Change is coming for the Vancouver Goldeneyes. If GM Cara Gardner Morey had things her way, she'd want to keep as many of her players as possible.
The Vancouver Goldeneyes have had a busy start to the PWHL expansion process.
On Monday, Vancouver announced that they would be parting ways with head coach Brian Idalski after only one season behind the bench.
On Tuesday, Goldeneyes star Sarah Nurse was the first to sign inking a Standard Player Agreement that will keep her in Vancouver through the 2027–28 season.
On Wednesday, Vancouver revealed the three players they protected as part of Phase 1 of expansion: Nurse, Sophie Jaques, and Emerance Maschmeyer.
With more expansion ahead and the PWHL Draft looming in the distance, things are only bound to get busier. That’s why Goldeneyes General Manager Cara Gardner Morey has set her sights on tackling one task at a time.
Goldeneyes Taking Things Phase-By-Phase
“A lot of things happened in the last couple of weeks, so right now I’m actually putting the coaching search to the side while I really focus on the players and creating the roster,” she explained in a media availability on Thursday. “ I think that the big thing is the players we’re talking to and bringing in understand the direction, and the vision and the culture that we’re setting for the Goldeneyes and just really want to be a part of that.”
For this reason, Gardner Morey has opted to put the search for a new head coach to the side, choosing to put her focus on that once the 2026 PWHL Entry Draft has passed. At that point in time, she’ll also talk to assistant coaches B.J. Adams and Myles Fitzgerald about their futures with the organization moving forward.
By the time Vancouver does set its sights on making a new head coaching hire, this team will likely look quite different from how it did at the end of the 2025–26 season. As it stands, only three players are guaranteed to be part of Vancouver’s roster come the start of the 2026–27 season: Nurse, Jaques, and Maschmeyer. Preserving the Goldeneyes’ culture was — and will be — important for Gardner Morey throughout the expansion process, which is something she cited when explaining the reason behind her team’s protections.
“Just like last year, a big focus of mine is leadership and veteran leaders in the locker room and good culture and then talent on the ice. I like that we have a balance of all three positions being covered.”
There are many notable culture players that the Goldeneyes could have protected, but ultimately opted not to. In the curious case of star defender Claire Thompson, who has yet to make a decision on the future of her PWHL career as a whole, the uncertainty behind her career path gave Gardner Morey and Vancouver lots to think about in selecting a defender to protect.
“It was a tough decision on that, but just knowing, probably a longer future with Sophie — and again she’s just got such incredible upside, she’s at the early stages of her career, has a long career ahead of her, so the ceiling there is really high — so tough decision, but went with Sophie in the end.”
Goal Is To Keep Vancouver's Roster Intact
Gardner Morey admitted that, like most teams assumedly, she’d like to keep everyone.
“That’s the goal, is how to keep as many players on the roster as possible,” she chuckled. “We have a lot of top-talent, a lot of great human beings — they came to Vancouver for a reason, they all want to help build something. For me, it’s trying to figure out how to keep as many of them as possible.”
It’s for this reason that keeping players has become a priority for Gardner Morey and the Goldeneyes, rather than seeking out talent from a free-agency signing perspective. The GM noted that, while she’d considered talking to some pending free agents during Phase 1 of expansion, the three protection slots fell into place pretty quickly, not leaving much room for bringing in any outside names.
“My priority was keeping the players that committed to helping us grow and build this franchise.”
Phase 2 of the PWHL expansion process, the Expansion Team Foundational Signing Period, begins on June 5 at 12:00 pm ET/9:00 am PT.