The Montréal Victoire had one of the two most successful regular seasons of the inaugural six during the inaugural season. Their attendance was transcendent from start to finish with the team relocating all their home games to the 10,000 seat Place Bell for the 2024-25 season, with even the casual observer anticipating all those games to be sold out. On ice, Montréal was arguably the most consistent team over the course of the season (Toronto was exceptional, but streaky), and one of only two teams to finish the season above .500. Additionally, they were one of only two teams (Toronto again) to finish with positive goal differential (+3). Despite being one of the two best teams in the league for the entire season, the Victoire were unable to win a game in the postseason and bowed out the playoffs following three consecutive one-goal, low scoring defeats against the Boston Fleet. Kori Cheverie received some criticism for not deploying her fourth line or third defensive pairing during the series, especially considering that the second game went deep into a third overtime, and as valid as these criticisms are, the reality is that Boston’s biggest star (Aerin Frankel) simply nullified the best player in the world (Marie-Philip Poulin) and let Boston’s plucky grinding determine the outcomes of all three games. Unperturbed by the end of the inaugural season, Danielle Sauvageau did what good general managers do and leveraged the draft to add more firepower to prevent opponents from forcing the Victoire to play any game besides their own.

               In the first round, at fifth overall, the Victoire selected Ohio State Superstar defender Cayla Barnes. In her draft eligible season, Barnes produced 36 points in 39 games for the Buckeyes, with 11 of those being goals. Despite being selected two spots after Canadian National Team standout Claire Thompson, looking into the traditional hockey scouting valuations that led Artyom Levshunov to be selected 2^nd overall in the NHL draft this year, a dynamic scoring right-handed defender to play behind reigning PWHL Defender of the Year Erin Ambrose is an unbelievable value upgrade for the Victoire. In the second round, the team potentially found a full-time replacement for the recently retired Mélodie Daoust in fellow Buckeyes’ standout Jennifer Gardiner. During her draft eligible season, Gardiner posted 45 points in 39 games for Ohio State, but perhaps more impressively, did so while only taking one minor penalty over the course of the entire season. In the third round, Montréal selected Minnesota Frost and Minnesota Golden Gophers star Abby Boreen. At the time of writing, Boreen has not signed with the Victoire, but when she inevitably joins the team, she’s going to be a game changer. A point per game of better player in the NCAA the past two seasons, Boreen’s scoring ability was evident, but her 4 goals (5 points) in 9 PWHL games last season gives her an edge as someone who is already in the 80^th percentile of PWHL goal scorers.

               In the late rounds, the Victoire took a couple of calculated risks, that were great value additions. Dara Greig scored 42 points in 40 games on an offensive juggernaut in Colgate last season, her third year as a superstar producer in the NCAA. She will likely start off in a bottom six role for Montréal, but if you followed her NCAA career origins at Wisconsin, it isn’t a role she’s unused to. In the fifth round, the Victoire selected defender Anna Wilgren. Wilgren was never able to become a superstar producer from the blueline at the NCAA level, but she has all the tools to become a steady puck moving two-way defender at the next level. Montréal likely made this pick to continue modernizing their roster (Along with not retaining Catherine Daoust) in the way that NHL teams have in replacing true stay-at-home defenders with better puck handlers who are slightly less physical on the backend (Check out our podcast to hear me rant about this more in depth). In this same train of thought, the Victoire selected Swedish National Team Captain and Luleå HF defender Anna Kjellbin. At this phase of her career Kjellbin will be looked to for her experience at the professional level and her right-handed shot to give Montréal unfathomable depth with Ambrose/Barnes/Kjellbin down that side of the blueline. Montréal’s last selection of the draft was spent on former team USA standout Amanda Kessel. In what is in the worst interest of the Victoire, but likely in the best interest of Women in executive roles in the top hockey leagues in the world, Kessel will be working as the assistant general manager of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League.

               Overall, the Montréal Victoire has one of the best offseasons of the inaugural six. The team did not have any glaring holes to address and rightfully just added high end middle-six and bottom-four players to make it excruciatingly difficult to matchup against their roster. If Boreen or Gardiner can slot in on the top line with Poulin and Stacey, and the other with Murphy/Grant-Mentis, this team’s entire top nine will be a tough matchup for anyone. Additionally, teams were able to prevent Grant-Mentis from using her speed in transition last year when Ambrose wasn’t on the ice to connect difficult precision passes against rugged forecheckers along the right-side wall. With the advent of Cayla Barnes’ skill, creativity, and vision, I suspect that Montréal’s second line is going to force opposing coaches into some unwise decisions.