PWHL Toronto ‘preparing’ to start next season without Natalie Spooner

In a media availability Thursday, PWHL Toronto General Manager Gina Kingsbury told reporters there’s no timeline for Natalie Spooner’s return after her recent surgery, and the team is going into the offseason with the belief she may not be ready for the start of next season.

“We’re preparing for this draft and free agency in the event that she will not be ready to start the season with us,” Kingsbury said. “If she does, great. If not, we want to make sure we’re doing our due diligence to equip our team with the players that will allow us to be successful in her absence.”

Spooner suffered a knee injury in Game 3 of their first-round series against Minnesota, with the team announcing soon after she would be out for the remainder of the playoffs.

The incident occurred when Minnesota forward Grace Zumwinkle laid a hit on Spooner, causing her fall both hard and awkwardly into the boards. She would crawl off the ice and need help getting to the locker room.

In the PWHL’s inaugural season, there was no player more dominant than Spooner. The 33-year-old finished as both the Top Goal Scorer with 20 and the Points Leader with 27.

She was also named one of the finalists for the PWHL Billie Jean King MVP Award, along with New York forward Alex Carpenter and Montreal forward Marie-Philip Poulin.

Her 20 goals were nine more than the two second-place goal scorers, her teammate Sarah Nurse and Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle. She also led the league in several other categories: six multi-goal games, seven power-play goals, the highest points-per-game with 1.13 and a league-leading 101 shots.

Toronto finished No. 1 in the league with a 17-7-0 record, but was eliminated in five games by Minnesota, who would go on to win the Walter Cup in five games over Boston.