Reigning PWHL MVP Natalie Spooner will make her season debut for the Toronto Sceptres on Tuesday after having low season knee surgical procedure.
However her return coincides with one other main loss for the Sceptres, after ahead Sarah Nurse was injured enjoying for Crew Canada on the Rivalry Sequence final week.
Spooner was damage final Could in a collision into the boards throughout Recreation 3 of the crew’s first-round Walter Cup playoff sequence in opposition to Minnesota, which went on to win the championship.
The ahead will make her debut in opposition to the identical crew on Tuesday, when the Sceptres host the Frost at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
“I am excited to be again with my teammates and looking out ahead to competing subsequent to them once more,” Spooner mentioned in an announcement.
“It was clearly a protracted highway to get thus far and would not occur with out numerous wonderful individuals in my nook. I am very grateful for my surgical and medical crew which have gotten me again to full well being.”
Spooner received the Billie Jean King MVP and prime ahead awards final season after main all gamers in factors (27) and objectives (20). She was additionally named the IIHF’s feminine participant of the 12 months.
Even after lacking half of the Sceptres’ video games this season, Spooner remains to be tied with Montreal’s Marie-Philip Poulin for the all-time PWHL goal-scoring lead (20 objectives).
“We have been patiently ready for the return of Natalie Spooner,” Sceptres GM Gina Kingsbury mentioned.
“We’re tremendously happy with the work she has invested in getting herself thus far. This has been a protracted journey, and he or she has proven all through this course of simply how elite of an athlete she is.”
Nurse out ‘indefinitely’
To make room for Spooner, the crew moved rookie defender Lauren Bernard to the reserve checklist and launched ahead Sam Cogan from the reserve participant pool.
WATCH | PWHL Mic’d Up with Toronto’s Emma Maltais:
Hear in to the perfect on-ice moments from Canadian ahead Emma Maltais because the Toronto Sceptres defeat the Ottawa Cost 4-2.
Whereas including Spooner will present a lift to the Sceptres, they will miss Nurse, who was moved to long-term injured reserve on Monday. She’ll be out of the lineup “indefinitely” after sustaining a lower-body damage in Thursday’s Rivalry Sequence recreation in opposition to the US.
The damage seems to have occurred when Nurse collided awkwardly together with her Sceptres teammate, Jesse Compher, who was enjoying for the U.S.
Nurse has registered 12 factors in 15 video games, together with 5 objectives, for a Sceptres crew that has struggled to search out its footing for a lot of the season.
The Sceptres sit in fourth place within the six-team league going into Tuesday’s recreation in opposition to Minnesota, only one level behind third-place New York.
The crew went into the worldwide break with a key 4-2 win over Ottawa that allowed the Sceptres to move the Cost and transfer from final place to fourth. However the crew can be challenged to maintain that momentum going after a nine-day break and the lack of Nurse.
WATCH | Mic’d Up with Nurse:
Hear in to the perfect on-ice moments from Canadian ahead Sarah Nurse because the Toronto Sceptres defeat the New York Sirens 4-2.
Along with Spooner, the crew has additionally added German ahead Laura Kluge for the remainder of the season.
Kluge, who simply helped her nation earn a spot on the 2026 Olympics, attended the Sceptres’ coaching camp within the fall.
“Laura had an ideal coaching camp with us and left an ideal impression on our complete crew,” Kingsbury mentioned. “She is going to add to our crew each on and off the ice.”
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