A Tale of Two Expansion Teams Part III: The Blueline
The "A Tale of Two Expansion Teams" series continues with part three, this time focusing on how each team built their blueline. See what blueline building philosophies each front office has and showed by how they built their blueline.
Tired of goalie and coach talk that features a lot of minutiae? Don’t worry, I am too. That's why I’m excited to dive into the bluelines of Vancouver and Seattle. Deciphering the differences between the six combined goalies of Vancouver and Seattle is not easy even for the brightest of hockey writers, let alone fans who aren’t paid to understand the finer details of each position. This part is going to be easier to understand, though, because Meghan Turner and Cara Gardner Morey made it quite easy to differentiate between the two front offices' theories on how to build a successful PWHL blueline.
PWHL Seattle's Roster
| Name | Pos. | Born | Birthplace | Height | Shoots | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly Jackson | G | 1997 | Amherst, NS, CAN | 5'5" | L | 25/26 |
| Hannah Murphy | G | 2003 | Kingston, ON, CAN | 5'10" | L | 26/27 |
| Corinne Schroeder | G | 1999 | Elm Creek, MB, CAN | 5'11" | L | 26/27 |
| Cayla Barnes | D | 1999 | Corona, CA, USA | 5'2" | R | 27/28 |
| Emily Brown | D | 1998 | Blaine, MN, USA | 5'7" | L | 25/26 |
| Megan Carter | D | 2001 | Milton, ON, CAN | 5'8" | L | 25/26 |
| Mariah Keopple | D | 2000 | Menomonie, WI, USA | 5'9" | L | 25/26 |
| Aneta Tejralová | D | 1996 | Praha, CZE | 5'5" | L | 25/26 |
| Anna Wilgren | D | 1999 | Hudson, WI, USA | 5'8" | L | 24/25 |
Courtesy of EliteProspects
Maybe the funniest and most unintentional difference between the two teams is that Seattle only has one right-handed blueliner under contract (Cayla Barnes), and right-handed Lyndie Lobdell is a Seattle draft pick with no contract currently. Vancouver has Sophie Jaques, Ashton Bell, and Sydney Bard as their right-handed blueliners under contract, with the unsigned draft pick Nina Jobst-Smith, as well as camp invite Karley Garcia. For the people who believe handedness matters, then, yes, this is a notable difference. But for those who don’t believe it matters a whole lot, it’s a curious difference, nothing more.
As I mentioned in passing in my previous article about expansion goalies, if you save money on some parts of the roster, it will allow you to spend more elsewhere. Seattle went with a more traditional goalie depth chart, so they’d only need to give a bigger contract to one goalie, while Vancouver is paying two goalies a decent chunk of change. We don’t know the actual numbers. However, it’s not difficult to imagine through how the goalies were added to each team's roster and their PWHL experience what their general salary ranges might be.
Unintentionally, this is looking like we’re building up to the forward section for Seattle because, just like their goaltending, they haven’t gone with a very big name type of defence. It’s not as though Cayla Barnes or Anna Wilgren or Aneta Tejralová are unknowns. It’s clear, though, that Seattle went into the expansion process with the same idea that they built their goaltending depth chart: we’re going to put players in roles and positions that they’re supposed to be in. For example, Seattle wasn’t going to go out and get three or four first-pair level blueliners. That’s expensive.
In order to save money to spend on other parts of the roster, Seattle budgeted for each defensive position. With Barnes and Wilgren, you get a top pair that’s played together. Barnes is obviously going to take higher than average salary because she puts up points, and she showed in Montréal that she can play a near top pair role. Wilgren isn’t a flashy player, she’s not going to be going out of her way to create offence, and she’s going to be the shield to Barnes' sword. Barnes is able to do her thing pushing the play because Wilgren has the defensive part of the game covered. This gives Seattle a top pair that’s potentially not going to ask as much money as other top pairings in the PWHL, especially Vancouver.
