As the player pool grows by more than 25% next season, and seeing how reserve players have been utilized this season, the PWHL should expand their reserve pool according to THN's Ian Kennedy.
The PWHL made a preseason decision this year to raise the number of reserves each team was eligible to carry from two to three. In retrospect, it was a wise decision. If the PWHL is wise, they'll consider expanding the reserve pool even further next season.
From roster finalizations in December until today, the current reserve pool has drastically evolved. In Boston, they started with Emma Buckles, Sammy Davis, and Samantha Isbell as reserves. Buckles, Isbell, and Davis are now on full time contracts with Ottawa, leaving Boston's Nicole Kosta who was designated as a reserve following a midseason trade as their lone player remaining.
In Ottawa, their reserve pool began as Rosalie Demers, Malia Schneider and Taylor Davison. Demers is now full time, Schneider left for Sweden to be replaced by Samantha Ridgewell, and Davison was released with Lauren MacInnis filling her spot. Ottawa is down to two reserves.
In Montreal, Catherine Dubois and Alex Poznikoff who started the season as reserves are now full time players, and Melodie Daoust has used one of her two 10-day contracts. Daoust, and the recently signed Mikyla Grant-Mentis are now Montreal's lone reserves.
Minnesota has used all of their available reserve days for Abby Boreen, who proved herself worthy of a full time spot, but due to league rules cannot sign and is now unavailable until the post season. That leaves Nikki Nightengale as Minnesota's lone skater available as a reserve.
In Toronto, Victoria Bach signed an SPA and the team demoted Jess Jones to the reserve roster, which keeps their team with three reserves. New York's reserves remain the same, although Alexa Gruschow signed an SPA earlier this season to fill in for an injured Jill Saulnier, but has since been returned to the reserve roster.
Overall the league's reserve pool has shrunk, and for some teams like Montreal, it's been depleted altogether, particularly when it comes to the ability to actually sign a player if needed. It's a sign that the league's reserve system was needed, it worked to fill roster needs, but that in terms of roster stability and the league's talent pool, it needs to be expanded.
Perhaps it's as simple as expanding the reserve pool from three, to a maximum of five players. This season, that additional space would have allowed teams to keep players like Melodie Daoust, Claire Thompson, and Abby Boreen who are ineligible for full time contracts, while also protecting their depth and ability to sign players to a season long contract if needed.
While a developmental league is the ultimate goal, it's likely a decade away, if it ever comes, and the PWHL is more likely to follow models that mimic the WNBA, or even the NFL, who utilizes practice rosters. It's not dissimilar to how the NHL structured their COVID bubble season with each team carrying Black Aces.
Next season, there will presumably be no 'compassionate circumstances' waivers for players, as veterans for the league will either be signed or be free agents to choose. For incoming college players, it will be a more standard choice between hockey, or another career. That said, the league currently includes 138 fully rostered players, and 14 reserves, along with four players on LTIR for a total of 156 players. Next season, the league will draft 42 additional players. Of those players, only a fraction will come from Europe potentially freeing up import positions there, meaning as much as 25% of the league will find themselves out of a job, or at least out of hockey next year.
After hundreds of women lost their jobs last year following the acquisition of the PHF and subsequent merger of player pools with the PWHPA, it's unlikely the PWHL wants to continue seeing job loss and turnover of that magnitude.
While an increase of two reserves per team seems nominal in the grand scheme, it will allow veterans from this season to remain in the mix, should they choose, ensuring the league can insert players capable of playing at this level when injuries occur, and it could also allow more bubble NCAA and USports players a route to keep their foot in the door and hope for an opportunity to prove themselves as several reserves have done this season.
There almost certainly is no PWHL affiliated development league on the horizon, but there is a massive influx of new players on that horizon. While an expanded reserve pool won't solve every issue, it seems like the most logical path to bridge the development gap and ensure teams don't find themselves in embarrassing roster situations.