PWHL New York drafts Sarah Fillier with No. 1 pick
Tap here to view each pick from Monday's PWHL draft.
New York selected forward Sarah Fillier with the first overall pick in the 2024 PWHL Draft on Monday.
Fillier was regarded as the top player available with her impressive resume. At just 23 years old, she has an Olympic gold medal and three world championship golds, plus two All-Star Team nods and an MVP at the Worlds.
The Georgetown, Ontario, native recently wrapped up an extended career at Princeton University. She tallied 30 goals and 43 points in 29 contests this season, and over her 120-game NCAA career, she accumulated 93 goals and 194 points.
With elite speed and a lethal shot, Fillier projects as an immediate high-end scorer and a future MVP-caliber talent.
Fillier joins a New York team that finished last in the PWHL's inaugural campaign. Despite the team's underwhelming record, New York has major award finalists in forward Alex Carpenter, defender Ella Shelton, and goaltender Corinne Schroeder (who's a pending free agent).
Fillier played left wing for most of the campaign at Princeton and with Canada at the Worlds. She described herself as a "natural center" and noted that this was her first experience playing the wing in her career.
"I'm kind of willing to play wherever the team that I go to needs me to play," Fillier told theScore on Thursday. "I feel like I can play kind of different styles. At center, I feel like I play a full 200-foot game and can contribute both offensively and defensively. And then I feel like playing wing, it kind of opens me up a bit in the offensive zone. I can kind of like fly the zone a bit more and get a bit more threatening offensive chances off the rush."
Toronto's Maggie Connors, a former teammate at Princeton, and Montreal star Marie-Philip Poulin were two players Fillier said she's looking forward to facing in the PWHL.
View Fillier's highlights here.