PWHL teams release final 23-player rosters ahead of Jan. 1 season opener

All six teams in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) have finalized their rosters as the league prepares to open its inaugural season on Jan. 1, when Toronto hosts New York at Mattamy Athletic Centre for the first PWHL game.

Each team will carry a roster of 23 players under contract and three reserve players this season.

The league previously planned to allow each team to carry two reserve players, but decided to increase the reserve player pool after teams gathered in Utica, N.Y., last week for a pre-season evaluation camp, which included league meetings and three pre-season games for each team.

"Among the camp takeaways was a commitment from the league to provide additional opportunities for players to be a part of the PWHL this season, leading to the decision to increase the number of roster reserves from two to three players per team, which is reflected across all final rosters," the PWHL's senior vice president of hockey operations, Jayna Hefford, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Reserve players will practice exclusively with their teams this season and can be signed to a short-term contract if they need to be called up in case of injury. The collective bargaining agreement also allows those players to be called up by a different team when required, but they don't have to play against the team they regularly train with.

"There's some intricacies of what we're doing and how difficult it is when you don't have a minor league system," Hefford told CBC and Radio-Canada last week.

"So I think it's going to be evolving to some extent but we're also hopeful that we don't have to dive too deep and we can keep people healthy throughout the season. But we do recognize it's going to be something we're going to have to figure out in extreme circumstances."

The final rosters also mark the first time players have changed teams this season, with three players picked up during a three-day waiver window at the end of last week.

Toronto's 23-player roster includes six players who went undrafted and were initially invited to camp as free agent invites. They include goaltender Erica Howe, who started a game against Minnesota in Utica and who GM Gina Kingsbury identified as the team's number two goaltender. 

Carly Jackson, who won a championship with the now-defunct Premier Hockey Federation (PHF)'s Toronto Six last season, will be the team's third goaltender, while national team goalie Kristen Campbell appears to be the starter going into the season.

Toronto's reserve pool includes forward Victoria Bach, who looked great on a first line in Utica with Blayre Turnbull and Sarah Nurse. Bach won't be available for the first month of the season while she finishes a degree, but Toronto coach Troy Ryan said fans will see a lot of her this season.

Toronto picked up one player off waivers prior to finalizing its roster: defender Maude Poulin-Labelle, who was drafted by Montreal in the 10th round.

Ottawa's final roster includes seven players who went undrafted and were invited to camp.

Most notably, that list includes former PHF MVP Mikyla Grant-Mentis, who showed skill in pre-season action in Utica last week.