PWHL 2024 Draft Thoughts
Last night the 2024 PWHL draft happened and I have some thoughts about it. I want to make clear: I will not be grading or saying who had a good draft and who had a bad draft. Frankly, we don’t know yet. These players who were drafted haven’t even played a game yet in the PWHL. To grade a team’s draft or say a team had a bad draft is too premature. We won’t really know for a few years when these players have truly had a chance to leave a mark on the league. So, these are some thoughts and observations in general. Before we continue on, I need to mention that all articles on here are now free. That said, if you have the money and find value in my articles, please financially support this newsletter with a paid subscription to ensure I can keep doing this. Anyway, onto my PWHL draft thoughts.
Let’s start with the first round. First I would like to toot my own horn. I got Ottawa selecting Serdachny correct despite league sources saying they were expecting Ottawa to select a defender. Clearly, this means I’m smarter than those who work in the league. (Yes, that is a joke, I swear.) Unfortunately, that would be one of only three picks I would get correct. Fillier going to New York at #1 and Curl going to Minnesota at #9 would be the only others I’d get correct from my two-round mock draft. As it turns out, professional scouts and GMs view things differently from newsletter writers. Shocking, I know. My player rankings (which I never released) and my mock draft were quite off and there were even surprises past the first two rounds which I will get to.
First, though, let’s quickly go over the first two rounds since I did a mock draft for them. New York took Fillier and Nylén Persson. So Nylén Persson fell two spots from where I had her getting taken. Meanwhile, Ottawa got Serdachny and Savolainen at #8, definitely higher than I had her going (I had her mocked to go at #11). But frankly, my entire second-round mock draft was off. I had Nylén Persson and Savolainen get taken as the last two picks of the second round, in reality, they were the first two taken. The last two picks of the second round were surprising to me as well. Jennifer Gardiner and Megan Carter. Ok, I’m not so surprised Gardiner got taken in the second round (even if I thought she was more third-round material), but I figured it would be Toronto taking her if she got taken in the second round. Megan Carter, I never even considered for a second to be a second-round draft pick. There are just too many players I saw as clearly better than her left on the board. We’ll get back to that in a moment, there’s one last thing I want to say before we go down that rabbit hole. I’m genuinely stunned Julia Gosling got taken so high. She was the sixth overall pick. I didn’t even have her in my mock draft. That was the biggest surprise regarding players who got drafted higher than I thought. I just don’t get what Toronto saw to make them feel comfortable taking her that high.
Speaking of things I don’t get, let’s circle back around to the players that were left on the board after the second round. Someone, please explain to me how the Patty Kazmaier Award winner, Izzy Daniel, fell all the way to the last pick of the third round. I’m sorry, I don’t get that one bit. I know I’m just a blogger who’s never even touched ice skates, and I’m not qualified one bit to question GMs or scouts, but I’m going to be arrogant enough to do it anyway. I think they’re wrong for this. She’s a top-of-the-draft-level talent. I genuinely do not understand this at all. I’m actually begging a GM or scout to message me explaining this to me. Just nothing about this makes sense. Now, I must confess: I did not watch the draft. I was busy watching Stanley Cup Final Game Two and was merely following along via the live updates on the PWHL website. A Bluesky user told me that there was a lot of talk about physicality in the league and so they believed it was her lack of physicality and height that made her drop. Now, once again, I didn’t watch the broadcast of the draft, so I cannot confirm if that was something consistently talked about or not, but I’m going to assume this commenter is telling the truth. Ok, so I accept that height and physicality should come into consideration. That part is completely accepted. That said, the last pick of the third round? I’m sorry. I do not understand how her lack of height and physicality overshadow her talent to that extent. Her talent is arguably first-round level, definitely top of the second-round level. Her size and physicality should not impact her draft stock THAT much, in my view. I just don’t get this one at all.
The other thing I don’t get is Amanda Kessel falling to the seventh round. She was the second-to-last pick in the draft. I had her going #4 overall in my mock draft. Now, I did have a Twitter mutual, Jackets Comrade tell me that there are rumors of her being in the running for the Minnesota GM job. I personally haven’t heard that so I don’t know the validity of these rumors, but considering how far she fell and the fact that Jackets Comrade is usually trustworthy, it’s likely there’s some truth to those rumors. Still though, if I were a GM, I would’ve taken her way sooner. But that’s also why I’ll never a be GM. I’d take way too many stupid risks. Anyway, I have one last thing to talk about regarding the draft, but before we get there, I need to finish this paragraph by telling you to go follow Jackets Comrade if you’re on Twitter. He’s genuinely one of the best accounts on Hockey Twitter and deserves far more recognition and love than he currently gets.
Now, the final thing that must be discussed is Britta Curl. The fact she was drafted is the final move in the NHL-ification of women’s hockey. What I mean is, that character blatantly does not matter anymore. Sure, in the background it didn’t matter too much considering how often I’ve seen defenses of abusive coaches and the like, but they at least tried to pretend to care about character and often did do more than men’s hockey to keep a better culture. It’s now clear those days are over and character is regarded as highly as it is in men’s hockey, which is to say, not at all. Women’s hockey is highly queer. Players, coaches, executives, and fans all have heavy amounts of queer representation. Meanwhile, a player like Britta Curl who openly advocates and spews hatred towards queer folk (among other beliefs that cause harm) gets drafted and gets the privilege to be a celebrity. The PWHL wants to have it both ways. They get the love and support of queer fans and promote queer folk in the PWHL. Then, they also want to make a celebrity out of an anti-queer bigot. All her presence will do is make people uncomfortable, not just the fans, but in the locker room as well. I guess locker room dynamics mean nothing. I’m just saying, if I knew one of my teammates hated me I wouldn’t feel safe or comfortable, but PWHL Minnesota has decided that’s fine. The PWHL, by even allowing her to be draft eligible, has decided that hate and questioning the humanity of teammates is acceptable, and PWHL Minnesota decided they wanted that. Honestly, I may be giving Minnesota too much credit when I say they decided they wanted that. I don’t think any thought was put into it at all, considering acting GM and Head Coach Ken Klee had this to say in response to a simple “yes or no” question:
Her anti-queer views were not even put into account despite people in the organization being openly queer. The league has made its position known: if you are a minority, we will not protect you, despite so many fans, players, coaches, and executives being oppressed minorities. That’s harmful. For all the faults of the PHF, they didn’t try to have their cake and eat it too. They openly embraced the queerness of the sport and lived out their pro-queer values to the point a trans person played in the league. The PWHL doesn’t have a transgender policy, and I would be stunned if they allowed a trans person to play. With the PHF fans didn’t have to worry about bigotry. Meanwhile, the PWHL is openly courting both queers and their oppressors, thinking they can have both. At some point, something is going to have to give, and they’re going to have to choose what they want: a proudly queer league and fanbase, or one that is hostile to queerness. They’ll keep trying to push that decision down the road as long as possible, but it’s one they will have to choose eventually. Right now, it looks as if they’re sliding towards being openly hostile to queers. You can’t have both. You can have an open and tolerant league or a closed-minded one. Those two things cannot co-exist. Britta Curl being drafted is a stain upon the league and upon PWHL Minnesota. Queer folk in the PWHL and queer fans won’t be forgetting this and today, the league feels just that much more unsafe.
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