Ashton Bell was anxious all day on Monday as she waited to learn her fate.
Just two weeks ago, the 25-year-old defender was battling for the Walter Cup with the Ottawa Charge. She’d carved out a role on the team’s top defensive pairing alongside veteran Jocelyne Larocque, and blocked more shots than any other player during the playoffs.
But on Monday, she didn’t know if she’d be returning to Ottawa or heading west to play for Seattle or Vancouver. She had been left unprotected by the Charge ahead of the PWHL’s first expansion draft.
She knew Vancouver had interest, after speaking with GM Cara Gardner Morey during an exclusive signing window prior to the draft. But exactly how things would play out was remained a mystery.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Bell said in an interview with CBC Sports. “I knew that there was the possibility that I could get picked up by either team. When Vancouver got the first pick, I was just kind of like everyone else, sitting at home, just waiting to hear my name called.”
She didn’t have to wait long. After winning a lottery, Gardner Morey had to choose between keeping the first pick or making the second and third picks instead. She opted to make the first pick, and used it to select Bell.
“It was definitely very exciting for me and just such an honour,” the player from Deloraine, Man. said about being chosen first.
The PWHL’s expansion process has triggered a reset across the league, with every team’s roster shaken up and left with holes. Ottawa lost two key defenders back to back in Bell and Aneta Tejralová, who was selected by Seattle with the second pick.
Players who were taken in the expansion draft now need to plan a move to the west coast. Bell has family in Vancouver, which will make her transition easier. Many already want to buy season tickets.
She’s also joining a team built strong from the net out by Gardner Morey, who coached Bell with the Canadian Under-18 team several years ago.
“She is just the exact person you want on your team,” Gardner Morey said.
“Not only is she extremely talented on the back end — she’s played both offence and defence in her career — but she’s also one of those great teammates and great human beings that’s just always showing gratitude and doing things the right way. Her work ethic is outstanding and, to me, that’s the exact type of player we wanted to bring in.”
A strong defensive core
Bell’s teammates on the blue line will include Defender of the Year nominees Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques, who both just won the Walter Cup with the Minnesota Frost. Both signed with Vancouver before the expansion draft.
Thompson and Bell won an Olympic gold medal together in 2022.
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“Those two are unbelievable and showed that this season with Minnesota and brought home the Walter Cup,” Bell said. “I’ve played alongside them with the national team and know them as people as well. They’re just incredible players, and I’m so excited to get to share the blue line with them.”
Vancouver also drafted promising rookie defender Sydney Bard from the Boston Fleet, a player who Boston GM Danielle Marmer described as only showing a glimpse of what she can do in her one and only season in Boston.
“I think you’re going to see a lot of interchangeable positions where you might not know who’s forward and who’s the [defence] on the ice at certain times,” Gardner Morey said.
Change afoot
When the expansion rules were announced during the playoffs, eyebrows went up across the league. Teams could only protect three players to start, with a fourth to be added after a team surrendered two players to expansion. It meant every team was going to have to give up good players.
In Ottawa, Bell and her teammates had to focus on the playoffs. But in the back of their minds, they knew their team would look different next season.
“There were lots of kind of rumbles in the locker room every now and then, just us trying to figure out all the rules and logistics of it all, and just bouncing questions off each other and what it could possibly look like,” Bell said.
After the Charge fell short to the Frost in four games, hard decisions had to be made. Ottawa Charge GM Mike Hirshfeld opted to protect forward Emily Clark, goaltender Gwyneth Philips and defender Ronja Savolainen to start.
Hirshfeld said Savolainen’s size and speed were factors in choosing to protect her.
“It was her first year in this league, and we felt like she played incredibly well as she was adjusting to the league,” he said. “We think at her age, her best days are ahead of her now that she’s acclimatized to the PWHL for a year.”
But it meant going into the expansion draft with three top defenders — Bell, Larocque and Tejralová — all at risk. Only one was left on Ottawa’s roster when the dust settled.
“I think incredibly highly of Ashton,” Hirshfeld said. “I think Bellsy’s been great for us for two years. I can’t say enough about how she performed in the playoffs this year. She was on the top line with Jocelyne Larocque and I think they did an incredible job. But again, we made a decision. It’s a very difficult decision.”
A new beginning
Bell sympathized with the challenge GMs faced in the expansion process. With a pre-signing window and the draft, there were so many variables that were hard to predict.
“Gabbie Hughes [is] an amazing hockey player, one of our best centres, so that was kind of a no-brainer for them,” she said. “I respect their decisions, and obviously Clarky, Gwyn and Ronja, too. Just amazing people and incredible players as well, so I’m super happy for them that they get to stay in Ottawa and continue to build that franchise.”
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A day after the draft, Bell was still processing the reality that she will be leaving her teammates and the fans in Ottawa.
But she also looks forward to being a part of what Gardner Morey is building in Vancouver.
“Leaving them behind is obviously sad,” she said. “I’m still kind of processing all of that. But just the excitement of starting and being a part of a new franchise out west and being able to grow women’s hockey out there is really exciting for me.”
