Editor’s Note: This story was finished just before news broke that the PHF was bought out. We wanted to share this content with our paid subscribers as a glimpse into what might have been for the Metropolitan Riveters in the 2023-24 PHF season – a season that will never happen.
We hear a lot about the importance of center depth in hockey. One needs only look at past championship rosters in the PHF, CWHL, and PWHPA to appreciate some of the benefits of being stacked down the middle. A balanced, play-driving center can be integral to a team’s success at even strength and having more than one of them is a recipe to winning regular season championships and playoff series.
This offseason, we’ve seen arguably the best Metropolitan Riveters team in the club’s history come together. One reason for all the excitement is what Ivo Mocek and Venla Hovi have managed to do at the center position.
Let’s start with what hasn’t changed.
The Riveters brought back one of its top-six centers in Sarah Bujold and valuable bottom-six center and faceoff wonder Kennedy Ganser. Both were successful free agent additions to last year’s roster. Last season, Bujold was a revelation with 20 points in 23 GP after three years of elite production in the SDHL. Ganser, who came over from the Beauts, finished sixth among Riveters forwards in scoring (2 goals, 9 assists) while checking off every box a coach could ask for with her play in all three zones.
The Riveters made room for new blood at center by cutting ties with bruising veteran Kelly Babstock and longtime Riveter Kendall Cornine. Last season, they were the only other holdovers from the 2021-22 squad with captain Madison Packer.
Babstock shared the team lead in scoring with Packer last season by posting 21 points in 24 games. An elite agitator, she led the team with 30 PIM and was a force on the faceoff dot. Cornine, a New Jersey native, had played four seasons with the Rivs, but had a frustrating 2023-24 campaign that yielded just three goals and four assists. Babstock remains a free agent and Cornine has taken her talents to the Connecticut Whale.
Replacing Babstock and Cornine are two marquee free agents: Finnish Olympian Susanna Tapani and Czech Olympian and former Whale Kateřina Mrázová.
Tapani had an explosive 2021-22 season highlighted by standout performances at the Olympics and the 2022 Worlds before devoting 2022-2023 to her other elite sport, ringette. Now 30, she’s a world class athlete who can do essentially everything at an elite level. Tapani will comfortably assume the mantle of the Riveters’ top center. She’s been productive at every level and in every league she’s played in – we will see more of the same in the PHF. Expect Tapani to also be on the top power play unit and on the ice killing penalties.
Mrázová is a much different player than Tapani. At 5-foot-4, Mrázová’s game is all about dexterity, quickness, and overwhelming the opposition with a combination of those tools. Her hands are among the very best in the game, which makes her a natural fit as the team’s other top six center. I expect Mrázová to play a bigger role with the Riveters than she had with the Whale last season where she piled up 17 points in 19 GP.
I think we all want to see Mrázová on a line with Nemo Neubauerova, but McKenna Brand, Fanni Gasparics, and Sarah Bujold should also complement her skill set. Brand’s two-way game could free up Mrázová to do what she does best – get creative. Bujold and Gasparics both established their value in the offensive zone last season with the Riveters. At center or wing and whoever she’s skating with, Mrázová will generate highlight-worthy plays.
Also in the mix at the center position is big rookie Lexie Adzija, who finished her fifth season at Quinnipiac with a dominant 59.27 FO%. She will give the Riveters size down the middle with her 5-foot-10 frame which sounds promising with all the skilled wingers in the mix. Adzija is big and uses her size well, but like Tapani, she’s disciplined. She finished her collegiate career with 50 PIM in 151 GP. That ability to be a physical presence while staying out of the box is something the Riveters have desperately needed.
Adzija slotting in as the Riveters third line center would mean either Bujold or Mrázová playing wing in the top-six. On paper, that sounds like two stacked scoring lines and a third line that can drive possession and finish in the green in even strength goal differential. The depth at center represented by Bujold, Ganser, Tapani, Mrázová, and Adzija is something to be reckoned with. This is something no other Riveters team has ever had.
Right now, there are no wrong answers for mixing and matching the lines. Answers will emerge in camp and practices before the puck drops on the season. The goal for Hovi and Mocek will be to find the combinations that provide the most balance while also making this roster greater than the sum of its parts.
Data courtesy of pick224.com, EliteProspects.com, and the author’s own work.