Natalie Spooner is back up and moving after her offseason knee surgery, and working to be ready for puck drop, whether it's the season opener or soon after, with PWHL Toronto.
Natalie Spooner is back up and moving after her offseason knee surgery, and working to be ready for puck drop, whether it's the season opener or soon after, with PWHL Toronto.
It's unsure whether or not Natalie Spooner will be ready for the opening of the 2024-2025 PWHL season. The league's reigning PWHL leading scorer, top goal scorer, forward of the year, and MVP suffered an ACL injury early in the playoffs, requiring surgery.
Last week, Spooner posted a video of herself on a stationary bike stating she was "making my first full rotation on the bike! This was 3 weeks post surgery just going slow and steady!"
The news and images of Spooner back moving following her surgery will give PWHL Toronto fans hope.
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“There’s definitely a much better rehab protocol," said Spooner. "People understand it a lot better so in that sense, I’m very optimistic and staying really positive because obviously coming back from childbirth, everything was so unknown, there were a lot of things that people hadn’t seen before that were going on with my body.”
“So now at least it’s a pretty standard injury that a lot of people unluckily suffer and I’ll come back strong, so in that sense, I think I’m just going to do the rehab, put the work in, and be ready to go next season.”
Toronto actively used the draft and free agency to secure forward depth that would help them weather the loss of Spooner for the beginning of the season should she be unable to return in time.
Those additions included Daryl Watts and Emma Woods through free agency, as well as draft picks Julia Gosling, Izzy Daniel, Noemi Neubaurova, and Anneke Linser.