Ottawa PWHL team signs Brianne Jenner, Emily Clark, and Emerance Maschmeyer

The Ottawa PWHL team has agreed to three-year contracts with forwards Brianne Jenner and Emily Clark and goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer, the club announced Tuesday afternoon.

All three players have won gold with Team Canada at various international ice hockey competitions, including the Winter Olympics. The Ottawa team did not disclose financial details of the agreements with Jenner, Clark, and Maschmeyer

“We are thrilled with the three players we have signed as the inaugural players for the Ottawa franchise,” Ottawa general manager Mike Hirshfield said Tuesday. “We are focused on making Ottawa a best-in-class organization in the PWHL, a place where players want to come and play. Building a culture is important to us and we believe these three players are incredibly well-respected and will help us to lay the foundation of the type of organization we aspire to be.”

Jenner, 32, is a 5’9″ forward who has represented Canada at three Winter Olympics and nine World Championships. The Oakville, Ontario product won the Clarkson Cup with the CWHL’s Calgary Inferno in 2019 before joining the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association. At Beijing 2022, Jenner led Team Canada with nine goals in seven games en route to her second Olympic gold medal.

Clark, 27, hails from Saskatoon and starred at the University of Wisconsin before joining the PWHPA in 2019. The 5’7″ forward appeared in her first World Championship with Team Canada back in 2015 and made her Olympic debut three years later. In 2022, Clark managed three points (two goals, one assist) in seven games at the Olympics as the Canadians returned to the top of the podium.

Maschmeyer, 28, appeared in two games at Beijing 2022 while primarily serving as Ann-Renée Desbiens’ backup with Team Canada. She formerly played with Jenner on the Inferno before being traded to Les Canadiennes de Montreal, with whom she lost to Calgary in the 2019 Clarkson Cup Final. Maschmeyer is a 5’6″ goaltender who starred at Harvard University before turning pro in 2016.

Each of the PWHL’s six teams (Boston, New York, Minnesota, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa) became eligible to sign three players to Standard Player Agreements on September 1, with the Ottawa team being the first to announce its signings.

The free agency period will continue through September 10, while the 2023 PWHL Draft — covering the players not signed in free agency — will take place on September 18.