Moving across the country can be hard. Unexpectedly moving to an unfamiliar destination, after only spending a year in your previous spot, is even harder. But this is a challenge that PWHL sophomore Izzy Daniel is tackling with excitement.
The 18th overall draft pick in the 2024 PWHL Draft only spent a year with the Toronto Sceptres before finding out that she’d been selected by expansion team PWHL Vancouver. With this expansion news not being publicly announced until mid-April, Daniel wasn’t expecting to be moving on from the Sceptres so quickly — especially since she had one more year left on her contract.
“I don’t think shock is the right word, but it was just a weird feeling to know that I’d be switching teams and moving on from Toronto,” Daniel told The Hockey News about how she’d first felt when learning that PWHL Vancouver had picked her in the expansion draft. “I don’t think any of us were expecting an expansion or the process that we all went through.
Vancouver is a city that is not as familiar to Daniel, as she’s never stayed for an extended period of time. However, the unfamiliarity isn’t deterring her from making the most of this experience.
“I think it’s also a new challenge, and something that I really relish of trying to grow as an individual too and an independent, so I think that’s kind of fun too. Trying to find your way around and get to know a new city will be exciting,” she added.
Off the ice, the prospect of living in BC excites an outdoors-loving Daniel, who grew up in the cold tundra of Minnesota. She noted how the mild-mannered climate of Vancouver will be nice, especially in the winter. “Being near the ocean, being able to go to the mountains and stuff, is going to be really cool. I’ve never lived in a spot where you’re able to do that, so I’m looking forward to that.”
One of the biggest factors in bringing the PWHL to Vancouver was the Takeover Tour, during which Toronto faced off against the Montréal Victoire. Daniel was one of six PWHL Vancouver players who took part in this game. Like some of her teammates, she noted that the fans made a fantastic first impression.
“The fans were just awesome. I’m really looking forward to seeing how they embrace us and support us, and we can already feel it a little bit through social media and stuff, that they’re just really excited to have a team, and I’m really grateful to be able to play in front of them,” she said. “We want to be there for them and support them and create a relationship.”
Being part of an expansion draft is a new experience for Daniel, as is living in Vancouver, but joining a new team isn’t. The forward came into the PWHL fresh out of a four-season stint with Cornell University in which she scored 51 goals and 107 assists in 124 total games and won the 2024 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award. While she “didn’t really know anyone” heading into Toronto’s training camp, PWHL Vancouver hosts a crop of familiarity — something that Daniel insists will help with the transition.
“Having Nursey [Sarah Nurse], [Hannah] Miller, and Soupy [Kristen Campbell] there is going to be really nice, to walk in and see familiar faces,” she noted. “I think we have a lot of skill on our team, a lot of speed. We have a lot of toughness, too. I think just looking at our lineup on paper already, we’re very deep. I think that we’re going to be a team that doesn’t just have one or two lines that can produce, but maybe all four.”
At the end of the day, the move to Vancouver is something that Daniel is viewing as a learning experience both on and off the ice. She has her first year of PWHL experience under her belt — something she confessed was “hard” due to the difference between College hockey and PWHL hockey. However, with a Vancouver roster filled with experienced players as well as a front-office staff carrying a wealth of knowledge, the experiences that Daniel takes in throughout the season will do wonders for the growth of herself as a player and a person.
“I just want to get as much out of it as I can,” she explained. “Hopefully now this year, I’m going to take another step forward. I don’t think I’ve really even begun to reach my potential in this league, so I think it’s just really exciting to just continue to get better.”
