Professional women's ice hockey will be sticking in the New York Metro area for the 2024 season despite the dissolution of the Premier Hockey Federation. Along with five other teams, PWHL New York will take part in the inaugural season of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL), hopefully representing a new era of stability for the sport.
Turning the Empire State into our hockey empire. 🗽 pic.twitter.com/kANV4MLAH5
— PWHL New York (@PWHL_NewYork) December 30, 2023
New York's first professional women's ice hockey team kicked off their season on the road in Toronto on New Year's Day. Their home opener is against Montreal at UBS Arena on Jan. 10.
In terms of how the fans can watch, it has been reported that MSG Networks will broadcast all 24 of PWHL New York's regular season games. In addition, reports say that "all PWHL games will be made available on the league's YouTube channel and additional broadcast partners may be announced throughout the season."
Without further ado, let's discuss the roster.
Breaking Down PWHL New York's Roster
An article previewing the team in The Athletic highlighted that PWHL NY's roster is based on "center depth and defense." This is reflected in the signings of Micah Zandee-Hart and Ella Shelton on the blueline, along with the "two of the top centers on Team USA," Alex Carpenter and Abby Roque.
At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Roque became the first indigenous woman to step on the ice for the U.S. national women's team. Carpenter was nominated as PWPHA Forward of the Year and has excelled with the U.S. Women's National team for years, already making the front of this forward group formidable.
Due to offseason surgery, the 26-year-old Zandee-Hart will miss New York's first game of the season but is expected to return quickly. She will be the team's captain and bring a resume that includes winning Gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics for Canada and five seasons with Cornell, where she ranked fourth in the nation in scoring among defenders.
Shelton has been teammates with Zandee-Hart on the Canadian women's national team, which should bring chemistry to this year's team. Another defender to note is Jaime Bourbonnais. Bourbonnais spent three seasons with Zandee-Hart at Cornell and is also a defenseman, another example of the cohesion already set up on this squad.
New York has at least four, longtime professional women's hockey veterans such as Carpenter and Zandee-Hart, but to succeed this season just like every PWHL team, they need their depth to produce. One way New York should be able to do that is by having balanced forward lines. Jade Downie-Landry is shaping up as the team's third-line center and is coming off a season where she scored 24 points in 23 games. She was outstanding as a rookie and could provide some much-needed scoring depth on the team this season.
The Big Apple's first professional women's ice hockey team will be able to deploy even more depth at forward in wingers Elizabeth Giguere, who scored 22 points in 18 games with the Boston Pride last season, and Emma Woods, who scored 23 points in 24 games for last year's PHF Champions, Toronto Six.
On top of this, New York's goaltending could also be solid. The team drafted PHF Goaltender of the Year Corinne Schroeder, who put up some remarkable stats (19-1 record and 1.67 Goals-Against-Average) last season, which led the league in 2022-23. And that was Schroeder's rookie season, meaning at just 24 years old, Schroeder is already one of the best female professional goalies and is just getting started.
The best part about their goalie situation is that Schroeder's backups will also be good. The likely backup goalie is Abigail Levy, who is buoyed by a stellar career at Boston College where she had the program record for Save Percentage (.940) and ranks 4th in wins all-time. Although Levy had success in college, it remains to be seen how she will play against professionals when she is called upon to give Schroeder a rest. Lindsey Post will also play goalie for PWHL New York and joins the team after spending the last seven years in the Canadian Women's Hockey League and Swedish professional league.
PWHL New York's Schedule
Even though there are six teams in this league, a single team won't play every other team the same number of times. All of the teams have good depth because the talent pool is not diluted because there are many teams. PWHL New York's schedule can be broken down by opponent as such:
- Toronto- 5 games (2 H, 3 A)
- Montreal- 5 games (3 H, 2 A)
- BOSTON- 5 games (2 H, 3 A)
- Minn.- 5 games (3 H, 2 A)
- Ottawa- 4 games (2 H, 2A)
One thing that stands out is obvious but important to note -- TEAMS WILL BE RESTED. The schedule seems to be planned in a very organized manner, where there will be at least two, sometimes four days between matchdays. In fact, the least amount of time that the Big Apple Women has between games is two days at the end of January. At that point, they will face Toronto on the road before running home to Total Mortgage Arena in Connecticut for a battle with the rugged players from Minnesota.
Around Presidents Weekend which starts on Feb. 17, the Big Apple team has two games. On Feb. 17, they are on the road in Beantown. Then they will come home to play Minnesota at UBS Arena.
Overall, this writer (who is male) will watch like many people of different walks of life because...IT'S DIFFERENT. The first season of PWHL Hockey is not unchartered territory because the PHF promoted women's ice hockey all the way back in 2015. But for people who watch the same sports all the time, it could be a breath of fresh air.
The league runs until May 4 (Oh, Yoda will be proud) for PWHL New York, but their last two games are TBD in terms of time. It began in the middle of winter and will run through the time for renewal that is spring. Like anything, to be beautiful the first PWHL hockey season will require support. Support from the fans who with their patience and passion can help usher this experiment to fruition.
- PWHL New York Eliminated from Playoffs with 5-2 Loss in Montreal - April 24, 2024
- PWHL New York fall in heartbreaker at Prudential Center - April 20, 2024
- Seton Hall Triumphs over Indiana State in NIT Championship - April 5, 2024
