2024 PWHL Award Picks
It's the Natalie Spooner Show!
This first season of the PWHL has been a great addition to the sports landscape. I’ve enjoyed it immensely and can hardly wait to see more.
Never mind what I think about it though. More importantly, I see how my 13-year-old daughter responds to it. She loves hockey – enjoys playing competitively and has already become a tortured Toronto Maple Leafs fan – but she reacts differently to the PWHL. She holds players like Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews in very high regard, but Marie-Philip Poulin is revered. Ella Shelton, a tall, left-shot defender who wears No. 17, holds a special place in her heart, too.
It can’t be overstated how important it is for kids to see representation in the PWHL. The reaction I see from girls in minor hockey to the PWHL is exactly what this league has been targeting. Create something aspirational and let kids dream. It’s going to be incredibly difficult for a kid to make the PWHL, but it has always been incredibly difficult to make the NHL and I still got to hold that dream as a kid.
I write this as someone who has been in favour of women’s pro hockey for years but seeing first-hand how my daughter looks up to the women in the PWHL, well, it drives home that this whole thing has been long overdue.
She digs the walk-ins, seeing the most creative fashion choices. In Toronto, her focus has been on Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner, and Emma Maltais, some pretty fantastic players in addition to emerging style icons.
From my perspective, I have enjoyed learning about more of the players. I knew the stars for Team Canada and Team USA from international tournaments and I’ve watched CWHL and PHF games over the years, but I decided that, with this fresh start to the women’s game, I would make an effort to follow this league more closely.
There is room for coverage to get better – where are my advanced stats? - and I expect that it will, but I am also trying to learn some things on my own, too. I started tracking games, with zone exits and entries plus shot assists and shot attempts during five-on-five play, and I’m only about halfway through the season. My aforementioned daughter has had a busy hockey schedule this spring and that has hindered my ability to grind through games, but I will continue, and it has already given me a better handle on players’ relative strengths and weaknesses.
A few of my bird’s eye observations on the first PWHL season:
Early in the season, it looked like a few of the superstars were slow to get going, likely because they had gone four-plus years without playing in organized hockey leagues and, at the same time, they were tasked with being the faces of this new league. Some of them got up to speed and showed that they still had star capability, while some didn’t. With a 24-game schedule, any kind of prolonged slump can be difficult to overcome.
The fan experience at PWHL games has a more organic feel than the NHL, a league that is much more polished and established. Some of it is that people are getting in on the ground floor of this experience. If you start cheering for the Toronto Maple Leafs, for example, it’s something that millions of people have – for better or worse – been doing over the past century. If you start cheering for PWHL Toronto, you are in on it early and your fandom grows with the franchise from the very beginning.
While the vibes around the PWHL have been awesome, I found it interesting that the Jocks in Jills podcast, hosted by Julia Tocheri and Tessa Bonhomme, made it clear early in the season that the ladies on PWHL New York were having the most fun, like they were the best party destination. When the team finished comfortably in last place, those claims were not quite as endearing. At some point, part of the deal with professional hockey is that you’re open to criticism if the performance isn’t good enough. It didn’t feel like New York took much heat for that, though they did part ways with head coach Howie Draper, so there were some people who felt the need for change.
A few player transactions stood out to me. Mikyla Grant-Mentis’ departure from Ottawa was bizarre. She had three assists in five games and had statistically strong performances in games four and five before getting demoted to the fourth line in the sixth game of the season. After that, she was sent to the press box and then waived. Now, there might be a legitimate yet not disclosed reason for Ottawa to terminate her contract, but for a team that did not appear to be overrun with talent, it’s surprising that they suddenly didn’t have room for a player with Grant-Mentis’ skills.
Boston and Minnesota made a major deal, with Minnesota acquiring defender Sophie Jaques in exchange for centre Susanna Tapani and defender Abby Cook. Tapani is a quality two-way centre who had 13 points and was plus-15 in 26 games.
Jaques was struggling to make a difference in Boston and had zero points in seven games when she was dealt to Minnesota. She took on a bigger role with her new team and contributed 10 points in 15 games while logging more than 20 minutes in every game that she played with Minnesota.
It looks like a deal that could be good for both teams, but Jaques’ results with her new team suggest that she could be one of the top defenders in the league for years to come.
In any case, before my daughter and I hit Coca Cola Coliseum to take in a pressure-packed Game 5 of the series between PWHL Toronto and Minnesota, I thought I’d check in with my own award picks for this first PWHL season.
BILLIE JEAN KING MVP AWARD
It’s hard for anyone to surpass Spooner, who was a transcendent scorer, tallying 20 goals in 24 games. Poulin finished with a flourish, scoring 14 points in her last nine games of the regular season.
Natalie Spooner, RW, Toronto
Marie-Philip Poulin, C, Montreal
Alex Carpenter, C, New York
Aerin Frankel, G, Boston
Megan Keller, D, Boston
Honourable Mentions: Sarah Nurse, C, Toronto; Erin Ambrose, D, Montreal; Renata Fast, D, Toronto; Corinne Schroeder, G, New York; Grace Zumwinkle, RW, Minnesota
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
One of the exciting features of the PWHL is that there was top-flight first-year talent, and it figures to only get better. Early in the season, Alina Müller looked like a top contender while Emma Maltais and Sophie Jaques both had strong finishes to gain consideration, but Grace Zumwinkle had the greatest impact.
Maybe the biggest surprise is that there are two Minnesota players ahead of Taylor Heise. The first pick in the 2023 Draft missed five games and scored one goal in her last 16 games of the regular season after scoring three goals in three games to start her pro career, but she looks so dangerous that there will surely be more goals in her future.
Grace Zumwinkle, RW, Minnesota
Emma Maltais, LW, Toronto
Alina Müller, C, Boston
Sophie Jaques, D, Minnesota
Maureen Murphy, RW, Montreal
Honourable Mentions: Taylor Heise, C, Minnesota; Gabbie Hughes, C, Ottawa; Ashton Bell, D, Ottawa; Maggie Flaherty, D, Minnesota; Lexie Adzija, LW, Boston
FORWARD OF THE YEAR
The forward who led the league in goals and points is a good bet to get named forward of the year, though Poulin would certainly be a deserving candidate.
Natalie Spooner, RW, Toronto (also points leader and top goal-scorer)
Marie-Philip Poulin, C, Montreal
Alex Carpenter, C, New York
Sarah Nurse, C, Toronto
Grace Zumwinkle, RW, Minnesota
Honourable Mentions: Brianne Jenner, C, Ottawa; Laura Stacey, RW, Montreal; Emma Maltais, LW, Toronto; Kendall Coyne Schofield, LW, Minnesota; Daryl Watts, LW, Ottawa
DEFENDER OF THE YEAR
I’m not yet familiar enough with PWHL discourse to know for sure what popular opinion is when it comes to the awards, so I don’t know if my choice for top defender is standard or a bit of an upset. There are several quality contenders for top defender but, to my eyes, Keller was the best all-around blueliner this season, controlling play at both ends, particularly during five-on-five play.
Megan Keller, Boston
Erin Ambrose, Montreal
Renata Fast, Toronto
Ella Shelton, New York
Savannah Harmon, Ottawa
Honourable Mentions: Sophie Jaques, Minnesota; Jocelyn Larocque, Toronto; Lee Stecklein, Minnesota; Ashton Bell, Ottawa; Jaime Bourbonnais, New York
GOALTENDER OF THE YEAR
There were some excellent netminders in the PWHL but with a short 24-game schedule, those that played the greater percentage of the games naturally warranted greater consideration.
Aerin Frankel, Boston
Corinne Schroeder, New York
Kristen Campbell, Toronto
Ann-Renee Desbiens, Montreal
Emerance Maschmeyer, Ottawa
COACH OF THE YEAR
Ryan deserves credit for Toronto pulling out of an early-season slump to finish with the league’s best record, even if he also had plenty of star power at his disposal. Boston managed to make the playoffs without great production from some of their stars, so Kessel would be a very deserving candidate, too.
Troy Ryan, Toronto
Courtney Kessel, Boston
Kori Cheverie, Montreal
RIP DUTCH
Finally, since I’m writing, I would like to offer my condolences to the friends and family of long-time TSN Sportscentre host Darren Dutchyshen, who died Thursday. I did not usually work closely with Dutch but have a few memories:
Long before I ever worked at TSN, I remembered watching a Maple Leafs game against Dallas on New Year’s Day, 1996. Dutch was hosting and I’m pretty sure that Terry Crisp was in studio with him. It was obvious that Dutch was feeling the effects of the night before. Before they left for commercial at one point, Dutch’s head was already down on the desk, and Crisp was clearly amused at the pain Dutch was playing through.
Early in my time at TSN, I played pickup basketball with him. It was a bunch of Internet staff and Sportscentre story editors, along with one of the biggest stars at the network at a random gym in Toronto. As you might expect, he could set a firm pick.
There was a night at Real Sports when Coors Light was sponsoring a fantasy football event for TSN. I was involved, along with Dutch and Cabbie, two people who were much more experienced on the mic, but Dutch was so supportive to me and just a fun hang for the entire night.
Anyway, there are people at TSN as well as friends and family that were obviously much closer than I ever was to Darren, but I will always remember that he was a fun-loving character and genuine good guy, one that made TSN what it was during its peak years.