Report: Toronto’s PWHL team to sign Sarah Nurse, Renata Fast, and Blayre Turnbull

Toronto’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team has reportedly signed forwards Sarah Nurse & Blayre Turnbull and defender Renata Fast, according to Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek.

The signings come as the PWHL begins it’s process to start forming it’s six teams and the players involved. Nurse, Turnbull, and Fast were signed as Toronto’s allotted three players they were allowed to sign in free agency. They will fill out the rest of their roster through the draft on September 18th, which Toronto holds the second pick in the first round for before the rest of the draft order is snaked.

Nurse, 28, is the biggest name of the bunch, as she’s one of the top players in women’s hockey right now, with 6 goals, 13 assists, and 19 points in 12 games for Canada at the Olympics and 9 goals, 14 assists, and 23 points in 28 games at the Women’s World Championships, including four goals, four assists, and eight assists in seven games at the 2023 championship. She’s accumulated four gold medals, two silver, and one bronze during her international playing career, including gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. She also played for the Toronto Furies in her one season of CWHL action in 2018-19, where she had 14 goals, 12 assists, and 26 points in 26 games.

Fast, 28, has one goal, four assists, and five points in eight games on the blueline for Canada at the Olympics and 3 goals, 17 assists, and 20 points in 33 games at the Women’s World Championships, including one goal, four assists, and five points in seven games at the 2023 championship. She’s accumulated three gold medals, three silver, and one bronze during her international playing career, including gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. She also spent three seasons with the Furies in the CWHL from 2016 to 2019, where she had 6 goals, 11 assists, and 17 points in 49 games during that span.

Turnbull, 30, has 4 goals, 6 assists, and 10 points in 12 games for Canada at the Olympics and 11 goals, 9 assists, and 20 points in 37 games at the Women’s World Championships, including two goals, four assists, and six points in seven games at the 2023 championship. She’s accumulated three gold medals, four silver, and one bronze during her international playing career, including gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. She also spent four seasons with the Calgary Inferno in the CWHL from 2015 to 2019, where she had 28 goals, 27 assists, and 55 points in 73 games during that span.

The PWHL will mark the official merger of the NWHL/PHF and the PWHPA, and allow the two parties to operate as one league with all of the best players in women’s hockey on one stage for everyone to see. The NWHL/PHF has been the only professional women’s hockey league since 2019 when the CWHL folded, while players under the PWHPA would play independent games while on strike with the NWHL/PHF.