PWHL Montreal selects American defender Cayla Barnes in 1st round of 2024 Draft

As expected, Canadian forward Sarah Fillier was the first player selected in the second Professional Women's Hockey League draft in history on Monday night. For their part, Montreal turned to a defender with their first selection, but not necessarily the one some observers had anticipated.

With the fifth pick of the initial round, Montreal opted for Cayla Barnes, an American from California who played college hockey with Ohio State in the NCAA.

Many analysts felt that general manager Danièle Sauvageau would use this first choice to select Claire Thompson to reunite her with Erin Ambrose, with whom she played with Canada's national team. However, Thompson was already unavailable as she was selected third overall by Minnesota.

"After spending so much time analyzing the available players, we knew we were going to get a quality player in the first round, but we were pleasantly surprised to see that Cayla was available when it came time to make our selection," Sauvageau mentioned in a press release.

She will be able to come and lend a hand to our team next season and help our defensive brigade.

For her part, Fillier, a forward from Georgetown, Ont.. was snapped up by the New York team 24 hours after her 24th birthday, and after having enjoyed all kinds of success with Princeton University and Team Canada.

Described by PWHL scouts as a "generational player," Fillier completed her four seasons at Princeton with 194 points in 120 games, and finished three times among the finalists for the Patty-Kazmaier Trophy, awarded to the college player of the year.

Filler also contributed to Canada's gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Games, where she scored eight goals, and was part of three gold-medal-winning editions of the World Championship.

In second place, Ottawa has set its sights on forward Danielle Serdachny, who scored the decisive goal in the gold-medal final against the USA at the most recent Women's World Hockey Championship two months ago.

A native of Edmonton, 23-year-old Serdachny spent the last five seasons in the NCAA, completing her university career with 238 points in 180 games.

Other first-round picks included Boston forward Hannah Bilka at No. 4 and fellow forward Julia Gosling from Toronto.

Ljungblom signs with Montreal

Earlier on Monday, Montreal announced the signing of Swedish forward Lina Ljungblom to a three-season contract.

Ljungblom has played for MoDo Hockey of the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) for the past four seasons, scoring 23 goals and collecting 23 assists in 32 games in 2023-24, good for third place in the league's scoring charts. At the end of the season, she was named the league's Most Valuable Player.

The 22-year-old centre was selected by Montreal with the very last pick in the initial 2023 FHL draft, 90th overall.

"She's a dynamic, explosive player who will add depth to our attack. She was named Sweden's outstanding player last season, and her arrival in Montreal will be an asset to our team," said Sauvageau in a press release.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 10, 2024.