PWHL Ottawa to make changes after falling short of playoffs

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As proud as the PWHL Ottawa coaching staff and management are of the way the players fought through adversity before narrowly missing out on making the playoffs in Toronto, a few tears should be shed over the “locker cleaning” on Tuesday.

With a number of changes on the way, it will be the last time they meet at TD Place as a team.

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Needing just one win in its final three games to qualify for the postseason tournament, Ottawa came up empty against second-place Montreal, last-place New York and finally Sunday night in a 5-2 road loss to Toronto, the last place. the first team in the league.

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“There are a lot of emotions,” coach Carla MacLeod told reporters after the final loss. “We wanted to get this game. You could see it by how we played. We were pretty determined to punch our own ticket to the playoffs. It hurts in the trainers room. It hurts in the players’ room. In the end, it’s a pretty simple message: we couldn’t be prouder of our group. Throughout this season there have been ups and downs. “We have never wavered in making sure that we were a team and that we had to look out for each other.”

General manager Mike Hirshfeld “of course we’re disappointed” in an interview on TSN1200 Monday morning.

“We’ve worked incredibly hard over the last eight months to build this organization and I know the players put their heart and soul into it,” he said. “We definitely had our chances to win one of those last three games and I can’t really pinpoint (why it didn’t happen) … things didn’t go our way. It wasn’t for lack of effort. This is a really competitive league and the games are very close, and even the teams that are out of the playoffs or even the teams that are in the playoffs are playing for that Gold Plan for the first overall pick.

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“Our group went through a lot of ups and downs this year, but they really stuck together as a team and played incredibly hard throughout the process. “We are very proud of them.”

The “Gold Plan” awards the first pick in the draft to the team that earns the most points in the games following its elimination from playoff contention.

That means Ottawa will pick second to New York in each round of the 2024 draft next month in Minnesota.

Ottawa has six players on three-year contracts (Brianne Jenner, Emerance Mashmeyer, Emily Clark, Gabbie Hughes, Ashton Bell and Savannah Harmon), while Jincy Roese and Hayley Scamurra are on two-year contracts.

All others will be free agents.

“We’re just going to begin the evaluation process now, but as a team that missed the playoffs, we’re going to look to improve across the board,” Hirshfeld said. “We definitely need more goals, we need more help in attack. The defensive depth hurt us at the end with some injuries, and we also want to continue to build our goaltending depth. So there are many areas to focus on.”

On a list of the top-ranked prospects for the 2024 draft on The Hockey News website are Sarah Fillier, a 23-year-old Princeton forward from Georgetown, Ont., who plays on the Canadian national team, Hannah Bilka, a junior 23 years old. Ohio State forward from Coppell, Texas, who plays on the U.S. national team, and Cayla Barnes, a 25-year-old defender from Boston College from Corona, California, who also plays on the U.S. national team.

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Rounding out the Top 10 are Edmonton-born forward Danielle Serdachny, Finnish defender Ronja Savolainen, Czech defender Daniela Pejsova, defender Claire Thompson of Toronto, Finnish forward Noora Tulus, Swedish defender Maja Nylen Persson and Izzy Daniel, a forward born in Minneapolis that year he won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the best college player in the US.

“There are definitely some forwards at the top of the draft that will be interesting for us,” Hirshfeld said. “But the (lack of) defensive depth definitely hurt us down the stretch with a couple of injuries. We are very excited to have the second pick in the draft and then the eighth. “We will be allowed to select high-quality players and that will help us for next year.”

Hirshfeld said the team will work to secure some of its free agents over the next week.

“With seven rounds left in the draft, we’ll probably look to add seven or eight new players this offseason,” he said, later adding that attracting free agents from around the league won’t be a problem, largely thanks to the exceptional support the team received. of the community with capacity. “Coming into this season, something we faced from the beginning…. There were players from Minnesota, for example, who didn’t know anything about the city and didn’t know where they were going and were reluctant to come to Ottawa. That’s one of the things I’m most proud of about this season: I think we’ve changed that impression. We have changed that dynamic. The players now want to come to Ottawa. The players have seen the success with the fans and what happens at every home game at TD Place. I have players calling me and asking me ‘how do I get to Ottawa?’ So I think the dynamic changed during this year and we’re very proud to have been able to do that.

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“That is also a great testament to Carla and her staff, and the culture they have built. Now everyone wants to come to Ottawa.

“We have focused on a couple of players that we would like to add, and financially (within the salary cap) we are in a position to be able to do so.”

Next season, when teams are expected to have nicknames, camps will open in November and the regular season will be expanded from 24 to 36 games.

Hirshfeld said MacLeod and the entire Ottawa coaching staff will return.

“We’re really pleased with the job they did in laying the foundation and building the culture,” he said. “That’s what’s so attractive to all these players from other markets. (They) want to come to Ottawa.”

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