Trade Considerations: 5 Things PWHL Teams Need To Think About Before Making Deals

The PWHL trade deadline is less than a month away, but don't expect a flurry of deals, or perhaps any. Why? There are more considerations this year in the PWHL than other leagues.

There's a lot of excitement about the possibility of more trades coming to fruition in the PWHL. Following the deal between PWHL Boston and PWHL Minnesota exchanging Sophie Jaques for Susanna Tapani and Abby Cook, talk quickly turned to who could be next.

Trades this season however, aren't as simple as they are in the NHL. GMs have far more to think about. Here are the five biggest considerations PWHL teams will need to make before pulling the trigger on any trade.

If you're a team looking to get better, it's often draft picks and prospects that are sacrificed in trades. It's the case in the NHL, and it's the case in the men's junior hockey. In the PWHL, draft picks can't be traded this season, and there are no prospects because there are no developmental loops. Aside from Lina Ljungblom, Caitrin Lonergan, Tatum Skaggs, and Minttu Tuominen, there are no players outside the league whose rights are owned by a PWHL team, and it's unclear if these players can be dealt either. Without the luxury of draft picks to trade, it means any addition to a roster must involve a subtraction. And whether it's on ice impact or dressing room impact, there's risk.

If you're out of a playoff spot, often teams trade players to improve their chances in the future. In the PWHL, 57.9% of all players in the league are set to become unrestricted free agents at seasons end, and the players on three-year and two-year deals have higher salaries and are in general the top contributors across the league. That means that there is very little incentive for a losing team to trade a player to a contender, unless they know there's no chance the player they're trading will return to their team the following year. "Selling" teams don't trade for rentals, they send rentals to other teams. To expect a professional team to make a trade out of the goodness of their heart isn't practical.

Teams can make as many trades as they want. They could add more three-year guaranteed contracts as PWHL Minnesota did this season with Sophie Jaques. That trade alone brings PWHL Minnesota closer to 50% of their cap used on seven players, meaning they'll need to find savings elsewhere. While the PWHL doesn't have a hard cap like the NHL, adding even a single additional player making $80,000 or more almost guarantees the bulk of your roster will need to be paid less than $45,000 to remain camp compliant. 

While we don't always hear about it immediately, reserve rosters have been depleted, and at times are restricted in terms of how many games those players can appear in. In Montreal, no reserve replacement was announced when Catherine Dubois was signed to fill the void from Dominika Laskova's injury. Similarly, when Minnesota traded two players to Boston for one in return, they filled their 23 player roster by signing reserve Lauren Bench. Meaning both teams currently have only two reserves. In Minnesota, it's believed Abby Boreen can't sign a full SPA because she is a full time student, so Minnesota, if they were to make another deal, would need to look at who they could sign to provide themselves organizational depth. Recently they've played with less than a full roster.

Similar to the above point, there is no development league, so taking on a player with potential involves playing them in situations you're not comfortable doing so in. That was a key in Boston, where they knew Sophie Jaques was a bright star in the making, but didn't feel comfortable in what it would take to get her there this season. Minnesota on the other hand has embraced that with success. Without a development league however, trades need to be almost player for player at all times. And with the CBA requiring 23 rostered players at all times, unlike the NHL where teams can run under the league maximum to remain cap compliant, the number of players involved in a trade will almost certainly never exceed one extra player going either way.