Deserved, But...

Tonight, the PWHL welcomed a pile of players into their ranks as the PWHL Draft took place in Detroit, Michigan. I'm not sure if there were any surprises when it came to the first dozen picks made, but the Seattle Torrent decided to give one woman a shot who has certainly earned a look when it comes to professional hockey as UBC Thunderbirds forward Grace Elliott was selected 38th-overall in the fourth round! There may have been some familiarity for Seattle when it came to picking Elliott which I'll look at below, but it was another night where a pile of very good, very capable U SPORTS players were left without a team when the draft concluded. I'm not surprised considering how little U SPORTS does to promote these exceptionally-talented women, and it makes me wonder what exactly U SPORTS does to help its athletes achieve their athletic goals and dreams.

Make no mistake that Grace Elliott deserved to be ddrafted tonight. She's a two-time Canada West Player of the Year and the 2025 U SPORTS Player of the Year after blowing away most of UBC's school scoring records and placing her among the best historically in both Canada West and U SPORTS. Grace was always a good player, but her size, her skill, and her smarts became quickly evident as her efforts helped the UBC Thunderbirds reach new heights each year.

If there's one woman who knows how good she was, it is new Seattle Torrent head coach Christine Bumstead who often watched Elliott work her magic from the University of Saskatchewan Huskies' bench. In 15 regular season and playoff games between the Huskies and Thunderbirds between 2021 and 2025, Elliott scored seven goals and seven assists. The catch, however, is that she scored three goals and four assists in the two games played between the two teams in 2024-25, so Coach Bumstead is very aware of how explosive she can be.

Elliott will likely get every chance to crack the Torrent roster, but I wouldn't expect that Bumstead will guarantee anything with the influx of talent she has at her fingertips. Elliott will need to earn every inch of ice and every second of ice time just like she did in Vancouver, but we've seen how good she can be when she's focused. Having her alongside Lexie Adzija gives Seattle two impact power forwards, but she has proven time and again that she has the scoring and skating to play with almost anyone on the Torrent roster.

If I were Bumstead, I'd be looking at Jenna Buglioni as her linemate. Buglioni was her high-scoring teammate with the Greater Vancouver Comets where Buglioni had 26 goals and 52 points in 29 games while Elliott had 27 goals and 50 points in 32 games during the 2020-21 BCFAAA U18 season! That was the only season they played together, but it seems pretty clear that they had an incredible season playing together! Could we see them reunited in Torrent colours?

What I do know is that Grace deserves all the kudos for being drafted and moving one step closer to her hockey dreams. Congratulations, Grace, and we'll be cheering for you as this season gets underway!

Erica Rieder, who played for the University of Manitoba, was selected 60th-overall in the fifth round by Montreal, but Victoire GM Danièle Sauvageau knows her very well from her U SPORTS days with the Montreal Carabins. Rieder, who was playing for Lulea in the SDHL, has always been an incredible two-way defender who can skate, but she'll get a chance to step into the Montreal lineup this season.

Gabriella Durante, who suited up for Italy in the Olympics and won their only game in that tournament, was picked by Seattle with the 62nd-overall pick, but there's an obvious tie there to Christine Bumstead again who saw her play with the Calgary Dinos. Durante earned her role as Italy's starter at the Olympics with her solid play, and she should be just as good on the west coast stopping pucks.

Montreal used the last pick of the draft to select Concordia Stingers forward Emilie Lavoie who had a solid season in the RSEQ, and she was even better playing in Kitchener at the U SPORTS National Championship. Lavoie is one of those players that Sauvageau loves - an engine that doesn't stop, the puck seems attracted to her stick, and she can finish. She'll need to work hard to crack that talented Montreal roster, but Lavoie is a steal for the Victoire at 72nd-overall.

If you're waiting for the other shoe to drop with the "But..." in the title, the conjunction has nothing to with the players above. These four players earned their accolades and opportunities, and equally deserve the celebration for their personal achievements.

It does, however, have to do with the fact that there was virtually zero promotion or hype done by U SPORTS to elevate the profiles all the players who played in their conferences. I find it baffling that U SPORTS wants to be taken seriously as a viable option for women who want to chase their hockey and PWHL dreams, but they do little to help those women who have excelled at the U SPORTS level.

Maybe they produced a whole package that was distributed to all twelve PWHL teams and didn't mention it, but I can almost guarantee that didn't happen. I can say this because only four U SPORTS players were taken in the six rounds of the PWHL Draft that saw 72 players selected. Yes, the argument can be made that every player picked was chosen for a reason by each team, but dynamic players like Jessymaude Drapeau, Tatum James, and Courtney Kollman were all left watching rather than being selected by any of the teams.

Tory Mariano, who didn't play last season, was chosen by the Ottawa Charge 13 picks before Rieder despite having six goals and 25 assists in 131 games with Northeastern University over her four years of defence for the Huskies. I'm not saying she isn't good enough nor should she not be picked, but what qualities does she possess after sitting out last year that are better than a defender like Waterloo's Lyndsy Acheson or Olympian and former Toronto defender Gabrielle de Serres who weren't picked tonight? Did I miss something here?

The Ottawa Charge, Toronto Sceptres, Vancouver Goldeneyes, and Hamilton Whatevers took a grand total of zero U SPORTS players in this year's draft. I can understand the American teams not taking U SPORTS players due to a lack of scouting thanks to streaming paywalls, but Troy Ryan, San Jose's GM and head coach, is a former Dalhousie Tigers women's hockey head coach. Both Seattle and Montreal took two players each, and both of those teams have women in positions of leadership with strong U SPORTS ties.

I'm not saying that Seattle nor Montreal made their picks with a need to draft U SPORTS players, but they're drafting from a larger pool of players and talent by looking at U SPORTS players. We saw how important the U SPORTS players were for Montreal this season as Alexandra Labelle, Catherine Dubois, and Kaitlin Willoughby played key roles for the Victoire in their Walter Cup victory. I'm not saying that every U SPORTS player will bring that return, but teams like Vancouver and Toronto who missed the playoffs should be capitalizing on the talent found in their own backyards before other teams do.

In lamenting the above, I will admit that I have a significant bias when it comes to seeing U SPORTS players getting their fair shakes. Four players were chosen tonight, and that's entirely worth celebrating when it comes to competing in the best women's hockey league on the planet. I just struggle to understand why U SPORTS isn't putting all twelve teams on blast when it comes to how good these players are. Why is this a task that seemingly no one wants?

Congratulations to Grace, Erica, Gabriella, and Emilie who, I'm hoping, will be on the opening night rosters for the Torrent and the Victoire, respectively. These women deserve the accolades they've earned, and I'll be cheering for them with every career moment they reach. I just wish there were more players for whom I could cheer.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!