DETROIT — Established veterans Hilary Knight and Marie-Philip Poulin helped deliver the Professional Women’s Hockey League a major post-Olympic boost coming out of the Milan Cortina Games in February.
On Wednesday, it was the youngsters’ turn to take the spotlight at the draft. In being selected first overall by the Vancouver Goldeneyes, U.S. national team and Wisconsin defender Caroline Harvey kicked off a parade of 11 Olympians — five of them Americans — taking downtown Detroit’s Fox Theater stage over the first two rounds of the six-round event.
Fellow U.S. Olympians followed with Minnesota forward Abbey Murphy chosen second by Seattle and Penn State forward Tessa Janecke going third to the new Las Vegas franchise. Wisconsin forward Kirsten Simms rounded it out in going eighth overall to Toronto.
Las Vegas landed the third pick from fellow expansion team Detroit in a trade that sent Hilary Knight to the Motor City. Expansion team San Jose selected Harvey’s Badgers teammate Laila Edwards with the fourth pick.
The Vegas team, which still does not have a nickname, had eight total picks in the 72-player draft. The franchise also had the fifth overall pick, selecting forward Lacey Eden of Wisconsin. Other Vegas picks included forward Isabel Wunder of Princeton (second round, 13th overall received from Vancouver in trade for 17th pick); forward Josefin Bouveng out of Minnesota (third round, 29th overall); goalie Saskia Maurer from SC Bern Switzerland (fourth, 41st); defensemen Kendall Butze out of Penn State (fifth, 49th from Vancouver); forward Alexis Petford from Colgate (fifth, 53rd); and forward Sydney Healy from Boston University (sixth, 65th).
