Inside an area in Tampere, Finland in mid-December, future high PWHL draft prospects confronted off in a event ultimate.
On the Girls’s Euro Hockey Tour (or Six Nations Match), the Canadians confronted an American roster stacked with senior nationwide group expertise, together with Lacey Eden, Abbey Murphy, Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards.
A Canadian squad with much less worldwide expertise caught within the sport till the ultimate minutes, when the People pulled forward on a Murphy aim for an eventual 5-3 win. Canadian goaltender Ève Gascon had 33 saves within the loss, placing up a efficiency her coach described as “phenomenal.”
“Not essentially the outcomes in opposition to the U.S. that we have been hoping for, however we’re tremendous pleased with our group’s performances all through the course of the event,” Canadian nationwide growth group head coach Alison Domenico stated in an interview with CBC Sports activities.
“In that final sport alone to sort of come again, being down a pair, it might have been simple to pack it in.”
Although a number of gamers on each side of that ultimate are prone to be excessive draft picks within the PWHL throughout the subsequent few years, the event wasn’t broadcast in Canada, nor was it streamed by Hockey Canada.
Whereas many Canadians will watch high NHL prospects on the world junior hockey championship for males beneath 20, which begins on Dec. 26, there is not any world championship for ladies of the identical age.
There is a world championship for ladies beneath 18, which is able to happen in Finland in January and is broadcast nationally on TSN.
However there are few worldwide alternatives between that event and the senior nationwide group, making a growth hole as girls intention to succeed in the very best stage of the game.
For followers, it additionally means fewer alternatives to see and get enthusiastic about future PWHL stars. Most will go from the under-18 event to play within the NCAA, however these video games aren’t all the time simple to seek out in Canada, both.
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Earlier this 12 months, the IIHF stated a girls’s world junior championship is on the horizon, however is not prone to occur for a number of years, the Canadian Press reported.
Rising the participant pool
In Europe, the issue is that there aren’t sufficient feminine gamers to fill groups on the under-18 facet, a senior nationwide group and one other age group in between, in line with Mike Helber, the director of hockey operations for the Swedish Ice Hockey Affiliation.
“What is going to find yourself occurring is that our greatest gamers will play a minimum of in two of the tournaments, perhaps even all three,” Helber stated in an interview with CBC Sports activities.
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On the flip facet, it is troublesome for gamers to develop with out alternatives to play in opposition to high gamers. Helber’s aim is to extend the variety of Swedish gamers between the ages of 19 and 24, and to get extra of these gamers coming to North America for faculty.
These gamers develop taking part in in opposition to high Canadian and American prospects, and convey what they study again to Sweden after they return to their nationwide group, Helber stated.
“We have to get extra gamers over in direction of North America to see how good the gamers really are,” stated Helber, an American who performed collegiate hockey on the College of Michigan. “They’re shocked at instances.”
As soon as the participant pool grows, Helber could be open to seeing a world championship for college-aged gamers.
Within the meantime, he nonetheless needs to see Swedish gamers getting alternatives to compete in opposition to different nations.
He preferred the format of the Six Nations event, and can also be on the lookout for alternatives for the Swedish group to compete in opposition to American faculty groups.
“They should see the extent that North American athletes play at,” he stated. “One of the simplest ways to do this is to seek out methods to play in opposition to them.”
Highlight on future PWHL expertise
Nations weren’t restricted to sending gamers of a sure age to the Six Nations event. The PWHL took a break through the event however most European PWHL gamers opted to stick with their membership groups, with a couple of exceptions, like Boston Fleet goaltender Emma Söderberg (Sweden).
Like the USA, Canada despatched its growth group, which has solely a handful of alternatives to compete annually. The group additionally performed a three-game sequence in opposition to the People this previous summer season, which the U.S. received two video games to at least one.
Some gamers on the event group may very well be a giant a part of Canada’s senior nationwide group on the 2030 Olympics and past, together with defender Nicole Gosling, who received a world championship with the senior group in April, and Caitlin Kraemer, Canada’s all-time main goal-scorer on the girls’s under-18 world championship.
With no in-between world championship for these gamers, it is vital to seek out methods to maintain getting them worldwide expertise, Domenico stated.
“Any means we will get them taking part in different nations and even simply getting used to going abroad, getting the jet lag plan,” she stated. “Going by means of all of these experiences are actually vital if you get to that subsequent stage.”
For the PWHL, there may very well be a couple of advantages to having one of the best up-and-coming college-aged gamers competing in opposition to one another.
It might assist groups scout prospects. It might additionally assist introduce a participant like Kraemer to extra followers earlier than she will get drafted into the PWHL, similar to a world junior event has performed for high younger gamers like Macklin Celebrini or Connor Bedard.
“The PWHL is supportive of the event of ladies’s hockey in any respect ranges, which incorporates occasions that would offer better alternatives for participant growth and that proceed to develop the sport globally,” the league’s senior vice-president of hockey operations, Jayna Hefford, advised CBC Sports activities.
