively in the draft which used a “Snake draft format”.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League was announced officially on August 29, 2023. The PWHL has six inaugural teams, three of them are based out of American Cities (Boston, Minnesota, New York) and three are based out of Canadian Cities (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto).
Advisory board members of the PWHL are Billie Jean King - the tennis icon, Ilana Kloss - a former tennis player and King’s wife, Royce Cohen - L.A. Dodgers Senior VP of business strategy and Stan Kasten - L.A. Dodgers President.
When does the PWHL season start?
The first PWHL season will start on January 2024. The teams will play 24 regular season games each, followed by the playoff matches.
The training camp will be held from November 13. Each team can bring 28 players to camp before they cut the roster size to 23 players before the season starts.
The games will be played in a playoffs and a final format and the details for those will be announced at a later date. In the subsequent seasons, the teams will play at least 30 regular season games each and no more than 32 games.
The PWHL in a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the PWHL Players Association has announced that there will be no more than 4 games scheduled for any team in a 7-day duration. The CBA also states that no team can have games scheduled for 3 successive days.
Alina Muller was selected by Boston as the 3rd overall pick. The subsequent picks are Ella Shelton by New York, Savannah Harmon by Ottawa, and Erin Ambrose by Montreal closing out Round 1 of the PWHL draft.
The six teams had already signed 3 players each in the free period and after they have the opportunity to sign more players as they can take 28 players to training camp according to the CBA. All the 18 PWHL players signed as free agents by the teams were national team representatives.
The final roster must have 23 players. The league can designate reserve players, which is a pool of players not on the roster of any team and available for the team’s use.
The PWHL draft results 2023 for the top 30 picks selected in rounds 1 to 5 are given below.
Draft Pick No.
Player Name - Position -Team
Pick 1
Taylor Heise - F - Minnesota
Pick 2
Jocylene Larocque - D - Toronto
Pick 3
Alina Muller - F - Boston
Pick 4
Ella Shelton - D - New York
Pick 5
Savannah Harmon - D - Ottawa
Pick 6
Erin Ambrose - D - Montreal
Pick 7
Kristin O’Neill - F - Montreal
Pick 8
Ashton Bell - D - Ottawa
Pick 9
Jamie Bourbonnais - D - New York
Pick 10
Sophie Jaques - D – Boston
Pick 11
Emma Maltais - F - Toronto
Pick 12
Nicole Hensley – D – Minnesota
Pick 13
Grace Zumwinkle - F - Minnesota
Pick 14
Kristen Campbell - G - Toronto
Pick 15
Jamie-Lee Rattray - F - Boston
Pick 16
Jessie Eldridge - F - New York
Pick 17
Jincy Dunne-Roese - D - Ottawa
Pick 18
Maureen Murphy - F - Montreal
Pick 19
Dominika Laskova - D - Montreal
Pick 20
Gabrielle Hughes - F - Ottawa
Pick 21
Chloe Aurard - F - New York
Pick 22
Loren Gabel - F - Boston
Pick 23
Natalie Spooner - F - Toronto
Pick 24
Maggie Flaherty - D - Minnesota
Pick 25
Susanna Tapani - F - Minnesota
Pick 26
Jesse Compher - F - Toronto
Pick 27
Hannah Brandt - F - Boston
Pick 28
Elizabeth Giguere - F - New York
Pick 29
Hayley Scamurra - F - Ottawa
Pick 30
Kati Tabin - D - Montreal
PWHL Team Rosters Updated
The PWHL team roster has been updated now with the completion of the PWHL draft and the free agent signings by the six teams.
The teams after drafting 15 players each and the 3 players each they signed have a total of 18 players on their roster. They can sign up to 10 more players to take to training camp and from there they will update their roster to include 23 players as per the league regulations.
The free agent signings and the 15 players picked from the 2023 PWHL draft for all six teams are given below:
The inaugural season of 24 games played among the six teams is expected to run from January to early June, including an international break for the IIHF Women’s World Championship in April.
From the second PWHL season onwards, the teams will play 32 games with the season expected to run from November to the following May.
