#auroraliiga

[grantmentis]

Women's Hockey Roundup: October

Woof, I fell off of these for a while. Blame baseball and college! Anyway, I'm going to just do what happened in women's hockey in October (and maybe the last few days of September) for all leagues. This is only confirmed news and games, so rumors are not included

If you're new, i recap the top stories from around club play women's hockey (so not collegiate) and try to give more detail on european women's hockey, since that's less reported on in north america :-) Feel free to add if i miss anything!

PWHL (USA/Canada)

The PWHL schedule has been released! We have a few TBD's in venues, most likely for playing select games in bigger venues or neutral sites. we do not currently have streaming/television info, so stay tuned for that. There will be a preseason, but not open to the public.

Training Camp Begins November 12, with preseason/mini camps The 19-22. New York's training camp roster is here. Boston's is here. Minnesota's is here. Montreal is here. Ottawa's is here. Toronto's is here.

Nov. 27: Deadline to finalize rosters of 23 players and 3 reserves

Abigail Boreen signed a three year deal with the Montréal Victoire. She played with the Minnesota Frost last year, including in the playoffs, as a reserve player.

Ronja Savolainen signed a three year deal with the Ottawa Charge. She played with Luleä most recently and is a star of the Finnish national team.

Sarah Lefort, most recently with Montréal Victoire, has announced her retirement

The PWHL has begun the process of expansion for 2025-2026, targeting two new cities

SDHL (Sweden)

Fanni Garát-Gasparics signs with Brynäs IF, though is still rehabbing the injury she sustained last year with the Ottawa Charge

Dutch national team legend Savine Wielenga signs with Leksands IF

Rookie Reece Hunt of Luleä is out for the season with a torn knee ligament

Frölunda general manager Kim Martin Hassons is extended to 2028, and head coach Erika Holst is extended to 2026. Frölunda has been massively successful thus far this year, currently in second place in the standings and coming off a big win against firs place Lulëa

While Luleä and Frölunda are at the top of the table, MoDo is making noise in third place, having won six of their last eight.

A couple key story lines: -> Finish National Team forward, Elisa Holopainen (Frölunda) is lighting the league on fire in her first year in the SDHL. She has 9 goals and ten assists in 13 games -> We have a few wonderful comeback stories this year. Hanna Olsson (Frölunda) is back to her old self after missing most of last year with injury, with 16 points in 13 games, good for fourth in the league. Erica Reider, (Luleä) who did not play for two seasons, looks like she never left, currently leading all defenders i the league in points. And Kassidy Sauvé (SDE), who missed almost two full season's with a hip injury, currently leads all goaltenders in save percentage. -> MoDo Hockey is being powered almost entirely by a youth movement: top producers Ebba Hedqvist, Adéla Šapovalivová, Mira Hallin, and Lovisa Engström are all 18 or younger and playing prominent roles on the 3rd place team

Auroraliiga (Finland)

Canadian Emma Hall joins KalPa after playing in the NDHL (Sweden's second division) last year

Kärpät will retire the number 20 in honor of long time legend Saija Tarkki. After 21 seasons with Kärpät as well as the Finnish national team, Tarkki retired in 2019. She will be honored Novembe 23rd.

A Couple key storylines: -> 18 year old Czech forward Barbora Juříčková i having a breakout year with HPK, already surpassing her point total from last season with 22. She joins Emma Ekoluoma (Ilves), who was a star on the U18 Finnish team last year, as one of the young players to keep an eye on in this league -> Kiekko-Espoo sits at the top of the table, with Ilves right behind. Last year's champions HIFK are feeling the loss of several star players and sit in fourth place. -> Sister's Jennika , Joanna and Jatta Ojala all played for the same team together for the first time at the top level for Team Kuortane

SWHL A / Postfinance Women League (Switzerland)

Not technically league play, but since they play in this league too ill put it here: EV Zug won the EWHL Euro Cup, which is played at the beginning of the season including select club teams across europe! They bear the German league's Memmingen to do so. Noemi Neubauerova, who is set to play with the Toronto Sceptres when the PWHL game begins, scored the game winning goal

Sponsor PostFinance announces that in 2025/2026, they will only financially support men's club teams that have a women's counterpart

Nadine Hofstetter of EV Zug is out three weeks with a broken finger. She is one of the team's veteran defenders who also plays for the Swiss national team. Vanessa Ryhner, Nina Harju, and Julia Näf are also out with injury for EV Zug, though Rhyner should be back any day now.

ZSC Lions Fraun is hit with injuries: Slovakian forward Tereza Lahova is out for the year with injury, and Aurela Thalmann and Alena Polenská (aka Alena Mills) are also injured. They are calling up Univ. of Saskatchewan alumni Sophie Lalor

A few storylines: -> Elizabeth Lang (HC Davos Ladies) is leading the league in points in her rookie year and scoring at a goal per game pace. She graduated from University of Calgary last year -> Lara Stalder (EVZ Women's team) continues to do Lara Stalder things and is tied with Lang in goals, but newcomers Michaela Pejzlová (HC Ambrì-Piotta Girls) and Clara Rozier (SC Bern Fraun) who were stars in last year's finnish league are close behind. The top scorer race for this league will be exciting, and that's not to mention old friends like Rahel Enzler and Estelle Duvin, among others. -> HC Davos Ladies is currently at the top of the standings, but EV Zug and SC Bern Frauen are very close behing them -> 18 year old Ivana Wey (EVZ Women's Team) has been off to a blistering hot start, a lot of hype surrounding her after a strong performance at both u18 and senior worlds. Another interesting young player is Lucie Tenenbaum, an American set to play at Minnesota State next year but is spending this year in Switzerland. The 18 year old has 5 goals and two assists with HC Davos Ladies so far

EWHL (Central/East Europe)

EV Bozen Eagles are currently dominating the league, with the help of players such as import Kristin Della Rovere, who has 16 points in 9 games. The Bozen eagles are part of a larger plan to help get italy's women's national team ready for the 2026 olympics

HK PSRZ Bratislava are undefeated thus far this season, after winning last year's title.

Canadian USport alumni are thriving in this league; Cassidy Maplethorpe, Hannah Tait, and Lauren Nicholson among top goal scorers

Slovak Ema Tothova continues to be the young player to watch, after her breakout seeason last year the 17 year old forward has 10 goals in five games. She is also competing in a boy's league in Slovakia while playing in the EWHL

OTHERS

watch this space for Czech forward Adéla Mynaříková to mak the u18 team this year. She's 15 and just steamrolling people in the Czech top league, with 15 goals and 5 assists in 8 games playing against a lot of grown adults

Norweigan forward Une Bjelland Strandborg, who was arguably one of the best NCAA DIII players of all time and graduated last year, is killing it in Germany's league with newly added Austrian team HK Budapest. She has 7 points in 6 games

[pwhlottawa]

watching the second period of an auroraliiga game. no commentary, just ambient hockey noises. a goal one right after the other from each team. i missed women's hockey so much

[grantmentis]

Undrafted / unsigned players as of right now

With the SDHL / AuroraLiiga / Postfinance Women’s League / EWHL / other leagues either underway or soon to be underway, a lot of rosters are close to solidified with only a few spots left.

A lot of PWHL teams have made clear that they plan to not sign any / very few remaining free agents or draft picks until after training camp where they plan to have everyone remaining compete for spots. Obviously signed players and drafted players will be there, but who else? This is meant to give some light to that

This list does not include NCAA / USports players who went undrafted, mostly just due to lack of time. But feel free to add anyone notable!

Current list of rumored undrafted training camp invites.

Please note that this is not from PWHL teams officially and may not include all players invited / some may still be responding to offers

Boston Fleet -Jillian Dempsey, Klara Peslarova, Cami Kronish, Maude Poulin Labelle, Kelly-Ann Nadeau

Minnesota Frost - Claire Butorac, Brook Bryant, Lauren Bench, Charlotte Akervik

Montreal Victoire- Clair DeGeorge, Sandra Abstreiter, Gabrielle David, Alexandra Labelle, 

New York Sound - Chayla Edwards, Madison Bizal, Taylor Baker, Savannah Norcross

Ottawa Charge - Taylor House

Toronto Sceptres - Rylind MacKinnon, Jessica Kondas, Lauriane Rougeau

Players on PWHL teams last year currently not affiliated with any teams / camp invites

Players with * is who I feel have the best spot at camp invites

Lindsey post

Brooke Hobson

Carley Olivier

Jade downie-landry *

Élizabeth Giguere *

Paetyn Levis *

Jill saulnier *

Alexa Gruschow

Madison packer *

Kayla Vespa

Mellissa channell *

Nikki nightengale

Abby cook

Kelly babstock

Kaleigh Fratkin *

Gigi Marvin *

Amanda pelkey *

Samantha isbell

Brooke Bryant

Sydney Brodt *

Brigitte Laganière

Ann-Sophie Bettez *

Sarah bujold *

Leah lum

Sarah Lefort. *

Brooke Stacey

Alex poznikoff

Marlène Boissonnault

Rachel mcquigge *

Samantha ridgewell *

Emma buckles

Victoria Howran

Taylor Davison

Lauren MacInnis

Samantha Davis

Rosalie Demers

Audrey-Ann Veillette *

Sam Cogan

Kaitlin willoughby

Jess jones

Fanni Garát-Gasparics *

Notable players who played in other leagues last year who are currently not affiliated with any team

Please note, I’m not saying all of these players will be PWHL invites, but as all leagues look to fill remaining spots these are names that may be on their call list. I put an * on players I think could have a shot at a camp invite for the PWHL based on a few factors including if they declared for the draft

Nicola Eisenschmid *

Laura kluge *

Shae Demale *

Tatum Amy

Emma Murén

Sarah-Ève Coutu-Godbout

Ally Johnson

Iveta Klimášová

Emily pinto

Autumn Macdougall

Sally Hoerr

Anna Purschke

Sara Krauseneck

Eleri McKay *

tanner Gates *

Yoshino Enomoto

Christine Deaudelin

Aoi Shiga

Lilla Carpenter-Boesch

Anna Kilponen

Anniina Kaitala

Ella Välikangas

[pwhlottawa]

watching auroraliiga again. hpk is really good