The inaugural season of the newly formed Professional Women’s Hockey League is wrapping up. The League saw trailblazing moments for women’s hockey, such as shattering attendance records and new rules that gave a refreshing new feel to the sport of hockey as a whole. Now, all eyes are on the future. The 2024 PWHL Draft has been announced to take place in Minnesota in June.
There’s so much to be excited about with this news, so let’s break it down.
How The Draft Will Work
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The ‘”Original Six” teams of the Professional Women’s Hockey League are soon going to get some new talent. There will be seven rounds of the draft, with one pick for each team, totaling 42 picks. The PWHL implemented the Gold Plan to determine who would get the first pick in each round.
The Gold Plan states that after a team is mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, the points they earn from each subsequent game post-elimination will count towards “draft order points,” and the team with the most draft order points is awarded the first overall pick in the draft. This was the PWHL’s response to “tanking” as we see in the NHL, and the Gold Plan incentivizes teams to continue putting in effort post-elimination.
PWHL New York was awarded the first overall pick in the 2024 PWHL Draft, as they finished last in the league and accrued the most draft order points after being eliminated this past week.
The other non-playoff team, which is yet to be determined, will hold the second pick after accruing the second-most draft order points.
The four teams that make it to the PWHL playoffs will hold picks three through six, going in the inverse order of the regular season standings for each team.
The draft will be held in a traditional format rather than a snake draft, meaning that the order of each round will repeat itself.
PWHL History In The ‘State Of Hockey’
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The draft this year is going to be held in Minnesota. During the PWHL’s inaugural draft last year in Toronto, Minnesota held the first overall pick where they selected forward Taylor Heise. Heise was born and raised in the State of Hockey, where she played for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. She was named the women’s college hockey player of the year in 2022.
The first-round pick for PWHL Minnesota had a decent first season with the team, with 13 points in 18 games played. We could have seen much higher numbers had it not been for her missing some games in the middle of her season.
Unfortunately, Heise suffered an upper-body injury back in February during the IIHF Rivalry Series. She injured her shoulder in Game 7 against Canada while playing for Team USA. The PWHL was on a two-week hiatus at the time of the series. Therefore, PWHL players could go and play for their countries. PWHL Minnesota placed Heise on Injury Reserve at the end of February, but she returned to play with the team in early March.
PWHL Minnesota is currently in third place and has yet to clinch a playoff berth.
We have seen the talent that has already come to the surface during just one season of play for the PWHL, but there are still more talented players waiting to make a name for themselves in this upcoming draft.
The Talented Prospect Pool
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While all eyes were on Taylor Heise as the No.1 overall draft pick in the league this past season, the growing league is looking toward the future. And her name is Sarah Fillier. The star forward for Team Canada and captain of the Princeton University women’s hockey team has declared for the 2024 PWHL draft and is projected to be the first overall draft pick.
Fillier scored a career-high 30 goals and 13 assists in 29 games played with Princeton, totaling 43 points. She’s totaled 193 points in 120 career games in the NCAA. She was also named MVP in the 2023 World Championships for Team Canada. Apart from her stats, she handles the puck like no other, and her release can lead to some dangerous goals. That’s a player any PWHL franchise would want on their team.
Lucky for New York, she could very well be theirs.
Danielle Serdachny of Colgate University is giving Fillier a run for her money as the projected top draft pick. She totaled 61 points in 40 games played this past NCAA season and led the NCAA in points with 71 back in 2022-23. The center is good at handling the puck and, more importantly, shooting it. Serdachny is not afraid to play big minutes and bring a swift physicality to the ice that the PWHL will certainly have eyes on.
Hannah Bilka is another prospect who looks like she will have an impact wherever she goes. She is projected as a top-line winger this upcoming draft, and her stats prove it. At Ohio State last season, she recorded 22 goals and 26 assists in 39 games played. In addition to that, she is a smart offensive player who knows how to keep possession of the puck from the blue line and beyond.
These are just a few names that will certainly be called by the PWHL’s Original Six this coming June. No details have emerged about the exact date or location just yet, but we could not be more excited.
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About the Author
River Caraballo (she/they) is a hockey writer for Total Apex Sports. Despite being based in Connecticut, she is a big fan of the New York Rangers and the Minnesota Wild. They host a weekly podcast and radio show, Round the Rink, where they discuss hockey from the NHL to the PWHL and college hockey. You can follow River on Twitter/X to keep up with her sports content.
