Trades in the PWHL do not happen often, but when they do, they pack a real punch.
The first trade of Year 2 in the league followed that trend to a T.
The Toronto Sceptres and Ottawa Charge, two teams off to rather slow starts to the year, really shook things up, trading an established forward and defenceman each way.
Coming to Toronto are veteran defender Savannah Harmon and veteran forward Hayley Scamurra.
Headed back to the nation’s capital are veteran defender Jocelyne Larocque and forward Victoria Bach.
The deal is an eye opener for a number of reasons.
Both Harmon and Larocque are the two respective franchises first overall picks in the first ever draft.
All four players have national team experience, with the 36-year-old Larocque, the most experienced player in the PWHL, leading that category by a healthy margin.
We can only imagine how difficult a trade this must have been from a Toronto standpoint in particular. Sceptres GM Gina Kingsbury and head coach Troy Ryan also hold those positions with Canada’s national team where Larocque has been a steady force for more than the past dozen years, collecting two Olympic golds and a silver as well as four World Championship gold medals, six silvers and one bronze.
She has been one half of the most consistent defensive pairing in women’s hockey along with Renata Fast, who she was paired with in Toronto.
In Ottawa, she will reunite with national team teammates like Brianne Jenner, Emily Clark and Emerance Maschmeyer, but the end of the Fast/Larocque pairing is almost shocking.
The two have logged so much time together they know each other’s moves intuitively.
The Sceptres have relied heavily on the pairing, logging league-high minutes in the inaugural season together and then following that up again this year with another heavy workload.
In the locker room, Larocque was part of the Sceptres leadership group serving as an assistant captain. It’s that leadership and her presence that will probably leave the biggest hole.
As it has been with Team Canada for well over a decade, with the Sceptres Larocque was like a team mother, keeping things positive and the group together.
Bach, also a national team member though without Larocque’s longevity, takes a crafty offence game to Ottawa.
With smooth skating and slick puck handling, Bach delayed her PWHL debut as she finished up teacher’s college in year one but quickly became a regular on game day either playing second or third line duties.
The return joining the Sceptres as early as tonight against their former team is no less impressive.
Harmon and Scamurra are both international veterans though with the U.S. national team.
Both will have no problem adding to Toronto’s preferred style of play which is physical and tough to play against. Both willingly engage the physical side of the game and do so at a high level.
Harmon brings the added bonus of giving Ryan another power play specialist from the point, a role Fast has been logging by herself for the most part.
In terms of age, the Sceptres gain appreciably in the swap of defenceman exchanging Larocque’s 36 years for the 29-year-old Harmon while Scamurra is two years older than Bach.
While perhaps not as top-end elite as the first trade in league history that saw then reigning Patty Kazmaier winner Sophie Jaques move from Boston to Minnesota in exchange for Finnish star forward Susanna Tapani and defender Abby Cook, this trade will most assuredly shake things up.