Competing philosophies emphasizing the importance of offense versus toughness led to the Toronto Sceptres and Ottawa Charge completing the PWHL’s most significant trade a month into the league’s second season.
The trade completed Monday night involved three players with a combined five Winter Games appearances and featured a swap of 2023 first-round draft picks.
Physical defenseman Jocelyn Larocque was dealt to Ottawa for play-making blue-liner Savannah Harmon. The teams also traded forwards, with Ottawa landing Victoria Bach, and Toronto acquiring the versatility and grit of Hayley Scamurra.
Harmon, 29, and Scamurra, 30, are current U.S. national team members, who won silver medals at the 2022 Beijing Games. The 36-year-old Larocque is a three-time Olympian and a blueline fixture for Canada for 14 years. The 28-year-old Bach, meantime, was a member of the Canada's world championship gold medal-winning teams in 2021 and '22, before taking the following year off to pursue a teaching degree.
“Mixed emotions, I guess this morning,” Sceptres general manager Gina Kingsbury said during a Zoom call Tuesday of having to part ways with two players she’s familiar with in her other role as Team Canada GM. “But I’m excited for what’s to come, so I have a positive outlook right now.”
In Ottawa, difficult as it was losing two core leaders, Charge GM Mike Hirshfeld was elated adding Larocque’s leadership and physical presence, and Bach's offensive upside in believing she was underused the past two seasons in Toronto.
“For us, it was a really tough trade ... but one we think moves our organization forward as a whole,” Hirshfeld said.
The trade came with both teams having the same records — 2-3 with an overtime loss — and with all four expected to be in the lineup on Tuesday night when Toronto hosts Ottawa.
Previously, the most significant PWHL trade was the league's first one, a three-player swap made on Feb. 11, when Boston acquired Finland national team player Susanna Tapani and Abby Cook, by dealing 2023 women’s college player of the year Sophie Jaques to Minnesota.
Harmon, from Illinois, was the key to the deal for Toronto in providing the Sceptres another play-making defenseman to take the offensive load off of blueliner Renata Fast. Harmon will be initially teamed with Fast, in reuniting a tandem that played together at Clarkson University,
After leading Charge defensemen with 12 points (three goals, nine assists) last season, Harmon’s yet to score a point this year.
Kingsbury said the timing of the trade had nothing to do with the Sceptres' slow start, but the opportunity to land Harmon, the fifth pick in PWHL’s inaugural 2023 draft.
“We’re constantly trying to look at it with a critical eye of how can we perform better, how can we be a more threatening team,” Kingsbury said. “We’ve always liked Savannah’s game. ... She brings something that we're missing bit.”
Her puck-handling skills fit the Sceptres’ high-tempo, attacking approach, and with Toronto still awaiting the return of 2024 season MVP Natalie Spooner, who has resumed skating after tearing a ligament in her left knee in May.
The 30-year-old Scamurra is from Buffalo, New York, and has yet to register point this year after finishing with five goals and 10 points last season.
Larocque, the No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft, was the key player for an Ottawa team that placed an offseason-long emphasis on adding size and strength.
“We wanted to make it harder for opponents to operate in front of our net. And so Jocelyn is the ultimate competitor,” Hirschfeld said. Another benefit is Larocque’s veteran experience helping influence Ottawa’s younger blueliners such as Ashton Bell and Stephanie Markowski.
Being better in one-goal games has been an issue for Ottawa. The Charge have yet to score four or more goals this season and are 1-2-1 in one-goal games. Last year, Ottawa was eliminated from playoff contention on the final day of a season in which the team went 1-6 in games ending past regulation.
As for Bach, Hirschfeld believes she can recapture her scoring touch after combining for three goals and six points in 22 games over the past two seasons. The Charge’s scouting staff includes Brian Durocher, who coached Bach during her time at Boston University, where she set program records with 198 career points and 104 goals over four seasons.
“Brian was very excited about the offensive skillset and talent,” Hirschfeld said. “Maybe she didn’t get the opportunity she wanted (in Toronto), but we’re going to give her that in Ottawa.”
The headline, summary and story have been corrected to reflect only three Olympians involved in the trade, with Bach not a member of Canada’s 2022 Olympic team.
AP Women’s Hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey
Toronto Sceptres' Jocelyne Larocque (3) vies for position with Boston Fleets' Hannah Bilka (19) in front of the net during third-period PWHL hockey game action in Toronto, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
