For PWHL San Jose, There Is No Question More Pressing Than Where Will Their Goals Come From?

The question surrounding PWHL San Jose's forwards isn't complicated: Who is going to score?

That might be the biggest question facing Troy Ryan's roster heading into its first season. San Jose has speed, versatility and plenty of international experience, but it doesn't have the established offensive star that some of the other expansion teams were able to add. There isn't an obvious 20-goal scorer sitting at the top of the lineup.

That doesn't mean the forward group is without options. In fact, there are plenty of reasons to think it could be better than it looks on paper.

There are just as many reasons to wonder how quickly that happens.

Ryan knows what he's getting from Kristin O'Neill and Maggie Connors.

O'Neill was San Jose's Expansion Foundational Offer player, giving the team a center with three seasons of PWHL experience who can be trusted in a variety of situations. She also spent part of last season with Canada's Olympic team and won a silver medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Connors followed Ryan from Toronto to San Jose on a two-year contract after playing all three of her PWHL seasons under him.

Neither has put up big offensive numbers at this level. O'Neill had five points in 30 games with the New York Sirens last season, while Connors finished with the same total in Toronto. But Ryan isn't bringing them in because he expects either player to suddenly become a top-line scorer.

He's bringing them in because he knows what they can do, and because they give him a foundation to build around, while looking towards the future with his younger forwards.

Anne Cherkowski and Maddi Wheeler both spent last season with the Sirens, and neither had a breakout year. Cherkowski has the speed to create chances when she gets space, while Wheeler is still early enough in her professional career that there's room for her game to develop.

Natálie Mlýnková may have the clearest opportunity of the group.

She joined San Jose after winning the Walter Cup with Montreal and finished her rookie season with 10 points. She has also represented Czechia at two Olympics and was named Hockey East Player of the Year in 2024.

Montreal had a deep forward group. San Jose doesn't, at least not yet. That should give Mlýnková more opportunity to play and potentially take on a bigger offensive role.

If she makes that jump, it changes the outlook considerably.

Laila Edwards could also become part of that equation, even if her position remains somewhat fluid. San Jose selected her fourth overall in June after she won Olympic gold with the United States. Ryan has already talked about the possibility of using her at forward and on the back end of the power play.

There's a lot of upside there.

The problem is that much of that upside is still hypothetical.

O'Neill and Connors have experience, but neither has been a major offensive producer in the PWHL. Mlýnková showed promise in her first season, but 10 points isn't enough to assume she'll suddenly become one of the league's top scorers. Cherkowski and Wheeler are still trying to establish themselves.

And while Edwards could become a major offensive piece, San Jose can't reasonably expect their rookie to carry an expansion team's scoring from the moment she arrives.

That leaves Ryan relying on several players to take a step at roughly the same time.

That's not necessarily a bad strategy. Expansion teams rarely get to build a perfect roster in their first year, and there is value in having players who still have room to grow… but it does make San Jose difficult to project.

The Hockey News gave San Jose's 2026 draft class an A, pointing to the two-way ability and upside the team added beyond Edwards. Sloane Matthews, Lily Shannon, McKenna Van Gelder and Reichen Kirchmair give the organization more young forwards to develop.

They aren't expected to solve the scoring problem immediately and that's probably a good thing, because asking a group of rookies to do so would be unrealistic.

This is where the roster construction gets interesting.

San Jose doesn't appear to have one player who will be responsible for carrying the offense. It will probably need contributions from several lines, with players taking on larger roles than they have had previously.

Maybe Mlýnková becomes a bigger offensive threat. Maybe Cherkowski's speed translates into more production. Maybe Wheeler takes a significant step. Maybe Edwards immediately looks like the kind of player capable of driving offense at this level.

Ryan doesn't need every one of those things to happen.

But he probably needs more than one.

That is the gamble with this group. There is a lot to like about the players individually, but there isn't much proven scoring among them. The upside is real; so is the uncertainty.

That's what makes this forward group so interesting heading into the season. There are plenty of players Ryan can reasonably expect to contribute, and several who could be better than their previous numbers suggest.

What San Jose doesn't have yet is certainty.

The blue line looks like the more settled part of the roster. Up front, Ryan has more questions, more room for development and fewer guarantees.

For an expansion team, that can work. It just means someone has to take the next step.