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)
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Overnight strikes by Israel killed at least 55 people across the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Thursday, a day after senior government officials said Israel would seize large areas of Gaza and establish a new security corridor across the Palestinian territory.
Israel has vowed to escalate the nearly 18-month war with Hamas until the militant group returns dozens of remaining hostages, disarms and leaves the territory. Israel has imposed a month-long halt on all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle.
Officials in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the strip, said the bodies of 14 people had been taken to Nasser Hospital – nine of them from the same family. The dead included five children and four women. The bodies of another 19 people, including five children aged between 1 and 7 years and a pregnant woman, were taken to the European hospital near Khan Younis, hospital officials said. In Gaza City, 21 bodies were taken to Ahli hospital, including those of seven children.
The Israeli military ordered the residents of several areas -- Shujaiya, Jadida, Turkomen and eastern Zeytoun -- to evacuate on Thursday, adding that the army “will work with extreme force in your area.” It said people should move to shelters west of Gaza City.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel was establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas, suggesting it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated, from the rest of the Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu referred to the new axis as the Morag corridor, using the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, suggesting it would run between the two southern cities. He said it would be “a second Philadelphi corridor ” referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt further south, which has been under Israeli control since last May.
Israel has reasserted control over the Netzarim corridor, also named for a former settlement, that cuts off the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, from the rest of the narrow coastal strip. Both of the existing corridors run from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean Sea.
“We are cutting up the strip, and we are increasing the pressure step by step, so that they will give us our hostages,” Netanyahu said.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority, led by rivals of Hamas, expressed its “complete rejection” of the planned corridor. Its statement also called for Hamas to give up power in Gaza, where the militant group has faced rare protests recently.
Netanyahu’s announcement came after the defense minister, Israel Katz, said Israel would seize large areas of Gaza and add them to its so-called security zones, apparently referring to an existing buffer zone along Gaza’s entire perimeter. He called on Gaza residents to “expel Hamas and return all the hostages,” saying “this is the only way to end the war.”
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory.
Netanyahu arrived in Hungary early Thursday on his second foreign trip since the world's top war crimes court issued an arrest warrant against him in November over Israel's war in Gaza.
Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the the International Criminal Court has said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas — charges that Israeli officials deny.
ICC member countries, such as Hungary, are required to arrest suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that and relies on states to comply. As Netanyahu arrived in Budapest, Hungary said it will begin the procedure of withdrawing from the ICC.
On Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel plans to maintain overall security control of Gaza after the war and implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle much of its population elsewhere through what the Israeli leader referred to as “voluntary emigration.”
Palestinians have rejected the plan, viewing it as expulsion from their homeland after Israel’s offensive left much of it uninhabitable, and human rights experts say implementing the plan would likely violate international law.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals. Israel rescued eight living hostages and has recovered dozens of bodies.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has left vast areas of Gaza in ruins and at its height displaced around 90% of the population.
Separately, Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in southwestern Syria, Syrian state media reported Thursday.
SANA said the nine were civilians, without giving details. Britain-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they were local gunmen from the Daraa province, frustrated with Israeli military encroachment and attacks in recent months.
Israel has seized parts of southwestern Syria and created a buffer-zone there, which it says is to secure Israel’s safety from armed groups. But critics say the military operation has created tensions in Syria and prevents any long-term stability and reconstruction for the war-torn country.
Israel also struck five cities in Syria late Wednesday, including over a dozen strikes near a strategic airbase in the city of Hama.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Relatives mourn the body of Ashraf Al Aqqad, who was killed in an Israeli army strike, before his burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Relatives of Ayad Jundia who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, grieve over his body at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians grieve over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, as they brought to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians carry the bodies of those who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, as they brought to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians grieve over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, as they brought to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Relatives of Ayad Jundia who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, grieve over his body at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians pray over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians grieve over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, as they brought to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Yamama Jundia, 13, injured in an Israeli airstrike, grieves alongside others over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in the same strike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians grieve over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Inas Al Aqqad mourns the body of her husband Ashraf, who was killed in an Israeli army strike, before his burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Relatives mourn the body of Ashraf Al Aqqad, who was killed in an Israeli army strike, before his burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners pray over the body of a woman killed in an Israeli army strike, before her burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Yamama Jundia, 13, injured in an Israeli airstrike, grieves alongside others over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in the same strike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect a UN building after it was hit by an Israeli strike, in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect a UN building after it was hit by an Israeli strike, in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
