Cara Gardner Morey was so eager to begin building PWHL Vancouver’s expansion roster, the now-former Princeton coach was already formulating a priority list of potential players she’d target before landing the general manager’s job.
“I started thinking about it on the first phone call,” Gardner Morey said Friday during a Zoom session introducing her and fellow PWHL Seattle expansion team GM Meghan Turner.
“Watching all the games, you’re like, ‘Oooh, who would be great in this spot?’” Gardner Morey added. “That’s what’s exciting about this position, right, is building your own team and this fantasy that you could almost choose anybody you want.”
Acknowledging there are constraints built in, including the league’s salary cap, Gardner Morey and Turner begin that process next week.
It starts Wednesday with an exclusive four-day player signing period, when the two yet-to-be-named expansion teams can add up to five players. It will be followed with an expansion draft on June 9, in which Vancouver and Seattle will each have their first 12 players, with the remainder of the rosters filled out in the PWHL draft on June 24 followed by free agency.
Each of the PWHL’s six existing teams are initially allowed to protect three players, and can add a fourth to the list once they lose two in the two-phased expansion process.
In limiting the number of protected players, the PWHL placed on emphasis on ensuring the expansion teams can be competitive from the start of the league’s third season expected to open in November. And it will lead to some notable high-profile players making the move to the Pacific Northwest.
“I’m excited to build a team that can really compete and win a championship in Year 1,” said Turner, who spent the past two season as the Boston Fleet’s assistant general manager.
“I think it’s going to be an immense help,” she added of spending the past two seasons working under Fleet GM Danielle Marmer. “I feel like I have a good sense of what it takes to succeed in this league. … And then organizationally, I have the background of having helped Danielle build an organization from scratch.”
Another bonus, stems from her previous job as a risk assessment consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“I think it really set me up well to be able to take on some of the transition out of consulting and into the sports industry,” she said. “Just be comfortable knowing how to learn on the fly and build a team and build each project as kind of its own little organization.”
Though new to the PWHL, Gardner Morey has followed the league closely over its first two seasons, while noting she’s familiar with numerous players in having coached or faced them during her 14 years at Princeton, including the past eight as head coach.
Two former Tigers are New York forward Sarah Fillier, the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft, and Minnesota defenseman Claire Thompson, who enjoyed successful rookie seasons this year.
Both expansion GMs have hit the ground running since being hired last week. Aside from building their rosters, both are in the process of a coaching search as well as building out their respective team’s support staff.
The two have previous playing experience at both college and previous women’s pro ranks, with the 46-year-old Gardner Morey being a former teammate of PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford in the first iteration of the National Women’s Hockey League.
Both placed an emphasis on establishing strong leadership cultures, and building teams featuring both speed and strength in a league that has introduced checking to women’s hockey.
Gardner Morey also looked forward to build on the natural geographic rivalry between two expansion teams separated by a two-plus hour drive, and joined the league a week apart in April.
“Maybe there’ll be some, I don’t know, trash-talking here and there to make sure we get this rivalry going,” said Gardner Morey, who is married to former NFL Steelers receiver Sean Morey, a member of the 2005 Pittsburgh team which defeated Seattle in the Super Bowl. “The more you stir up, the better it is for everybody.”
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AP Women’s Hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey
