Starring for the Yale Bulldogs, Seattle Torrent 50th-overall pick Gracie Gilkyson was a reliable, minute-eating top pair defender and power play quarterback going against Ivy League competition. In a lesser role during her PWHL rookie season, will she be able to adjust?

“She's a very complete player,” Yale assistant coach Erica Kromm said of Gilkyson. “She can be offensive, but she's also defensive. So I think [it’s important] for her to [continue] that.”

Gilkyson had nine goals and 27 points in 36 games in her senior year for Yale. That was a big step, as she had 31 points in 87 games throughout her first three seasons for the Bulldogs. In her last season, she commanded a huge role and blocked a team-leading 59 shots, stuffing the stat sheet in a myriad of ways.

“She really grew in terms of her defensive play and just her ability,” Kromm said. “She's really quick, so her ability to close time and space on players, have a good stick, make good contact: things like that really grew over her four years.”

While top five pick Abbey Murphy will draw most of the attention heading towards her first PWHL season, Seattle Torrent fourth round draft pick Grace Elliott has the upside to be “one of the most unique players in women's hockey.”

That’s according to women’s hockey scout and The Score contributor Kyle Cushman. Elliott was one of two U Sports (Canadian college) players drafted in the 2026 PWHL Draft. She was the 2024-25 Broderick Award winner as the top women’s U Sports player. Last season, she put up a league-leading 24 goals and was third with 37 points in 28 games.

But dominating a lower-level of hockey isn’t worthy of a fourth round pick. The other 2026 draftee from U Sports was taken with the last pick in the draft, and it was by her hometown team. Elliott’s selection comes with a bigger expectation.

“I don't want to frame it as ‘the upside stops with her height,’ because I think that's a disservice to the player, but she wouldn't have the upside that she has if not for her height,” Cushman explained to the Emerald City Spectrum.

Even though the Seattle Torrent finished last in the PWHL standings last season as an expansion franchise, their top line next season could be the scariest in the league.

With the second overall pick, the Torrent added a world class goal-scorer in Abbey Murphy. On Seattle’s top line, Murphy will have solid linemates with USA teammate Alex Carpenter and Canadian Olympian Julia Gosling.

Abbey Murphy

Murphy was the consensus second-overall pick behind Caroline Harvey. She tallied 40 goals and 66 points in 33 games in her University of Minnesota fifth-year. She won gold with Team USA at Milan, and has represented her country internationally since 2021.

While her on-ice antics and embellishment sees her take lots of penalties, it also frustrates opponents. Even at 5-5, she’s still a physical player. Torrent general manager Meghan Turner likes her fit on a potential top line.

The Seattle Torrent, who finished last in the PWHL last season, will have made nine new additions to their roster. After losing captain Hilary Knight and top pairing defender Cayla Barnes, the lineup had some holes.

But after drafting an eliter goal scorer-second overall, addressing defensive depth later in the draft, and adding high upside European free agents; the Torrent lineup looks substantially different.

How will Seattle’s revamped lineup look when the season opens?

Continuing to overhaul their roster going into their second season as a franchise, the Seattle Torrent added an elite goal scorer, solid defensive depth, fun swings on forwards, and a flier on an Italian goalie at the 2026 PWHL Draft.

General manager Meghan Turner used all six of her picks in the draft, not moving around the board at all. Behind the clear second-overall pick in Abbey Murphy, Turner still made worthwhile additions. Hopefully the prospects can help the Torrent, who finished last in the PWHL and had the league’s worst goals-against, to a better 2026-27 season performance.

Scouts generally liked the Torrent additions. The Hockey News graded the draft an ‘A,’ because “their roster already looks far more solid than last season, which is saying a lot given the losses they suffered in expansion and the high expectations they had in year one.”

Who did the Torrent land in their second-ever draft and how does each member of the six-player class fit into their plans?

The Torrent suffered a bad loss in Minnesota on Sunday, as two Frost each scored a pair of goals and two more chipped in for a 6-2 rout. What kept Seattle from turning the game around, either early or late?

Playing the role of underdog in Boston, the Torrent fought back from an early deficit with several chances to knot the score in the final minutes, only for those efforts to come up short. What went wrong in Seattle’s latest road defeat?

In the eighth game of the Torrent’s young existence saw thrilling heroics from upcoming 2026 Team USA Olympians and a stalwart performance from PWHL original Corinne Schroeder. How did Seattle best Toronto in the Takeover Tour festivities in Hamilton?

Although there was a fair amount of life both early and late for the Torrent in their rematch against the New York Sirens, it was still not enough to prevent a Casey O’Brien hat trick and a Seattle loss.