The Montreal Victoire announced its roster this afternoon, and it was pretty much as expected. Daniele Sauvageau didn't surprise anyone with her lineup.
At 2:00 PM this afternoon, the Montreal Victoire finally announced its roster for the third season of the PWHL which will kick off tomorrow for the Toronto Sceptres, the Minnesota Frost, the Seattle Torrent and the Vancouver Goldeneyes. Meanwhile, the Victoire will have to wait until Sunday afternoon to get some in-game action when they visit the Boston Fleet, the team they beat twice in two preseason contests.
The 23-athlete roster includes three goaltenders, seven blueliners and 13 forwards. Of those 14, 14 will be familiar to fans, as they are returning after playing with the Montreal outfit previously.
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The three goalies are Ann-Renee Desbiens, Sandra Abstreiter and Megan Warrener. As for the rearguards, they are: Erin Ambrose, Kati Tabin, Amanda Boulier, Maggie Flaherty, Jessica Digirolamo, Nicole Gosling (the team’s first pick at the last draft), and Kelly-Ann Nadeau. Up front, the Victoire will be represented by captain Marie-Philip Poulin, alternate captain Laura Stacey, Abby Roque, Shiann Darkangelo, Jade Downie-Landry, Catherine Dubois, Dara Greig, Skylar Irving, Alexandra Labelle, Natalie Mlynkova, Maureen Murphy, Hayley Scamurra,and Kaitlin Willoughby.
As for Lina Ljungblom, the team’s last pick at the inaugural draft, she’ll be starting the season on the long-term injured reserve while Maya Labad, Tamara Giaquinto and Claire Vekich will form the reserve team.
The Victoire roster includes seven players native of Quebec (Poulin, Desbiens, Nadeau, Downie-Landry, Dubois, Lanelle, and Labad). For Downie-Landry who spent the last two seasons in New York with the Sirens, this will be a great homecoming as she has played with the Montreal Force back in 2022-23 after graduating from McGill University. Before today, the only pick from the last draft that had been signed to a contract was Gosling, but now second-round pick Mlynkova, third-round pick Irving, sixth-round pick Giaquinto and fifth-round pick Labad all have a contract with the club, be it a standard player agreement or a reserve one.
You can catch the Victoire’s first game at 1:00 PM on Sunday on RDS, Sportsnet and NESN. The Montreal club will skate in its home debut on Tuesday night at 7:00 PM when they host the New York Sirens and former Victoire player Kristin O’Neil at Place Bell. That game will be shown on Amazon Prime and MSG.
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