Abby Boreen wasn't named to Team USA's original Rivalry Series roster. She also wasn't named when the team needed four more forwards. There has to be a reason, but it can't be a good one. The Hockey News' Pat Laprade looks at the possibilities.
Abby Boreen wasn't named to Team USA's original Rivalry Series roster. She also wasn't named when the team needed four more forwards. There has to be a reason, but it can't be a good one. The Hockey News' Pat Laprade looks at the possibilities.
The U.S. women’s hockey team has been plagued with injuries since they announced their roster for the final leg of the Rivalry Series. Four forwards have been replaced, and shockingly, the fifth-best American scorer in the PWHL, Abby Boreen, has still not been picked.
Not having Boreen on the team was hard to understand when the original roster was released late January. It’s even more incomprehensible this time around, with not one, but four players having to sit out from the Rivalry Series.
The four injured players are Alex Carpenter, Grace Zumwinkle, Hayley Scamurra, and Gabby Rosenthal. From that group, only the presence of Rosenthal instead of Boreen was somehow questionable when the roster was first released.
To replace them, Team USA has selected Izzy Daniel, Mannon McMahon, Maureen Murphy, and Clair DeGeorge. And that’s when this becomes inexplicable.
Daniel is playing for Toronto and is a rookie coming from Cornell University. She has a lot of skills and should be a very good player in the league, but it’s still her first year and so far, she has four points in 15 games. She was actually drafted in the third round by the Sceptres, one spot after Abby Boreen.
McMahon was a fifth-round draft pick by the Ottawa Charge. She captained the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs last season and while she’s playing more than at the start of the season, McMahon is on Ottawa’s third line. She has three points, including a two-goal game against Toronto on January 14. She hasn’t added a point since.
Both Daniel and McMahon have not played with Team USA, at any level, in the past.
Murphy and DeGeorge before Boreen
Now, what adds insult to injury here, is that instead of Boreen, Team USA selected two of her Montreal Victoire teammates in Maureen Murphy and Clair DeGeorge; two players not having the season Boreen is having.
Maureen Murphy was Montreal’s third-round pick in 2023 and signed to a three-year deal. She had a good first season with 16 points in 24 games. But she hasn’t produced at the same pace this season, far from it, with only two points in 12 games. Mainly used on the second or third line, Murphy was also used twice as the 13th forward and was just demoted to the fourth line in Montreal’s last game on Sunday.
Clair DeGeorge was a healthy scratch on Sunday and is pointless in 13 games this season. A sixth-round draft pick in 2023 by Minnesota, DeGeorge was invited to Montreal’s camp this season, a team crying to add size to its team. She had one assist in 23 games last season, including the playoffs, and only plays an average of eight minutes per game with Montreal.
Both played together with Team USA at the U-18 level, and both played previously at the Rivalry Series.
On the first line with Montreal
Abby Boreen is playing on the first line on the hottest team in the league right now, alongside Marie-Philip Poulin and Jennifer Gardiner. Boreen has five goals and five assists in 14 games. Her totals are better than any American not named Kendall Coyne Schofield, Taylor Heise, Alex Carpenter, or Hilary Knight. She's become one of Montreal’s favourite players among fans and management.
“She's had a major impact on our group,” said Montreal’s head coach Kori Cheverie earlier this season. “On the ice and also in the dressing room, and that was something that was important for us with any player that we drafted. They have to have an impact on the ice but, more importantly, their character in the room comes first and we believe that the group we have here is a truly special group–– and she continues to add to that every day.”
So how can you explain that she was overlooked, especially for the likes of Daniel, McMahon, Murphy, and DeGeorge? If only one spot was open and you don’t call Boreen, okay, it can happen. But if there are four open spots and you don’t invite her, something is wrong.
It’s also important to say that her studies have nothing to do with that. She hasn’t refused to go; she was simply not invited.
“If an opportunity arises on the road, I would love that. I would have gone if it was offered to me, but there’s really not been a whole lot of discussions between me and USA Hockey,” she said on January 27.
Why is Abby Boreen not with Team USA?
This is a legitimate question.
Since she was willing to go, why is Abby Boreen not on Team USA? Let’s try to figure this out by elimination.
Her not being part of a Team USA at any other level can’t be a factor now that Izzy Daniel and Mannon McMahon have made the team.
Head coach John Wroblewski has never coached Boreen before. Wroblewski has only been with Team USA since 2022, and is not involved with the PWHL. Same goes with general maanger Katie Million, who’s not involved with any PWHL team and who has been GM since 2022. And that also goes for Team USA head scout Haley Skarupa, who only started with USA Hockey a little over a year ago. It would be surprising that the three of them would have a reason to overlook her or be so adamant not to choose Boreen.
And finally, there are the players themselves.
Five players on Team USA, including Zumwinkle, are former teammates of Boreen with Minnesota. Among them, Frost’s captain, Kendall Coyne-Schofield, who, as we know, has a lot of influence on the teams she plays with.
Could politics be in Boreen’s way? Could it be a situation like when Isiah Thomas didn’t make the Dream Team because some players, such as Michael Jordan, didn’t want him there? Did something happen last season between Boreen and some of the Minnesota players?
It’s the same team who had three chances to pick Boreen at the 2024 draft and didn’t do it. Instead, Minnesota chose Klara Hymlarova. She's a player who was ranked lower than Boreen, and who playing on the Frost's fourth line has only one point in 15 games this season.
That said, these are just facts and question marks. No one knows the reason behind that call. But there has to be one. Because if it’s not an unwillingness to go, or the management or players not wanting her, Abby Boreen, based only on her season so far, should have made the team.
She should have made the team when the original roster was released, let alone when the team needed four more forwards. Hopefully, Team USA realizes that before the World Championships.