Settling into their new home rinks

Ashton Bell isn’t taking this experience for granted.

The Manitoba-born blue liner — a product of Deloraine, about an hour south of Brandon — has won three world championships and Olympic gold at the 2022 Games in Beijing, yet Bell calls being the captain of one of the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s newest franchises the biggest accomplishment of her career.

“It’s definitely something I don’t take lightly, and definitely show up every day with that chip on your shoulder that you have to lead by example and just be a good role model for not only them, but girls in this community, as well,” said Bell, who wears the “C” for the Vancouver Goldeneyes.

Bell, who spent her first two pro seasons with the Ottawa Charge, was selected No. 1 overall by the Goldeneyes in June’s expansion draft and inked a two-year extension to stay on the West Coast through the 2027-28 season.

On Saturday, she recorded her first goal (and point) as captain during Vancouver’s 4-0 shutout of the New York Sirens at Pacific Coliseum. Bell said she believes she’s begun to settle in as captain.

“Super exciting all around. The girls are excited to be a part of growing hockey here out West and to be a part of this inaugural team in Vancouver, and I think the fans are equally excited, if not more,” said the 26-year-old.

Bell is one of three Manitobans who are experiencing life as a member of an expansion franchise, along with goaltenders Kristen Campbell and Corinne Schroeder. Campbell, who grew up in Brandon and spent the last two seasons with the Toronto Sceptres, has backed up Emerance Maschmeyer in Vancouver, appearing in one game this season.

Meanwhile, Schroeder is further south, tending the crease with the Seattle Torrent. The Elm Creek product was on the losing end of a fantastic 4-3 contest between the two expansion franchises that needed overtime to begin the season.

Schroeder, who played university at Boston College and Quinnipac (Connecticut), and spent her first two PWHL seasons with the New York Sirens, is enjoying the West Coast life for the first time as a hockey player.

“It’s been incredible. The support we’ve had in the city has been huge. Massive sports city, huge hockey city in itself,” she said. “They’re very excited to have us here; they showed that on opening night, we had a (U.S. professional women’s record) attendance, which was amazing. They try to pack the house every game… It’s been super awesome to feel that love.”

“They try to pack the house every game… It’s been super awesome to feel that love.”

Schroeder was left unprotected by the Sirens and signed a two-year contract with Seattle in June.

“In terms of being a new team, you’re right from square one, so we’ve been doing a lot of hard work to get up to speed and build our team and the way we want to play. It’s been a challenge, but it’s something we’ve been working on — a lot like Year 1 in that sense.”

As Schroeder hinted, it hasn’t always been peachy as a member of a new franchise. There are serious growing pains as players work as quickly as possible to find chemistry on the ice while playing against established franchises.

Up in Vancouver, the Goldeneyes are feeling the same way. The club’s condensed training camp — about a week before opening night — didn’t help.

“It’s very interesting, like even I have underestimated what it would be like taking players from six different organizations, with six different operating structures, ways of doing things, and in a short amount of time, trying to put them together into a cohesive unit,” said Goldeneyes head coach Brian Idalski.

The Torrent have one win and two losses (one in overtime) out of the gates, while the Goldeneyes have two wins (one in overtime) and three losses.

It doesn’t stop there for the Goldeneyes, Idalski said.

Vancouver is still in the process of building out their space. The club, which is the primary tenant inside the Pacific Coliseum, has the benefit of full autonomy over its locker room and weight room, but that means it is also responsible for finishing its space.

Things like missing equipment from the weight room and uninstalled cabinets in the athletic trainers’ room seem small, but have impacted the day-to-day flow of things.

“You feel bad for some of them as athletes, some of the older players who have not only sacrificed to get this league going, but went through expansion once and now in year three, they feel like they’re back to ground zero and building up again,” said Idalski.

The elephant in the room — as Idalski called it — is that some of his players may have to go through it again next year.

It appears inevitable that the PWHL will be expanding again after this season, as multiple markets across the U.S. and Canada have shown significant interest, including Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton and Quebec City.

“The reality is some of these people are going to go through this expansion process three times,” Idalski said.

Bell, whom Idalski happily named captain before the season began, has stepped up when the going has gotten tough. She’s often been a calming voice, reminding everyone not to forget about the opportunity that is in front of them.

“It’s slowly getting there,” Bell said. “But what’s nice is we have this break right now, this international break, to kind of figure out logistical things. We just had our first road trip, so we learned a lot from that road trip on timing and scheduling stuff like that, and now we can kind of get settled into our home rink, and get things kind of finalized there.”

winnipegfreepress.com/joshuafreysam