Sceptres activate Natalie Spooner, will make season debut on Tuesday against Frost
She’s finally back.
The Toronto Sceptres announced that forward Natalie Spooner has been activated off long-term injured reserve. She will make her season debut on Tuesday night against the Minnesota Frost.
“I’m excited to be back with my teammates and looking forward to competing next to them again,” Spooner said in a release. “It was obviously a long road to get to this point and doesn’t happen without a lot of amazing people in my corner. I’m very grateful for my surgical and medical team that have gotten me back to full health.”
Spooner has been out of action since suffering a knee injury in Game 3 of last year’s semifinals, coincidentally against Minnesota. The absence of the team’s star completely changed the mood of the series, as Minnesota was able to come back from a 2-0 deficit to eliminate Toronto before beating Boston to win the first-ever Walter Cup.
The Scarborough native has been on LTIR ever since, having to miss the team’s first 15 games of the season while recovering from surgery.
“We’ve been patiently waiting for the return of Natalie Spooner,” general manager Gina Kingsbury said. “We are tremendously proud of the work she has invested in getting herself to this point. This has been a long journey, and she has shown throughout this process just how elite of an athlete she is.”
The injury dampened what was an incredible season for Spooner. She won the Top Goal Scorer and Points Leader awards after finishing with a league-high 20 goals and 27 points. Spooner was named the league’s Forward of the Year, becoming the first recipient of the Billie Jean King MVP Award. She was also named the IIHF Female Player of the Year.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Spooner performs coming out of the gate. Being out of game action for almost nine months, rust is to be expected. Yet, we’ve seen Spooner shake off any doubts after an extended break, albeit under different circumstances. After giving birth to her son, Rory, in December 2022, she was back playing for Team Canada at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship, posting a respectable six points in seven games as the Canadians took home the silver medal.
Spooner will be without her top linemate from the league’s inaugural season. Sarah Nurse suffered a lower-body injury in Game 4 of the Rivalry Series last Thursday, with the Sceptres having to place her on LTIR. While that led to the signing of talented German forward Laura Kluge, being without her go-to playmaker will force Spooner to build chemistry with someone else for the foreseeable future.
In response to Spooner’s return to the lineup, the Sceptres released defender Lauren Bernard from her standard contract and placed her back on the team’s reserve list. Toronto was then forced to release forward Sam Cogan from Toronto’s reserve list.
The Sceptres (5-0-4-6) are fourth in the PWHL, two points ahead of the Ottawa Charge and Boston Fleet for the last playoff spot.