Which PWHL Veterans Could Be This Season's Surprise Scorers?

Three seasons into the PWHL, one of the more interesting trends has been a veteran player who produces an unexpectedly big offensive season.

In the inaugural season, it was Natalie Spooner. Coming off the birth of her son Rory and entering the season at age 33, Spooner scored 20 goals and 27 points in 24 games to lead the PWHL in both categories. She was named league MVP and Forward of the Year.

A year later, Hilary Knight made the biggest offensive jump in the league. After recording 11 points in the inaugural season, the then-35-year-old finished with 15 goals and 29 points, tying rookie Sarah Fillier for the league scoring lead.

Last season, it was Kelly Pannek. After producing 16 points in the inaugural season and only 11 in the second year, Pannek jumped to 16 goals and a league-record 33 points at age 30. Her 22-point year-over-year increase helped earn her Forward of the Year honors.

Pannek wasn't alone. Ottawa's Rebecca Leslie scored 14 goals and 23 points after recording just three points the previous season, while veterans Brianne Jenner and Kendall Coyne Schofield also produced strong offensive seasons.

With the PWHL expanding to 12 teams in 2026-27, we might see new roles and new line combinations create more opportunities for players who are already established to produce a similar surprise performance.

Here are three candidates who could take a significant step this season, along with three more worth watching.

O'Neill's PWHL numbers don't immediately suggest a breakout scorer.

In three seasons with Montreal and New York, she has nine goals and 19 points in 83 games. Last season with the Sirens, she finished with four goals and one assist in 30 games.

Her situation in San Jose, however, will be considerably different. San Jose used its lone Expansion Foundational Offer on O'Neill and signed her to a two-year contract, an indication of how important the 28-year-old is expected to be to the new franchise. She also reunites with head coach Troy Ryan, who knows her well from their years together with Canada's national team.

O'Neill has primarily been valued in the PWHL for her speed, defensive play and ability in the faceoff circle. She led New York with 272 faceoff wins last season, fourth-most in the league. But there is offensive history in her game as well. At Cornell, O'Neill scored 81 goals and 145 points in 125 games.

With San Jose, O'Neill should have an opportunity to take on more responsibility than she had on deeper offensive teams in Montreal and New York.

There was a similar example in Toronto last season. Blayre Turnbull had never scored more than five goals or 11 points in a PWHL season, but with Toronto needing more offense, she responded with nine goals and 17 points. O'Neill doesn't have to challenge for the league scoring lead for this to qualify as a breakout. A significant jump from her career high of nine points would make her one of the more interesting offensive developments on an expansion team.

Spooner is different from everyone else on this list because there is no question about whether she can be an elite PWHL scorer. She’s already done it.

Spooner's 20 goals in 24 games during the inaugural season remain the second-highest single-season total in league history. She also led the league with 27 points and 101 shots while winning MVP and Forward of the Year.

Her PWHL career changed when she suffered a knee injury during Toronto's 2024 playoff series against Minnesota. Spooner underwent ACL surgery and didn't return until February of the following season, 275 days after her last game. She finished 2024-25 with three goals and five points in 14 games.

The scoring didn't return last season. Spooner again scored three goals as Toronto struggled to generate offense.

This season, the Sceptres need more from her. Toronto's three leading scorers last season were Daryl Watts with 19 points, Turnbull with 17 and Jesse Compher with 12. Watts and Compher are now in Detroit and Turnbull is out on maternity leave, leaving a considerable amount of offense to replace.

At 35, Spooner isn't likely to reproduce 20 goals every season. But there is plenty of room between three goals and the player who dominated the league in 2024. With Toronto looking for players to take on larger offensive roles, Spooner has an opportunity to show that her first PWHL season wasn't the last time she can be one of the league's more dangerous goal scorers.

Girard's breakout may have already started. After scoring five goals in her first 46 PWHL games, Girard scored seven in just 17 games for New York last season. She finished with eight points before a lower-body injury in March ended her season.

The increased goal production was accompanied by more shooting. Girard put 37 shots on goal in those 17 games after recording 18 in 18 games with New York the previous season.

There is also evidence from earlier in her career that she can produce offense. Girard was the first overall selection in the 2021 NWHL/PHF Draft and won PHF Newcomer of the Year after scoring 28 points in her first professional season.

Now the Macomb, Michigan, native gets a fresh start in her home state after signing a two-year deal with Detroit. The team has assembled a forward group with considerable scoring ability, including Daryl Watts, Hilary Knight, Hannah Bilka, Britta Curl-Salemme and Jesse Compher.

Girard doesn't have to carry that offense. If she can maintain some of the goal-scoring form she showed before her injury last season, she could become a useful secondary scorer on a deep Detroit team.

Compher has already shown that she can produce more than she did last season.

After recording only five points as a PWHL rookie, she jumped to nine goals and 18 points for Toronto in 2024-25. Last season she slipped to six goals and 12 points, but her shot volume barely changed, with 71 shots after recording 70 the year before.

Detroit signed the 27-year-old to a three-year contract during the expansion process. Compher is capable of holding  a top-six spot after her time in Toronto, where she ranked among the team's top four scorers in each of the past two seasons. With players such as Watts, Knight, Bilka and Curl-Salemme around her, Compher won't necessarily have to be the primary offensive option. That could also give her opportunities to play with more finishers than she has in the past.

A return to her 18-point level — or a step beyond it — would not be surprising.

For most of her first three PWHL seasons, Schafzahl's offensive production was modest. She scored six points in the inaugural season and five in 2024-25. Last season she had five points in 19 games with Boston before being traded to Seattle in March.

The change produced immediate results. Schafzahl finished the season with 15 points overall, including nine points after joining Seattle, and ended the year on a three-game assist streak. Her 15 points were nearly three times her previous PWHL career high.

There is reason to believe that offense can continue. Schafzahl was a high-end scorer at Vermont, finishing her NCAA career as the program's all-time leader with 145 points, including 71 goals. Her senior season included 25 goals and 46 points in 29 games.

Seattle now gets a full season to see whether the production Schafzahl showed after the trade was a short run or the beginning of her offensive game translating more consistently to the PWHL.

Rattray quietly had her best PWHL season last year. The veteran forward recorded four goals and eight assists for 12 points in 30 games with Boston, giving her 33 points in 84 career PWHL games. Toronto signed the 33-year-old to a two-year contract in June.

Twelve points doesn't jump off the page, but Rattray arrives on a Toronto team with offensive minutes available.

Watts, Compher and Turnbull accounted for 48 points for the Sceptres last season, and Toronto will need to find that production elsewhere. Rookie Kirsten Simms is an obvious candidate to provide some of it, but the Sceptres will need secondary scoring as well.

Rattray has spent much of her career as a reliable two-way veteran rather than a team's primary offensive option. She has a history of producing more offense than her PWHL totals suggest, including a Patty Kazmaier Award-winning collegiate career at Clarkson and productive seasons in the CWHL.

Toronto doesn't need Rattray to suddenly become a 30-point player. But after setting a PWHL career high last season, an increased role could give her a chance to take another step.

Three seasons isn't enough to call anything a rule, but it is enough to establish an interesting PWHL trend.

Spooner was 33 when she led the league in scoring. Knight was 35 when she tied for the scoring lead a year later. Pannek was 30 when she went from 11 points to a league-record 33 last season.

The PWHL's growing pool of young talent will get plenty of attention this season. But the first three years of the league have also shown that it is worth watching the veterans whose roles, circumstances or health have changed. There is a good chance at least one of them will produce considerably more than expected.

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