Look for PWHL Toronto to add scoring first in Monday’s draft

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PWHL Draft

Monday, 7 p.m. EST

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(At Roy Wilkens Auditorium

In St. Paul, Minn)

ORDER OF SELECTION

• New York
• Ottawa
• Minnesota
• Boston
• Montreal
• Toronto

(Unlike in last year’s draft that order will remain the same for all seven rounds)

PWHL Toronto and all of its five original sisters will add seven more bodies to the fold on Monday.

The second annual draft for the league will move from Toronto to Minnesota, home of the first ever league champs with New York owning the first overall pick courtesy of its last place regular-season finish.

Toronto will pick sixth in the first round and all six rounds that follow after finishing first overall.

It’s not ideal for Toronto, but in a deep draft with plenty of international talent injected after many non-North Americans took a year to see how things played out before committing, PWHL Toronto GM Gina Kingsbury believes she can bolster an already strong lineup with maybe a little more scoring and some depth in the third and fourth lines.

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There might even be a goaltender to be had for Toronto if either Erica Howe or Carly Jackson aren’t back.

Obviously Kingsbury wasn’t going to tip her hand one way or the other. It would make no sense to inform the rest of the league that you were or were not in the market for a goaltender, particularly when you are drafting behind everyone else in each round.

That said, goalkeeper Kristen Campbell started all but two games this season and was stellar in the Toronto net. Howe and Jackson were perfect complements with both happy to support their starter in any way they could.

The draft is deep in goalies and Toronto may be the lone team really interested, again depending primarily on Howe’s return, in adding a goaltender to its roster.

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All of Minnesota, Boston, Ottawa, Montreal and New York had at least two goalies on their roster that proved themselves this year or have the kind of potential you just don’t draft over.

Ottawa backup Sandra Abstreiter, though, saw only limited playing time behind Emerance Maschmeyer. That team could also be looking to stockpile more talent between the pipes.

Toronto’s first choice, sixth overall, likely will be a forward with offensive upside given the uncertainty of when exactly Toronto’s scoring leader and potential league MVP Natalie Spooner returns to action.

It’s never wise to bet against Spooner, but having just had knee surgery — neither the team nor Spooner is saying exactly what the surgery entailed, but if the worst case scenario of a torn ACL was the repair, that’s at minimum a six-month recovery.

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Having had the surgery at the beginning of June, the six month minimum would take her through November.

With the league going to 32 games, up from 24 this past season, and the start date moved back from Jan. 1 to sometime in November, PWHL Toronto has to cover itself in the event the recovery takes as many as nine months which is the high end for any type of ACL surgery.

At least two highly sought after Canadian forwards that both Kingsbury and head coach Troy Ryan are very familiar with, having had them in the Canadian National team program in Sarah Fillier of Georgetown and Edmonton native Danielle Serdachny, are expected to be off the board by the time Toronto selects.

There is always the possibility that Toronto trades up to put itself in position to claim one of those two but Kingsbury seemed to downplay that likelihood saying most teams were very protective of their high-end picks.

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Potentially still around at six, although no one can say for sure, is another Canadian National team member in London native Julia Gosling.

Gosling is coming out of St. Lawrence College and was a member of Canada’s gold-medal winning team at the World Championships this year in Utica, New York.

In 37 games with the Saints this past season, Gosling finished second on the team in scoring with 22 goals and 29 assists for 51 points.

At 5-foot-10- and 163 pounds she has some size too which should help her as she makes the jump to the pro game.

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Fillier, unless New York opts for the U.S. born Hannah Bilka who is another highly-touted and skilled player, is expected to go first overall. Ottawa has the second pick and is in the market for a top pairing defenceman. But Serdachny and her power forward-type game would be a nice fit there as well.

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Minnesota, who finished fourth overall, will pick third followed by Boston and then Montreal before Toronto makes its first selection.

This draft will be a much less busy one compared to last year’s when teams had to fill out their roster. Instead of the 90 players over 15 rounds that were selected last summer, this year’s draft will be only seven rounds and 42 players.

As it stands now, the only Toronto player that has declared they will not be back from last year’s team is forward Brittany Howard.

Howard, who had two goals and six assists in 23 games this year, is taking on a coaching and skills development role within the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite organization. She spent time on all four of Ryan’s lines this year and takes with her one of the quickest releases in the women’s game.

Toronto will be looking to fill that spot as well as bring in more talent to push what they already have which should make for a very entertaining training camp come November.

The draft will start at 7 p.m. EST on Monday.

mganter@postmedia.com

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