While the Montreal Victoire lost a large chunk of its defensive core in the expansion player distribution process, general manager Daniele Sauvageau managed to build perhaps the most powerful attack only weeks after winning the Walter Cup, and long before puck drop on the 2026-27 seaon.

How did she manage it?

Well, it certainly didn’t start during the distribution process; it started long before that, years ago, actually.

The honoured member of the Hockey Hall of Fame has been an integral part of women's hockey for decades. After occupying various coaching positions in the game, she was named head coach of Team Canada in 1999 and led the team to a pair of Gold medals at the 1999 and 2001 Women’s World Championship, and later led Canada to Olympic Gold in 2002 in Salt Lake City. It was the first time in 50 years that a Canadian team had won gold in hockey at the Olympics, instantly making her a national hero.

She was the first woman to coach in the QMJHL when she joined the Montreal Rocket during the 1999-00 season. In 2010, she was at the head of the Montreal Carabins women’s ice hockey program. She also coached the Montreal Canadiennes of the CWHL. After the league abruptly shut down, she spearheaded the creation of the Centre 21.02 at the Verdun Auditorium, a newly renovated two-pad sports complex ready to host world-class women's hockey games, with a capacity of 2,500 seats.

It's there that the Secret Dream Gap tour stopped in Montreal, when the elite women's hockey players didn’t have a league to play in, and it became the training headquarters of the likes of Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, Ann-Renee Desbiens, Erin Ambrose, Jill Saulnier, and many others. These women, and every national team member, know who pulled the strings and who worked tirelessly to ensure they had professional-level training facilities while they campaigned for a professional league.

When the PWHL came to be, there was very little doubt about who would be the general manager of PWHL Montreal. It didn’t come as a surprise when Sauvageau was able to put pen to paper with Poulin, arguably the best forward in the game, and Desbiens, one of the top goaltenders in the game; both are Quebecers and spent years in Montreal. But Sauvageau also managed to sign Stacey by making her feel she wanted her as a player and her unique attributes.

For the following two seasons, the Victoire fared well in the regular season but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. In the wake of the first expansion, the team’s three foundational players gathered to consider how they could help the franchise take the next step, even with the considerable losses it had incurred during expansion. They concluded that the best way to reach their ultimate goal and win the Walter Cup would be to renegotiate their contracts and take a pay cut, as suggested by Sauvageau. It didn’t take a very long time for the GM to sign all three to two-year contract extensions, which will kick in at the start of the next season.

So how did Sauvageau manage to retain Abby Roque, and sign Jessie Eldridge and Emma Maltais as free agents? She managed it because her top players decided to sacrifice part of their earnings in the name of winning, and that was possible because they trusted Sauvageau to make the right moves with the money they left on the table. The Hockey News also found out that Catherine Dubois was asked to take a $1,000 pay cut in exchange for an extra year on her deal to make it all work, and the Quebecer agreed. In three years, a winning culture has been built in Montreal, and everyone from the top to the bottom of the lineup is on board.

When the Victoire lost Nicole Gosling, Erin Ambrose, Hayley Scamurra, Shiann Darkangelo and Maureen Murphy to the expansion player redistribution process, the GM didn’t sit on her hands; she went on an all-out offense to get more offense, and she pulled it off. Roque indicated that she was willing to take less money to remain in Montreal, and there’s no doubt that she did. While Sauvageau is definitely a great “capologist," the fact that Ambrose and Murphy departed did free up some much-needed money.

One could argue that it might have been an idea to invest in some help on the blueline, but there were not many high-profile free agent defenders available. The biggest names in free agency were high-scoring winger Eldridge and super pest Maltais, so that’s who Sauvageau set her sights on, and she succeeded.

At the draft, she also added Petra Nieminen and Avi Adam, yet more offensive punch. You can enter a draft knowing you need some help on the blueline, but at the end of the day, if the top talent available when you get to pick is up front, you take it.

Whichever way you look at it, the Victoire will have a scary top nine with Poulin, Stacey, Roque, Eldridge, Maltais, Nieminen, Adam, and Lina Lungblom. Whoever completes that top nine, be it Catherine Dubois, Kaitlin Willoughby or Skylar Irving, it will likely be the strongest in the league. The fourth line should then feature Alexandra Labelle and/or Jade Downie-Landry. There will be plenty of firepower and veteran experience up front, but it will have come at a price.

As things stand, the Victoire has five defenders signed: Kati Tabin, Maggie Flaherty, Jessica DiGirolamo, Nadia Mattivi and Tamara Giaquinto. Mattivi has only 10 games of experience in the PWHL; Giaquinto, a 2025 draft pick, has 12. New draftees Zoe Uens and Erica Rieder can fill the 6th spot, but that defense won’t be anywhere near as good as it was last year. Newcomers will need to get used to the physicality and speed of the PWHL, and that’s no easy task.

Of course, Montreal can count on one of the top netminders of the league in Desbiens, and she will have to be at the top of her game for the Victoire to live up to its name and its championship-winning season.

Finally, the depth up front might come in handy sooner than expected if Poulin needs to start the season on the LTIR, which is a real possibility considering the knee injury suffered last season. Watching her play in the playoffs, it was obvious that she was more or less playing on one leg, even if she did win the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP award. That might have been a factor in Sauvageau’s aggressiveness to land top offensive talent as well.

In the end, Daniele Sauvageau is reaping the benefits of what she sowed over all those years of involvement in women’s hockey. She showed how much she believed in the sport, played a role in the birth of the PWHL, and won the athletes’ trust on her way to building a great team culture in Montreal, which played a part in the team’s ability to lure top free agents to town.

Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains.