A week into August and after almost six weeks off, this writer is ready to slowly tackle another women’s hockey season.
So, here’s a summer edition of women’s hockey rumbling from the province of Quebec. And let’s start with the Montreal Victoire.
Summer started earlier than anticipated for the team. At the end of May, almost half the team took a vacation to Punta Cana together, a Last Supper for many of them as the following weeks saw 11 players leave the team either through the expansion draft, free agency, trades or Europe.
Incidentally, it’s been confirmed that forward Gabrielle David, who spent almost all of last season on the reserve list, has signed with SDE HF in the SDHL.
From what I know, she received an invitation for Toronto’s training camp, but with Sweden not taking as many North Americans as in the past, she didn’t want to take a chance and end up in the same situation as last year. While the goal is to come back at some point in the PWHL, she wanted to play a full season and that’s what she’ll get in the SDHL.
It’s crazy to think that less than a year ago, she was the one selected by the team to unveil the new uniform at the Parliament of Quebec. She ended up playing a total of 16 minutes in only three games during the regular season.
Four Players Received an Invitation in Montreal
While so many left, GM Danièle Sauvageau did an excellent job at filling the team back up with good players and depth. As of this writing, there are 11 forwards, 5 defence players and 2 goalies signed. That’s 18 out of the 23 available standard contracts, meaning there won’t be many regular spots available come training camp. Especially when none of the five recent draftees are signed yet.
According to what I was able to learn, four players received an invitation to training camp so far: F Audrey-Ann Veillette, D Kelly-Ann Nadeau, G Megan Warrener, and G Tricia Deguire.
The logic says the team should keep two forwards, two blueliners and one goaltender, plus three players on the reserve list.
Veillette, who had an unfortunate injury just before being drafted by Ottawa in 2024, played in Sweden last season, her first in the pros since leaving the Montreal Carabins.
She will compete for those two jobs with three 2025 draft picks: Natalie Mlynkova, Skylar Irving, as well as Mascouche, Quebec native Maya Labad. Knowing Veillette scoring ability, there’s a scenario where she gets signed. Two of them could end up with a contract, while the other two could be reserve players.
What is going on with Dara Greig?
One wild card though is Dara Greig.
The forward played 29 regular season games last season as a rookie with Montreal and played some quality minutes in the playoffs as well. She had signed a one-year contract and there’s been no word on if she has received a qualifying offer or not, meaning we don’t know for sure if she’s a free agent or still belong to the Victoire. It might not mean something, but she has no reference to the Victoire on any of her social media.
On the blue line, if we take for granted that Nicole Gosling will sign, Tamara Giaquinto and Kelly-Ann Nadeau will compete for that last spot, while the other could sign as a reserve player. Nadeau only played four games last season with Montreal in her first pro season. Both are righties, so no advantage there.
Training Camps Open A Week Earlier
The third goalie could very well be Tricia Deguire. Warrener played with UConn last season while Deguireplayed a full year in the pros with the Montreal Force in 2022-23, was at the training camp last season with Montreal as well as being at practices a bunch of times with the team throughout the season and even signed a contract when Ann-Renee Desbiens got injured.
With the third goalie not having played one game in two seasons in Montreal, it’s not a huge risk and so Deguire has a good chance. She’s a local, speaks French and is a good one to keep around for the long term as she also has some experience as an assistant coach, being only the second woman behind a QMJHL bench…24 years after Danièle Sauvageau!
In any case, all those questions will be answered at training camp, which will be from November 7 to November 21 according to what I’ve been told. Last year, training camps were held from November 12 to November 27, so based on that, perhaps the 2025-26 season will start a week earlier.
Caroline Ouellette Leaves Concordia
In other news, strong from winning the USports national title only four years after the program had started, Bishop’s head coach Valérie Bois signed as an assistant coach with the New York Sirens. The whole thing went quite fast. A friend told Bois to apply when the job was offered online. She had an interview with head coach Greg Fargo, another one that also included GM Pascal Daoust and within two weeks, the job was hers.
Former Concordia forward Alexandra Boulanger, who spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at Bishop’s, has been named interim head coach. The 36-year-old stopped playing in 2023 and won the national championship in 2022.
Talking about assistant coaches, it’s been confirmed to me that Caroline Ouellette won’t be returning behind Concordia’s bench, where she was an associate head coach since 2021. The Hall of Famer was confirmed as an assistant coach with Team Canada for the 2026 Olympics and the understating is that between the national team and her assistant-coach position with the Montreal Victoire, she will have a full plate. Also, the PWHL has breaks during the Olympics, which Ouellette wouldn’t have had with Concordia.
It’s only a leave of absence as the plan is for her to be back next season. That’s why Concordia put up an assistant-coach offer, but only for a temporary one-year contract. Accordingly, Syracuse’s associate head coach Heather Farrell will serve as acting head coach while head coach Britni Smith is also with Team Canada as an assistantcoach.
Head Coaches and GMs Earn the Same
And last but not least, let’s talk about PWHL staff salaries. More salaries got released through job offers since a June article from yours truly, including head coach and assistant coach. So, here’s a full list of what those base salaries look like.
•GM
$150,000 - $180,000
•Head coach
$150,000 - $180,000
•Director, Team business operations
$120,000 - $145,000
•Senior Manager, Partnership Services
$98,000 - $108,000
•Head athletic trainer
$90,000 - $95,000
•Assistant coach
$75,000 - $90,000
•Head equipment manager
$70,000 - $80,000
•Team services manager
$60,000 - $80,000
•Team video production manager
$60,000 - $70,000
•Video coordinator
$60,000 - $65,000
•Grassroots growth specialist
$55,000 - $65,000
•Hockey operations coordinator
$55,000 - $65,000
•Strength and conditioning coach
$52,600 - $65,700
•Team social media manager
$50,000 - $60,000
•Massage therapist (seasonal; November 1-May 31)
$40,000
•Goalie coach (seasonal; October 1-June 1)
$30,660 - $36,500
*All salaries are in USD. Some CAD salaries were conversed in USD for standardization at a rate of 0.73.
As a healthy reminder, the minimum salary for players will be $37,132 USD next season.