Keys To Success: Seattle Torrent

Things did not go as planned for the Seattle Torrent in their inaugural season. In fact, it went miserably. The team was a smashing success off the ice among PWHL fans, leading the league in attendance. 

This season, Seattle is entering with a new mix. They fired coach Steven O'Rourke after a single season, parted ways with captain Hilary Knight, and watched Hannah Bilka, Cayla Barnes, Corinne Schroeder, Natalie Snodgrass, Brooke Bryant, Jada Habisch, Sydney Langseth, Mariah Keopple, and Megan Carter sign with expansion teams, and traded Jenna Buglioni away. 

It's a huge turnover, but in many ways, it's what Seattle needed to correct course after their initial build failed to find chemistry, structure, and consistency. 

Seattle believes Hannah Murphy is a PWHL starter. They'll hope she takes a second season step like Raygan Kirk in Toronto. Last season, Murphy sat 9th in the PWHL out of 11 goaltenders who played 10 or more games with a .908 save percentage. Considering the top two goalies in the league were both over .950 and the next two were above .930, Murphy has a jump to make to climb among the league elite. For Seattle, they don't necessarily need that, but they do need her closer to the .921 mark that represented the lowest save percentage of a playoff starting goalie last season. Murphy will carry the confidence boost of a Team Canada camp invite into the PWHL, but she must be good. Behind Murphy are CJ Jackson and Gabriella Durante. Jackson has experience and made a few starts, but all the chips are in for Murphy to be able to carry a full season as Seattle's starter.

Last season, the team that hit the ice for the Seattle Torrent in the opening week of the season may actually have been stronger than the team that finished the season in Seattle. In the PWHL, where there is no development league, and development resources compared to men's hockey are limited, the best teams are those who can bring their rookies and first year players along, growing their game throughout the season. Internal growth and improvement in-season is crucial in the PWHL, and Seattle's first attempt looked more like a career-killer than a career-builder for most of their rookies. Seattle buried their young players stifling any possible growth, and most of their draft picks are staring at an uphill battle this year to even claim meaningful spots on rosters, rather than getting contract extensions and accolades like their peers. This season, that mistake can't be replicated, and new head coach Christine Bumstead must prioritize helping along not only draft picks, but recent signings like Gabrielle David, Noemi Neubauerova, Emma Nuutinen who hold the key to this team's success. They have raw gems like Grace Elliott in the mix, and squandering that potential for a second straight season would be the worst case scenario. 

Seattle's blueline is questionable at best. Aneta Tejralova, Anna Wilgren, Emily Brown, and Sydney Morrow are all good defenders. They're capable of playing solid minutes for any team, but this team doesn't not have a true number one defender...or a true number two defender, on their roster. It's a group that will need to defend by committee, and once you step outside this top four, Seattle is putting a lot of faith into Noemi Neubauerova, who is entering only her second season as a defender and first full season in the PWHL, second year blueliner Lyndie Lobdell, who saw limited minutes last season, and rookie Gracie Gilkyson. If Lobdell can take a step, things get better, and Gilkyson was one of the most underrated blueliners in the 2026 Draft and was an analytics standout with Yale. Seattle will look to Morrow to provide some offensive from the blueline, another element this team could not muster last season. Overall, it's a serviceable but unremarkable blueline that won't sway a game in Seattle's favor, and is more likely to look to simply hold the fort at both ends while Seattle's offensive skill up front moves the needle.

Alex Carpenter is going to produce. She always has, and there's no end in sight to that. She'll be joined by Abbey Murphy, who could quickly find herself among the top ten in league scoring. She's an electrifying offense talent. Then there's Julia Gosling, who took a major step in her game last season emerging as one of the PWHL's top power forwards. Gosling has a heavy shot, and uses her body to get to the net and protect the puck. Finally, there's Danielle Serdachny, who has struggled to find the same level of production she's had in the past. This year could be different for Serdachny as she'll rest comfortably in Seattle's top six without a major threat of losing her spot. Taking some of the pressure off should help. Overall, this big four needs to score for Seattle. That's what they're there for, and that's what Seattle needs. If any of the next batch, whether it's Theresa Schafzhal, Nuutinen, David, Emerson Jarvis, or Mikyla Grant-Mentis can find the scoresheet consistently to help fill out the top six, Seattle could be ok. 

Regardless of what the messaging may have been about this roster, they weren't a cohesive group on, or off the ice last season. Quite simply, Seattle recruited a lot of players who put themselves before the team, and who joined after wearing out their welcome in other markets. It didn't work. This season, the deck has been considerably shuffled, and that should help. Some players who fall into this conversation remain, others have moved on, but the fresh mix is what matters, both on the bench, and behind it. Christine Bumstead obviously had favor with players last season, otherwise she would not have survived the offseason shuffle either. Instead she was promoted while head coach Steven O'Rourke was fired. Bumstead however, still has a monumental task ahead in her first ever head coaching job. She has assistant coach experience from U SPORTS and last season with Seattle, and was a development coach in the WHL, but has never run her own bench, or managed athletes at this level. It could be the fresh start and fresh approach Seattle needs, but Bumstead must get this team moving in one direction from the opening puck drop.