The 23-year-old Edmontonian is looking forward to soaking up the sun and playing “best-on-best” before heading to Ottawa.
The 23-year-old Edmontonian is looking forward to soaking up the sun and playing “best-on-best” before heading to Ottawa.
It’s not her first rodeo, but soon, it will be.
Danielle Serdachny will suit up for her third Canada-United States Rivalry Series in November, but she’s yet to play a minute of pro hockey.
Serdachny, the second pick in the 2024 PWHL Draft, has already suited up for Canada at two Rivalry Series and two world championships in her young career.
Last year, she potted two huge goals for Canada in just two games at the Rivalry Series. She belongs on the Canadian national team just as much as anybody at this point.
Two years ago, when she first played for the national team, it was a lot of acclimatizing coming from Colgate University. Now she knows what to expect.
“That was a bit of an adjustment in many ways [in 2022], but I think the more events I attend and the more I'm around the team, the more comfortable I get.”
But it’s not the PWHL. Establishing herself with the Ottawa Charge will be the next hurdle on Serdachny’s path to stardom.
Serdachny has the toolkit of a pro hockey player. She has the size, puck skills, shot and skating that you’d expect from a first-line center. She scored 239 points in 180 games for Colgate and led the Raiders to the Frozen Four.
“I think I'm a player that can play in various situations, so wherever they need me in the lineup, I think I can adjust my game fairly well to that,” Serdachny said.
So what’s preventing her from stepping into the PWHL and dominating right away?
“Definitely the physicality,” she said. “What they're allowing in the league is a great thing, but definitely an adjustment from college too because a lot of times, those body checks would typically be called. That's just a whole new element that the PWHL has to offer.”
That was certainly observable in the PWHL’s inaugural season. Time and space was taken away faster than ever, and goal-scoring became more scarce. It was a goalie’s league, with every goalie (who played 480 minutes) eclipsing a .915 save percentage. Corrine Schroeder posted the league’s “worst” goals-against average with her 2.40 mark.
However, Ottawa goaltending coach Pierre Groulx believes league scoring will see a resurgence in year two.
“We're infusing a lot of talent from the draft and from Europe,” he said.
Ottawa goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer, who was also named to Canada’s Rivalry Series roster, agrees, as long as those goals are on opposing teams.
“Maybe he meant scoring for Ottawa,” Maschmeyer said, laughing. “It's the same players that were playing last year, and then you add on a whole wave of players. So it's really, really, really competitive and a lot of skill, a lot of talent out there.”
Along with first overall pick Sarah Fillier, Serdachny headlines that talent. At the Rivalry Series, they’ll be teammates. Naturally, their performances will be compared, but Serdachny asserted that they’re “different players in many ways.”
“It's kind of hard to put expectations [on] myself,” Serdachny said. “I think just coming out of college, there's a lot of unknowns, and I'm definitely just going to be taking it day by day and doing what I can control.”
No matter what happens, she’ll have four new Ottawa teammates in her corner. Along with Serdachny and Maschmeyer, Brianne Jenner, Emily Clark, Ashton Bell were all named to the Canada roster.
Maschmeyer is already quite familiar with Serdachny, who was her roommate at the 2023 world championships.
“I'm really excited about our new players coming in,” she said. “Obviously, I've spent some time with Danielle [...] she's an awesome addition to the team.”
The teammates are flying to San Jose on Nov. 1 for the first of three games across the western United States. After playing at SAP Center on Nov. 6, the series will move to Utah’s Maverik Center on Nov. 8, followed by a Nov. 10 game at Boise’s Idaho Central Arena.
It’ll be a whirlwind trio of games before Ottawa’s training camp, with just a single day of travel between all the games. With a long and vigorous season ahead, they’re going to enjoy the road trip as much as anything else.
“Being able to see Idaho, San Jose and Utah just as place[s], not where I'm playing hockey, I think will be pretty cool,” Serdachny said. “Definitely really excited.”
Coming from Edmonton, where temperatures are barely above freezing, Maschmeyer can’t wait to soak up some California rays.
“As a Canadian, we can always appreciate the weather.”