Danielle Serdachny and Julia Gosling were driving forces for the Seattle Torrent this season. Gosling had a breakout season from day one, while it took Serdachny time to find her way through the highs and lows of the campaign. 

Seattle Torrent forward Danielle Serdachny stepped up to the microphone on media close-out day with a brace around her right wrist; remnants of a slash she received before overtime against the Victoire just twelve hours previously.

“I'm feeling okay,” said Serdachny. “Obviously, I got a little nudge in my wrist there, so I've got some imaging done. Just kind of waiting to hear the results and then going from there. But, I'm grateful I made it through 30 games.”

It was impossible for players not to have the Olympics on their minds going into this season. It was the first time that players would be balancing the Olympic games with a full PWHL season.

“I came into the year, I'd say, a little bit timid in ways, trying to play a certain way, trying to make the Olympics,” Serdachny said. “Almost trying to play what I think they would want me to be rather than how I actually see myself playing.”

Everyone goes through ups and downs in their lives and in their careers, but it must be extremely difficult for those down moments to be amplified on a public stage. When you add a global stage, like the Olympics, to that, it’s exponentially more challenging.

Serdachny wasn’t chosen for the Canadian Olympic team despite many expecting her to be a part of it. She told her story in an article by The Athletic and has been vocal about how important it is to consider the human being part of athletes.

“That was an important piece for me. I think it’s important in professional sports to see the human side of it. Sometimes I feel like fans, media, people around don’t really see that aspect of it,” Serdachny said. “There’s plenty of heartbreak that happens in sports whether that’s with me getting cut from a team or pretty much anyone.”

“Very difficult decision by our entire staff to let Serdachny go at this point,” said Team Canada head coach Troy Ryan after his Sceptres team visited Seattle in January. “The one thing we do know is she’s trended in the right direction so far here in Seattle. That bodes well for just the organization and how they’re working with her, the situations they’re putting her in. I do strongly believe that Serdachny will be a great player for Hockey Canada in the future.”

Unfortunately, around this same time, Serdachny had a personal loss as well. “Losing my grandma in the same time span was incredibly difficult. But continuing to be a great teammate doing everything I can to kind of take it day-by-day was important. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes in professional sports. Emotions are typically high and then the pressures of being a professional athlete and wanting to perform every single day."

Despite her setbacks both on and off the ice, Serdachny enjoyed her time in Seattle. In fact, she ended the season third in scoring among the Torrent. As far as strides in her game, she felt it was her confidence that grew the most. “I think just continuing to be confident with the puck, make smart plays, use my speed. I think that kind of evolved, which I was happy about by the end.”

“I honestly loved it. From the start, I felt very welcome from the fans, from the media, from our organization. That was really special for me,” Serdachny said. “Coming off a season that didn't go so well for me, I just felt very appreciated, which I'm grateful for. Not the result we were looking for, not making the playoffs, but it's a season I'll remember for a long time for many different reasons. I'm grateful for that.”

Julia Gosling came into this season and not only scored the first-ever goal for the Seattle Torrent, but the second as well less than five minutes later. She and Alex Carpenter were top of the Torrent's scoring list with 20 points each on the season.

“I feel like I've developed in so many areas this year. I've played so many minutes this year, so that was really fun to develop my offensive game and my defensive game. I feel like I've done both,” Gosling said. “I want to add more physicality to my game. I still want to score more goals. I started off hot and then kind of dipped down a little, but that's hockey. Sometimes they're going to go in, sometimes they're not. But overall, super proud of my season, and still looking to add that physicality, more consistent drives to the net, using my body, and figuring that out over the next few years.”

Gosling’s season also included a trip to the Olympics as part of Team Canada. “We had a lot of tough messages for Julia in the last year or so,” said Ryan. “Four years ago, she was not selected to the Olympic roster, and I found that since 2022, she’s done a lot of work and did a lot of soul searching and reflection on making some adjustments to her game. Just kind of set a path to do the things that are necessary to set her up for success in 2026.”

Team Canada fell to Team USA in the Gold Medal Game during the Olympics, something that would carry with the players back to their PWHL teams.

“Overall, the whole experience was really cool and also just tiring. We didn’t have a break at all. Mentally, we went through a lot there and pushed as much as we could. Unfortunately, got a silver medal,” Gosling said. “I think that disappointment also brought into the season and maybe threw off my game a little bit. Then just playing a different role with the national team. I was like ‘Oh, I’ve got to switch back to my Seattle role.’ It took me a few games and then I feel like in the last bit I kind of got back to it.”

In a 30-game season, there can be a lot of improvements made, even if they’re not necessarily showing up on the scoresheet. Gosling was starting to pick up steam again as the season wound down and has a good foundation to build upon in the off-season.

“I think my confidence, offensively, grew a lot this year. I was bringing more pucks to the net. I was trying to shoot as much as I could. Power play, I felt so confident out there with all of them,” Gosling said. “Sometimes if you're with some of these top players, you kind of shy out and don't do your thing. But I feel like, from the start, I was ready to go, confident, playing with Carpenter. I was not passing them just because I wanted to. I was doing what the right play was, so I was proud of myself during all that.”