Led by NY Sirens’ Sarah Fillier, rookies already making an impact 2 weeks into PWHL’s 2nd season

Sceptres defenseman Renata Fast recalled attending the PWHL draft in June and being impressed by how much young talent Toronto was adding to its roster before quickly coming to another more worrisome realization. Fast shared her recollection when assessing the impact the PWHL’s highly touted rookie class has already made two weeks into the league’s second season. “It’s making the league that much deeper.” With play resuming Tuesday following a nine-day international break, New York Sirens rookie and No. “But I don’t think anybody could question that the league, though this past draft, has taken a substantial leap forward in the talent and depth of the talent that we’re able to put on the ice.” Ken Klee, coach of the defending champion Frost, put it this way by noting Minnesota essentially traded its bottom two forwards and sixth defenseman from last season in drafting top-six forwards in Petrie and Britta Curl-Salemme, and blue-liner Claire Thompson. What helps, too, Klee said, is rookies joining teams with established cultures and cores, unlike last season when everything from the travel schedule, checking and playing games in NHL-sized arenas was relatively new to everyone “There were a lot of unknowns last year for every single player, it didn’t matter if was Kendall Coyne or Taylor Heise or anyone else,” Klee said.