After a great university career in the United States, Gabrielle David was selected by the Montreal team in the inaugural LPHF draft in 2023. She quickly signed a contract before playing 26 of the club’s 27 games, including the playoffs. However, she did not receive any concrete offers during the summer.
The Drummondville native’s case is not unique. As expected, the holding of a second draft last June caused a high turnover of personnel within the six teams of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF). Gabrielle David is nevertheless one of the many Quebecers who find themselves “with their backs against the wall.”
Indeed, if the players born in the province benefited from a happy showcase in the LPHF last season, we can expect a drop in their representation during the next campaign.
Of the 147 athletes who played at least one match in 2024, 16 were born in Quebec. As the summer draws to a close, only five remain with a contract: Marie-Philip Poulin, Ann-Renée Desbiens and Catherine Dubois in Montreal, as well as Jade Downie-Landry and Elizabeth Giguère in New York.
Gabrielle David is not left completely empty-handed, as she has been invited to Montreal’s training camp, where she will try to convince management to grant her a new contract.
At the end of the line, she emphasizes that this “strange situation”, new to her, is destabilizing. For the first time in her life, she finds herself “with her back against the wall”.
There are new players coming from the draft, others from Europe, so having played on the third and fourth lines last year, I was kind of expecting it. But it sure would have been fun to have my spot.
Gabrielle David
However, she firmly believes she is “capable of pushing” to land a position, particularly thanks to her experience acquired last year. Even though she received other invitations during the summer, she prioritized Montreal given the relationship she has already built with the organization and its staff.
“They know my value,” she continues. “If they hesitate between two girls, they might prefer a Quebecer or a girl they know.”
The one who trained all summer at the Centre 21.02 has voluntarily kept Europe off her radar, preferring to focus all her attention on the LPHF. If the 25-year-old forward does not get a spot in Montreal or elsewhere, she will evaluate other options. “I hope I don’t end up there,” she concludes.
The others
It is already a given that Quebec women who played in 2024 will not be back.
On the Montreal side, forward Mélodie Daoust, a former star of the Canadian team, announced her retirement at the beginning of June. Hockey News also revealed that defender Brigitte Laganière had hung up her skates.
In Ottawa, forward Rosalie Demers, who played 13 games after being hired during the season, was not invited to any training camp and will likely leave professional hockey.
All the other Quebec veterans on the circuit will therefore have to prove themselves at the camp of one or the other of the clubs. This in a context where there are already few places to fill.
Defender Catherine Daoust will also be at the camp in Montreal, as will forward Alexandra Labelle, who played in New York last season. Defender Lauriane Rougeau received an invitation to Toronto, where she spent the league’s first campaign. Maude Poulin-Labelle, after a season in Toronto, will be heading to the Boston camp.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Catherine Daoust
Veterans Sarah Lefort and Ann-Sophie Bettez of Montreal did not respond to our calls. Bettez is still nursing a “lower body” injury that abruptly ended her season last winter and required surgery.
Recruits
As for the players who have just finished their university career, it seems that only Emmy Fecteau and Kelly-Ann Nadeau will have the chance to secure a position in the LPHF for the 2024-2025 season.
Fecteau (New York) was the only Quebecer selected in the draft last June. As for Nadeau, she will be at the Montreal camp as an invited player. Rather than turning to Europe like many athletes in her cohort (see other article), she preferred to prioritize the LPHF. If she is cut, she will consider crossing the Atlantic, she wrote to us.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY EMMY FECTEAU
Emmy Fecteau has just completed her university studies with the Concordia Stingers.
It will also be difficult to find a more excited recruit than Audrey-Anne Veillette in Ottawa. The penultimate player selected in the 2023 inaugural draft, the former Université de Montréal Carabins player had to miss the entire last season due to a “lower body” injury. However, she trained as a reserve at the end of the campaign, and this time hopes to join the regular group.
Top scorer in the Canadian university circuit and RSEQ athlete of the year in 2022-2023, she still assures that she has full “confidence in [ses] means “.
“The last season I played was the best of my career,” she said. “I’m confident in what I can bring. I also saw how [la ligue] worked, and I spent a lot of time with the girls [à Ottawa]. I can’t wait to show what I can do. In the stands, I was biting my nails. I just wanted to go and play!”
The wait will have to continue, for her as for the others, since the training camps will not open until November.