Renata Fast is a free agent and in the last few days, she has spent hours on the phone. Not only with the Toronto Sceptres, the club the Team Canada blueliner has played for since Day 1 of the PWHL, but also with her agent and friends around the league as she tries to figure out her future and navigate the changes coming ahead of Season 4.
“It’s been a little bit chaotic, to be honest,” the league’s 2024-25 Defender of the Year says, with a laugh. “There’s always something new happening.”
Free agency itself is full of possibility and chaos for players who could be heading to new markets, and Fast is just one name on a long list of stars in that boat, including the likes of Taylor Heise, Sarah Nurse, Daryl Watts, Alex Carpenter, Hilary Knight, Susanna Tapani and Kendall Coyne Schofield.
But there are unique wrinkles this offseason, since the league is adding four new franchises, in Hamilton, Ont., Detroit, Las Vegas and San Jose.
The six-phase process of filling out those four expansion rosters without decimating existing franchises begins today and includes signing periods, protection-list deadlines and plenty of rules to ensure competitiveness — all laid out in a 13-page document full of dates and explanations.
“You read it quite a few times, you ask a lot of questions,” says Detroit GM Manon Rhéaume.
“Since I got up and running — and I'm assuming my counterparts as well — [the league has] been providing us with as much feedback, you know, Q&A, FAQs, information, that we need to build a competitive team,” adds Hamilton GM, Meghan Duggan.
For anyone who doesn't have the league office on speed dial, the PWHL's Professor Puck did an explainer video. That it's nearly 13 minutes long offers a hint at the intricacy of the process.
Troy Ryan, the former Sceptres bench boss turned San Jose head coach and GM, says the “complexity” of the rules around building teams and protecting existing franchises “is what gives me optimism that it is going to be fair, it is going to be beneficial to both existing teams and expansion teams.”
Ryan has reminders on his phone and computer about upcoming deadlines and signing days, but he points out that new GMs aren’t “in full control” in some stages. That includes what’s to come on June 2 and 3, when the eight existing franchises (Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Seattle, Minnesota, Boston, New York and the Walter Cup champions from Montreal) each submit their list of three protected players.
“You try to predict what other teams and other markets may do, but ultimately, you've got to be flexible and adjust along the way,” Ryan says. “I'm trying to cross as many T's and dot the I's as I can, but the league does a really good job of keeping us on track.”
The negotiating window opened for all 12 teams today, with each submitting a list of 10 players with whom they’d like to negotiate. The signing period for existing teams starts on Tuesday.
Fast says that in an ideal world, she’ll know what her next season looks like by June 3. If she stays in Toronto, she has to agree to a new deal there first before the team can protect her.
“I feel a lot of pride being a Sceptre and the foundation that we’ve built, and being a part of that from Day 1. But obviously, there’s so much up in the air and a lot to happen in the coming days and weeks, so we’ll see where things land,” Fast says.
Her early conversations with Toronto GM Gina Kingsbury have been “great”. Still, she points out she’s open to change, with both geographical and financial priorities in mind.
“I have a pecking order of what makes sense for me, but at the end of the day, we’re pros,” says Fast, who was Toronto’s highest-paid player last season, at $106,090, which ranked sixth-highest league-wide.
“You have to be ready to do what the league might want of you, just based on expansion rules, and what’s best for you in your situation.”
Fast and her husband live in her hometown of Burlington, Ont. From downtown Burlington, it’s just 15 kilometres to TD Coliseum, where PWHL Hamilton will play its home games. Fast was excited to find out the city was part of expansion, and since Hamilton is the lone PWHL team that exists in a market that’s not also home to an NHL club, “it makes the franchise even more special,” she says.
“This is the professional team in the city, and they can own that. They can own that building. It’s really neat, and I think they’re going to build a really cool fan base,” Fast adds, pointing out the rivalry with Toronto is going to be intense.
Fast has been in touch with other players on expiring contracts as they navigate the many changes happening. She had a good FaceTime recently with pal Erin Ambrose, who just won the Walter Cup, and a chat with Jamie Lee Rattray not long after Boston’s season ended.
“I think everyone's just been trying to figure out for the last couple weeks what the rules are going to be, what are things going to look like, different scenarios that can arise, feeling a little bit like we’re in limbo, not knowing what’s next,” Fast says. “The news is always breaking in the PWHL.”
Between today’s player lists and the various signing windows, it’s a 19-day stretch. The draft, which features a stacked class headlined by American standout Caroline Harvey, comes 17 days in.
A lot has to happen before draft day.
“We need to see what we are going to get during the expansion, because our needs may change,” says Rhéaume of Detroit’s priorities.
“I’m unbelievably confident in my ability through this expansion phase process to build a competitive team,” says Duggan. “I’ve got a great group of consultants in place that have been grinding away over the last short period of time to put Hamilton in the position to really be a competitive team right out of the gates…. I'm just excited. There's a lot of dates as a part of this and deadlines where things need to be submitted, and I'm just ready to get it going.”
Though rosters won’t be fully constructed for a while yet, those first big steps happen this week.
“There’s so much news and you’re kind of cycling through it, trying to figure out what’s true, what’s not — the rumour mill is real,” Fast says, laughing.
“And things are going to happen real quick here, starting very soon.”