Q & A With PWHL Ottawa GM Following The 2024 PWHL Draft

PWHL Ottawa General Manager Mike Hirshfeld sat down the The Hockey News' Alex Adams for a one-on-one post draft exclusive. Here's that conversation.

GM Manager of PWHL Ottawa, Mike Hirshfeld sat down with the Hockey News immediately following the PWHL Draft for an exclusive interview. Ottawa was at the centre of the Draft with the 2nd overall pick, while also drafting the first goaltender of the draft.

Here is the interview in a QxA with the Ottawa General Manager.

Why was Danielle Serdachny the right player for you to draft at No.2?

We're super excited about what she brings to the table. We talked in our pre-draft press conference about getting bigger, getting tougher and being a great player and she just brings all of those characteristics. We really focused in on her, she is an on the puck player who is going to be able to carry the puck in the zone for us and is going to score tough and gritty goals. We also love where she is at her age and what the potential holds for her to where she can be this year, but also in the next couple of years. We really see her as a foundational piece for us that we'd like to tie to our organization for a long time. For us, it was really a no brainer and we feel incredibly thrilled that she's coming to Ottawa.

What made Ronja Savoleinen the right defender to bring into Ottawa with the 8th overall pick?

We were talking about getting tougher and grittier and Savoleinen brings that. We were a young team last year with Ashton Bell and Zoe Boyd, while Savoleinen is an experienced player. She's played internationally for five years and we felt comfortable drafting a 26-year-old with a little bit more experience and a little more maturity. One of the challenges we had last season was that we had some games where we let slip through our fingers a little bit. And again, we feel like this is going to really help us solidify that backhand.

What was the thought process to draft a goalie in Gwyneth Philips?

We were definitely picking a goalie in the draft and we certainly identified her (Philips) as the best goalie of the draft eligible players. I used my network of former NHL goalie coaches and showed them a lot of tape of the four or five goalies that were going to get drafted. And the coaches all came back and said Phillips, was in their mind the best with her speed and her agility which is through the roof. She has all the intangibles and all the skill sets to be an elite goalie in this league. And we're excited to have her come in and learn from Maschmeyer. Maschmeyer will be a great mentor for her. And over time we really see her turning into one of the goalies in this league in the years ahead, so for us it was a no brainer.

With Philips coming in will there be a goaltending battle for the starting spot?

It's not a battle. Maschmeyer will be our starter. But it's good to have someone there so that she can play some games but also have a chance to grow and learn from Maschmeyer.

There are so many different connections on this team from Serdachny and Markowski who are best friends and were both coached by Carla in Alberta, to Mcmahon who played with Bell and Hughes in college, how much did those connections play a part in your drafting selections?

I didn't even know the connections. Carla was the one who told me she coached both Steph and Danielle, I didn't even know. It played no part at all.

As for McMahon, I knew her coach well who was a big advocate for McMahon. I was at a Duluth practice when we were in Minnesota playing earlier in the season, I went up to Duluth and checked out a practice and man she has got everything to be a real player. She's going to be a great special teams’ player for us. She's tough, she's competitive, and she's great in the faceoff circle.

How many of the players you selected were where you expected they’d be selected in the draft?

The one that dropped probably was Anna Meixner. An international player, with world class experience, she led the SDHL in scoring two years ago. And brings some experience to our group like that.

You talked about not just having this team be built for the now but also for the future. With this draft, how much of you do you think you've improved for the now versus the future?

I think it's a bit of both, we want to win next year. We want to win that Walter Cup next year, but at the same time, this is a foundational draft with Danielle staying with us for a long time and Gwyneth Phlllips who will be with us for a long time. We put some pieces in place that can really make Ottawa their home for a long time and then also brought in a couple players of veteran experience like Savoleinen and Meixner.

What updates do you have on Daryl Watts and Katerina Mrazova’s contractual status?

No updates, we have talked to both of them, and we feel good about where we are. We told them let's just connect after the draft.

How do you feel about your re-signings of Zoe Boyd, Aneta Tejralova?

We got Zoe’s contract done; we love her. She was coming into form last year, with her size she needs to be a little more physical but we liked her game. We'd like what she brought to the table. And for Aneta we love her, she’s a feisty player for her size. She's out there leading the team and blocking shots, she's just a great addition for us and to have her for two more years is great. Who knows whether she’ll play one or two years and where she'll play but she’s a great person to have on our teams, super competitive and fights for everything and a great skater. And I think she'll actually be better next year if we don't have to play her as many minutes like we did at the end of last season. Our defenders were playing 25/26 minutes at the end of the season because of the injuries. She could be a great player if she plays 19 minutes a game.

How much better will PWHL Ottawa look from this season to next season with every other team getting better in the PWHL as well?

I think we had a lot of great pieces last year. Our analytics were really good. We had some issues that we identified, such as toughness, grittiness, needed to get better on the backend to prevent more goals from going in and we did that. I think Savoleinen can go in there and play top four minutes and play end of game minutes. And again, we've added toughness, you're not going to come in front of our net as much as you could last year because of Markowski, Savoleinen and Wethington. We want to create more shooting lanes to make sure that Maschmeyer can see the puck and doesn’t have people in front of her, we think we will have helped her to be able to do that next season. So again, it was all part of a conscious decision. I think we're in a good spot.

How much does drafting players from diverse countries come into your decision making process?

I think that we have always been conscious in our decision-making processes. Ottawa is a diverse multicultural city and we think that the mix really represents that. I was laughing with Carla because we didn't actually get a Czech player this time. We got an Austrian and Finnish player. But Carla was proud because there's two players from Alberta in Danielle Serdachny and Stephanie Markowski. She's got the Alberta connection. So, she's pretty happy about that. But yeah, I think diversity is good. I think it represents our city and I'm happy about that. I like the idea that we're helping women's hockey grow around the world, that's important to me, part of this as well as we want to win. And that's the goal, of course, but part of what we're doing here is building the game women's hockey. And if we can help countries like Austria through Anna Meixner or help Finnish players like Savoleinen to have role models to look up to, that to me is important.