As expected, Canadian forward Sarah Fillier was the first player chosen during the second selection session in the history of the Professional Women’s Hockey League on Monday evening. For its part, Montreal turned to a defender with its first selection, but not necessarily the one that some observers had anticipated.
With the fifth pick in the initial round, Montreal opted for Cayla Barnes, an American from California who played her college hockey with Ohio State in the NCAA.
Several analysts had estimated that general manager Danièle Sauvageau would use this first choice to select Claire Thompson in order to bring her together with Erin Ambrose with whom she played with the Canadian national team. However, Thompson was already no longer available since she was chosen third overall by Minnesota.
“After spending so much time analyzing available players, we knew we were going to get a quality player in the first round, but we were pleasantly surprised to see that Cayla was available when it came time to make our selection,” Sauvageau mentioned in a press release.
“She will be able to come and lend a hand to our team next season and help our defensive brigade. »
For her part, Fillier, an attacker from Georgetown, Ontario, was claimed by the New York team 24 hours after her 24e birthday, and after experiencing all kinds of success with Princeton University and with Team Canada.
Described by LPHF scouts as a “generational player,” Fillier completed her four seasons at Princeton with 194 points in 120 games and was a three-time finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Trophy, awarded to the University’s varsity player. ‘year.
Filler also contributed to Canada’s gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Games, where she had eight goals, in addition to being part of three gold medal winning editions at the World Championships.
In second place, Ottawa has set its sights on forward Danielle Serdachny, the one who scored the decisive goal in the gold medal final against the United States at the most recent women’s world hockey championship, there at two months.
Originally from Edmonton, Serdachny, who is 23 years old, spent the last five seasons in the NCAA and completed her university career with 238 points in 180 games.
Forward Hannah Bilka, by Boston, at fourth overall, and Julia Gosling, another forward, by Toronto, were the other players selected in the first round.
Ljungblom signs in Montreal
Earlier Monday, the Montreal team announced that it had signed a three-year agreement with Swedish forward Lina Ljungblom.
Ljungblom has played for MoDo Hockey of the Swedish Women’s Hockey League (SDHL) for the past four seasons, scoring 23 goals, in addition to amassing 23 assists in 32 games in 2023-2024, good for third among scorers in the circuit. At the end of the season, she was named the circuit’s MVP.
The 22-year-old center was selected by Montreal with the very last pick of the 2023 LPHF initial draft, 90e in total.
“She is a dynamic and explosive player, who will give us depth in attack. She was named MVP in Sweden last season and her coming to Montreal will be an asset for our team,” commented the general director of the Montreal team, Danièle Sauvageau, in a press release.