PWHL<\/a> Expansion process. Phase 3 begins on June 10, and PWHL San Jose, along with the three other expansion franchises, can each sign three more players.<\/p>\nTroy Ryan, on what stood out about these five players\u2026<\/p>\n
One of the biggest things that popped out to me was their desire to be in San Jose. Good quality players, good quality people with good character that are excited about this. \u2026 You\u2019re trying to build a successful team, and [this expansion opportunity] may be for some people, and it may not be for some people. All these people, all these players that we selected, were in for that and excited about this opportunity.<\/p>\n
Ryan, on his philosophy behind picking players, and where the offense will come from\u2026<\/p>\n
I had to get a goalie, get two defenders, and get two forwards, that was generally my thought to provide a good foundation.<\/p>\n
The opportunity to get Schroeder at this point was really, really important to me. That\u2019s a goalie that\u2019s had a very successful career prior to the PWHL, but also in the PWHL, has played a lot of minutes, has been a No. 1 goalie on two teams, and we\u2019re confident that we can surround her with a great team that gives her a career-like year.<\/p>\n
Some of the other players that we selected with expansion is going to provide an opportunity for them to potentially play a more meaningful role. They all played meaningful roles on their previous teams, but with expansion they get an opportunity to play maybe a more meaningful role. You\u2019re trying to predict what that looks like, and you\u2019re trying to take the best talent you can with the new given opportunity. Do you believe their ceiling is high, and I believe this group\u2019s is high.<\/p>\n
The signing of Guilday is really, really important. A strong, solid D that\u2019s still young, that eats up a lot of minutes, still a player with the national team, with Team USA, so has goals \u2013 PWHL goals, but also national team goals. Those are the type of players you want in your program, for sure.<\/p>\n
Ryan, on what he expects from O\u2019Neill, who scored four goals in 30 games last year\u2026<\/p>\n
With expansion, with the experience that she\u2019s had over the last number of years, I think she\u2019s ready for a step. \u2026 KO is someone that has plenty of room to grow because of who she is as an athlete, who she is as a person, who she is as a leader. It\u2019s fun for me as a coach to help along that journey. She continues to grow as a player. And if she grows, great. If she ends up being the exact player that was in New York or the exact player that was in Montreal, we couldn\u2019t be happier with the selection.<\/p>\n
Kristin O\u2019Neill on Ryan\u2019s leadership from her time with Team Canada\u2026<\/p>\n
I think he values me a lot as a player, despite playing fewer minutes than I do on my PWHL team. I\u2019ve always felt so valued, no matter what position I play, no matter what role I play, and I think that\u2019s the type of culture he creates in teams. When someone\u2019s getting three minutes a game and they feel just as valued as the player who\u2019s playing 30 minutes a game, that\u2019s so crucial and that\u2019s so important for any organization, but especially for a new organization. That\u2019s one of my goals for San Jose, to make sure everyone feels welcomed and valued as soon as they get there. With Troy\u2019s leadership and guidance, I\u2019ve always felt that way under him, and I\u2019m really hoping to continue that in San Jose.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill, on what she knows about the Bay Area\u2026<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know too much about San Jose. I played there for a Rivalry Series game, so that\u2019s sort of my extent of hockey in that area. But my sister and brother-in-law live in San Francisco. My partner went to Stanford for two years, so I think I\u2019m familiar with the area a little bit, but really excited to get to know the area more and call it my home.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill, on joining PWHL San Jose with two former teammates in O\u2019Neill and Cherkowski after playing together for the New York Sirens\u2026<\/p>\n
With an expansion team, a lot of players haven\u2019t played together, a lot is new, and a lot can be challenging at the beginning. To have two familiar faces that I\u2019ve already gone through a season with, close teammates of mine. Really looking forward to continuing this journey with both of them in San Jose.<\/p>\n
Maddi Wheeler, on joining O\u2019Neill and Cherkowski in San Jose\u2026<\/p>\n
Somebody like Kristen getting the EFO from Troy, it\u2019s a testament to the type of culture that he wants to build. For me personally, getting to play with her for the past year, I really respect her a ton as a leader and as a player. She\u2019s so professional in everything that she does, and knowing how much Troy values the importance of leadership and culture and the discussions that we had of where we want San Jose to represent. For me personally that was really comforting, to know that that\u2019s the direction that Troy was really looking for the team, so that was definitely a good draw for myself.<\/p>\n
Wheeler, on building on the excitement around women\u2019s sports in the Bay Area and bringing women\u2019s hockey to California\u2026<\/p>\n
There\u2019s not college hockey in the state of California, so that\u2019s a huge part, kind of a gap that we can work to fill and be role models for these girls. Whereas a state like Minnesota, they get to watch people in college and stuff. So it\u2019s going to be great to be leaders in that way, role models, and contribute to the women\u2019s sports movement in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n
Corinne Schroeder, on the quick growth of the PWHL\u2026<\/p>\n
It\u2019s incredible to have been right there from the start, and seeing how quickly it\u2019s grown is quite incredible, because you look at\u00a0 other leagues and the slower progress of their growth and how long they\u2019ve been around. So it\u2019s really exciting that we\u2019re going into season four, and we\u2019re already where we are, and have had such success in all markets, and through the expansion teams as well.<\/p>\n
Schroeder, on her experience building an expansion side with the Seattle Torrent\u2026<\/p>\n
Having that experience of expanding to Seattle, I feel that I have a greater idea of what pitfalls to avoid personally, as well as things to look out for within the team. We need to really establish a good culture and a good welcoming culture immediately, and make sure that we\u2019re all on the same page. Communication is a huge piece of that. So there\u2019s a lot that I\u2019ve learned this past year that will really be important to take forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who is going to become the \u201cface of the franchise\u201d for PWHL San Jose? General manager and head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[143251,143332,93,87421,144131,129019,129497,142835,88,90,89,136265],"class_list":["post-354010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-anne-cherkowski","tag-corrine-schroeder","tag-featured","tag-kristin-oneill","tag-maddi-wheeler","tag-pwhl","tag-pwhl-san-jose","tag-rory-guilday","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-troy-ryan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}