When the PWHL’s exclusive signing window opened Wednesday morning, Toronto Sceptres general manager Gina Kingsbury was in her office paying very close attention to her phone.
With Vancouver and Seattle on the clock, given five days to sign unprotected players away from the league’s original six teams, it was clear rumours, news and eventually star players themselves would fly fast and furious.
“I’m trying to stay afloat,” Kingsbury told Sportsnet with a laugh on Wednesday afternoon.
Just hours later, The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian reported that former Sceptres star Sarah Nurse had signed with Vancouver, which the PWHL has since confirmed. Then more opening-day dominoes fell, as stud defenders Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques, fresh off a Walter Cup championship win with Minnesota, also signed in Vancouver. Just before bedtime, the league’s leading scorer Hilary Knight, formerly of Boston, signed in Seattle. And then on Thursday, the league announced that Vancouver had secured its netminder, inking Emerance Maschmeyer — formerly of Ottawa — to a two-year deal. Seattle, meanwhile, added forward Danielle Serdachny, the Charge’s second-overall pick in last year’s draft.
And we’re just getting cooking, sports fans.
With the original six franchises — Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, Minnesota and New York — granted the opportunity to protect just three players each, the signing window (which closes June 8) allows each of Seattle and Vancouver to ink upwards of five players who are either unprotected or on expiring contracts. Once an original team has lost two players, it has two hours to announce a fourth player to protect. The signing window will be followed by an expansion draft on June 9, where Vancouver and Seattle will fill out their rosters to a minimum of 12 players, selecting more talent away from the original six teams.
If that sounds like a lot of moving parts, it’s because it is. And so it seemed time to check in on how the original six GMs are doing.
“It’s been non-stop since probably close to five in the morning,” Kingsbury said of the opening day of the signing window. “There’s so many unknowns … [I’m] just trying to figure out what is the best strategy throughout this period.
“What can I control? What can I not control? I think those are questions that you don’t have the answers until you go through this process, and no one’s been through this process because it’s pretty unique.”
Over in Ottawa, GM Michael Hirshfeld is holding out hope he can retain some of the stars that led the Charge to the Walter Cup final this year, after opting to protect Emily Clark, defender Ronja Savolainen and netminder Gwyneth Philips, who was named MVP of the playoffs. Thursday afternoon, the team added forward Gabbie Hughes to the protected list, since the Charge already lost two players to Vancouver.
“We’ve got a plan in place. We considered there’s obviously a bunch of eventualities that could happen, depending on who gets taken and who gets signed, so we’re just prepared for all the scenarios,” Hirshfeld told Sportsnet. “But yeah, there is a little bit of crossing fingers.”
A little bit of crossed fingers and a lot of calls and texts. GMs across the league are reaching out to players on expiring contracts to gauge interest. Toronto boasts a star-filled list of players on expiring deals that includes offensive talents like Year 1’s MVP Natalie Spooner, Hannah Miller and Jesse Compher.
“They’re all getting my full attention,” Kingsbury said. “They all know that we value them and would want to keep them in our market, they all said they’d like to stay in our market. But … there’s different factors that may change as we go through the process and at the very least we’ve all agreed that we have an open line of communication throughout this whole process.”
Hirshfeld and his staff sat down with players just 48 hours after Ottawa lost in the Walter Cup final to let them know their status for the upcoming season. Telling his captain, Brianne Jenner, that he’d left her off that protected list wasn’t easy.
“She has been absolutely integral in the success of our organization, helping us build the last two years. We wouldn’t be where we are without her and her leadership,” Hirshfeld said. “But the rules make it very difficult when you only have three protections. And I give her full credit, she handled it like a pro, as I knew she would. She handles everything in stride.”
Hirshfeld echoed that sentiment with Maschmeyer, who was Ottawa’s starter for most of the season, until she was injured in mid-March.
“There definitely are emotions attached to these decisions, but I don’t think anyone was caught off-guard,” he added. “I think everyone understood the rules and how hard it is to protect when you only have three protections.”
When players opt to sign in Vancouver or Seattle, teams find out via a text message thread that includes all eight GMs as well as league officials, who notify everyone once a deal has been approved.
“I’m sure that if I’m a GM in these [expansion] markets, there’s certain players that I would be going after right away and would want to win the race to get them,” Kingsbury said.
It’s no surprise that Nurse was signed mighty quickly. The 30-year-old from Hamilton, Ont., is a three-time world champion who ranked second in the league in scoring in Year 1 with nearly a point per game, though she was injured for part of this season and her production slipped to 14 points in 21 games.
Toronto elected to protect captain Blayre Turnbull, Renata Fast (who led all blueliners in points last season) and Daryl Watts (who ranked third in the PWHL scoring). Kingsbury said the conversations with star players left unprotected were “terrible.”
“I think we have to be prepared to live in a world without them,” she added.
For the Charge, still reeling after coming so close to the title — losing in overtime in all three games of the best-of-five final — the expansion process effectively has them looking at a rebuild after finishing two wins shy of hoisting the Walter Cup.
“The margins were really small, so I think it actually motivates us to gear up and really focus again for next year,” Hirshfeld said. “Now we’ve had a taste of it, we want to get back there and win it. We’re excited to build and continue building on the momentum we had this year. I think we’ve built a great identity for our organization, and now we just want to continue.”
As for who exactly “we” includes on the Charge roster, only time will tell.
Until then, the PWHL’s GMs will just try to stay afloat.