Malia Schneider was named a reserve for PWHL Ottawa, and is still listed on the team website, but she's signed to play in Sweden with Brynas for the opportunity to get ice time and win a championship.
Malia Schneider was named a reserve for PWHL Ottawa, and is still listed on the team website, but she's signed to play in Sweden with Brynas for the opportunity to get ice time and win a championship.
When the final cuts were made to PWHL rosters in December, several talented professionals were left on the outside looking in. Without a development league to play in, those players had three main options: sign as a reserve, leave for Europe, or retire.
Malia Schneider, who had been trying out for PWHL Ottawa, chose two. She was first named a reserve for Ottawa, listed on their current roster as #18, but later chose to leave for Europe to play in the SDHL with Brynas. PWHL Ottawa granted Schneider a release in late December to pursue regular ice time overseas.
"It feels really good to have Malia here," said general manager Erika Grahm. "Her ambition was to take a place in the new professional league, but when she was offered a reserve place there, she instead took the chance to come to Brynäs. We have been looking for reinforcements to broaden the squad for the last half of the season. Malia is a player with exactly the right profile for us to bring into this situation. She is good in the game with the puck and plays very straight, which we want to add to our attacking game."
Schneider played two preseason games with PWHL Ottawa in Utica registering four shots and four penalty minutes. Last season, the former Colgate captain and silver medalist as a member of Canada's U-18 national team played in the PWHPA with Team Sonnet where she recorded two assists in 19 games.
In her first five games in the SDHL with Brynas this year, Schneider has a goal and three points.
"I come here to win, I know that the club and the team are looking for that first gold. I haven't fought for it as long as the others in the team, but they should know that I want to win gold as much as they do," Schneider said at the time of her signing.
Brynas currently sits third in the SDHL standings behind MoDo and Lulea. Their roster is loaded with talent including members from several national teams. The roster features Klara Peslarova, Noemi Neubauerova, and Sara Cajanova of Czechia, Finland's Jenniina Nylund and Sini Karjalainen, Austria's Anna Meixner, and Swedish national team members Hanna Thuvik and Maja Nylen Persson. Several of those players are expected to attempt to join the PWHL next season as their SDHL contracts expire.
Schneider isn't the only player who was in camp with PWHL Ottawa currently in the SDHL. Following her release, forward Liliane Perreault who was a top scorer in the NCAA last year with Mercyhurst signed a contract with Frolunda HC. Through her first four games in the league Perreault has three goals and five points.