Cornerstones: Six hockey players to build a women's franchise around

Women's hockey is starting fresh as the new professional women's hockey league aims to drop the puck in January of 2023.

Six new franchises will be launched in markets across North America, and with that, six new rosters will be formed top to bottom. 

While the impact of legendary players like Marie-Philip Poulin, Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Brianne Jenner, Natalie Spooner and Amanda Kessel from the PWHPA, and veterans like Madison Packer, Jillian Dempsey, and Ann-Sophie Bettez from the PHF is indisputable, these players will likely be retired by the time the new collective bargaining agreement expires in 2031.

With that in mind, who should the new teams be building around? What incoming players to the new league will be the cornerstones and stars of the future? 

In order to narrow the pool, we looked at only players who would be 35 or under at the conclusion of the eight-year CBA (born in 1996 or later), and would be professionals this season.

Here's a look at six players you could build a franchise around who will be joining the new professional women's hockey league this season.

There's few players on the planet better than Taylor Heise. She's the present and future offensive leader of Team USA. A winner of the Patty Kazmaier Award as the NCAA's top player, World Championship MVP, U-18 World Championship MVP, leading scorer of international tournaments, Heise has done it all. Alongside a handful of other players, her generation will know only one league as professionals, positioning the 23-year-old as a superstar for a new generation to follow.

When Müller signed with the PHF's Boston Pride, The Hockey News deemed is a game changing signing to the landscape of professional women's hockey. Players like Müller signing undoubtedly pushed forward the conversation of an acquisition farther and faster as it's difficult to find a generational talent like Müller, who could end up being the best player in this league, and on the planet. A five-time Patty Kazmaier nominee, Best Forward at the Olympics, Best Forward at the U-18s (three-times) and three-time Swiss Ice Hockey Woman of the Year, Müller will be one of the future faces of the game.

Few players bring the net front prowess of Abby Roque. She's a bullish player who never shies from the difficult areas on the ice, and in tight, she can find corners with pinpoint accuracy if she isn't banging home a rebound or tipping a point shot. Roque will be a key contribute offensively, and is the type of players championship teams need in tough games. There's no doubt she'll be a sought after player who stays productive in this league for years.

It would not be surprising to see a captain's "C" on the sweater of Megan Keller this season in the pro women's hockey league. The towering defender was one of college hockey's best players with Boston College, and graduated directly into the PWHPA where she's played ever since. An assistant captain with Team USA, few blueliners are more impactful on both sides of the puck than Keller. Defenders will come and go, but Keller could easily be the cornerstone of a team for the next eight years.

This is a difficult position to predict. Of course gold medal winning Aerin Frankel could be here, but Soderberg is the reigning top goaltender from the World Championships, and is coming out of a spectacular NCAA career. She had signed a two-year deal with the PHF's Connecticut Whale prior to the acquisition of the league, and was named Swedish Player of the Year. If this league is to attract not only North America's best, but the best in the world, the success of players like Soderberg will go a long way, and all signs point to the fact she can be a starting goalie in this league for years to come.

Loren Gabel won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the NCAA's top player while at Clarkson, scoring 40 goals in 38 games as a senior. She then scored six goals in seven games in her first World Championship for Canada. In the PWHPA, Gabel continued to score at more than a point-per-game pace, and last season scored 40 points in 22 games, earning league MVP honors with the PHF's Boston Pride. Quite simply, there are few players who can score like Gabel. She is a pure scorer that is hard to come by. Other players like Emma Maltais, Grace Zumwinkle, or Kirsten O'Neill (one of the most undervalued played in Hockey Canada's system) could steal this spot in a few years, but Gabel walks in as an elite scorer, proven at all levels.

Other cornerstone players: Aerin Frankel, Sophie Jacques, Emma Maltais, Claire Thompson, Ella Shelton, Jaime Bourbonnais, Micah Zandee-Hart, Grace Zumwinkle, Jesse Compher, Kristin O'Neill, Kristen Campbell, Petra Nieminen, Maja Nylén Persson, Hanna Olsson, Gabrielle Hughes, Viivi Vainikka.