Led by NY Sirens' Sarah Fillier, rookies already making an impact 2 weeks into PWHL's 2nd season

Sceptres defenseman Renata Fast recalled attending the PWHL draft in June and being impressed by how much young talent Toronto was adding to its roster before quickly coming to another more worrisome realization.

The league’s other five teams got better, too.

Fast shared her recollection when assessing the impact the PWHL’s highly touted rookie class has already made two weeks into the league's second season.

“The level of play is elevated. Credit a lot of that to the rookie class that’s coming in. They’ve been amazing," Fast said. "It’s making the league that much deeper.”

With play resuming Tuesday following a nine-day international break, New York Sirens rookie and No. 1 draft pick Sarah Fillier leads the league with six points (two goals, four assists). Minnesota Frost rookie Dominique Petrie’s three goals are tied for the lead.

Though the sample size is small, with each team playing three games, the expectations were large for a group of so-called rookies, who brought with them years of international experience as well as a small wave of Europeans making the jump from the Swedish women’s pro league.

Overall, 29 of the 42 players drafted have made their teams’ 23-player rosters, representing a 21% turnover from the PWHL’s inaugural season. The high rate of change reflects how talented the rookie class is — the first 10 players selected had national team experience — and how the PWHL is already considering expansion by as many as two teams by next year to account for growing global talent pool.

With expansion looming, Sceptres coach Troy Ryan expects this season to be one of the PWHL’s most competitive because of the concentration of talent spread among just six teams.

“I thought the league was great last year. I thought it was a good caliber of hockey,” said Ryan, who also is Canada’s national team coach. “But I don’t think anybody could question that the league, though this past draft, has taken a substantial leap forward in the talent and depth of the talent that we’re able to put on the ice.”

Ken Klee, coach of the defending champion Frost, put it this way by noting Minnesota essentially traded its bottom two forwards and sixth defenseman from last season in drafting top-six forwards in Petrie and Britta Curl-Salemme, and blue-liner Claire Thompson.

What helps, too, Klee said, is rookies joining teams with established cultures and cores, unlike last season when everything from the travel schedule, checking and playing games in NHL-sized arenas was relatively new to everyone

“There were a lot of unknowns last year for every single player, it didn’t matter if was Kendall Coyne (Schofield) or Taylor Heise or anyone else,” Klee said. “I think having the chemistry of last year for every team allows a rookie to come in this year and say, ‘Okay, how do I fit in?’”

Petrie, a fifth-round pick, credited her teammates and coaches in helping her make the jump. From California, she spent three seasons at Harvard before missing a year after breaking her leg and tearing a knee ligament, and closed her college career at Clarkson.

Not a surprise is Fillier’s easy transition following five celebrated seasons at Princeton and a gold-medal win representing Canada at the 2022 Olympics. It helps, too, playing alongside U.S. national team veteran Alex Carpenter, who finished tied for second in the PWHL last season with 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists).

“Those are two great players,” Boston Fleet forward Hilary Knight said. “The fact that they’re finding success together is great for them, not so great for the rest of us.”

The 24-year-old Fillier expected this from herself and her fellow rookies.

“Our draft class was super deep. I mean, teams were picking up really quality players even in the last rounds of the draft who are making an impact right away on their teams,” Fillier said.

The added talent left Klee anticipating an uptick in scoring after teams averaged 2.4 goals per outing last year. Boston goalie Aerin Frankel said her job has been tougher three games into this season, though she’s held her own so far in ranking third with a 2.02 goals-against average and second with a .937 save percentage.

“There’s just no nights off. ... Every team is pretty stacked with goal-scoring ability,” Frankel said. “For me, it’s been fun. It adds a challenge to the game playing against some of these young players with so much skill.”

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AP freelance writer Madison Hricik contributed.