After winning the 2025 NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey National Championship, a pair of Wisconsin Badgers had their sights set on their next step: the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Forward Casey O’Brien, Wisconsin’s all-time points leader, was expected to be taken early in the draft, with many believing she could even be taken first overall by the New York Sirens. O’Brien didn’t wait too long, being drafted third overall by New York after they traded defender Ella Shelton to Toronto in exchange for the third pick.
Playing for the Sirens will be a homecoming for O’Brien, who was born in New York City before moving to Boston at age 10. O’Brien notched 274 points over five years with the Badgers, winning three national championships and the Patty Kazmaier Award, recognizing the top female ice hockey player in the country, in the process.
O’Brien will join a Sirens team that finished at the bottom of the PWHL last year. The Sirens prioritized defense in the expansion draft process and ended up losing star forward Alex Carpenter and goaltender Corinne Schroeder on top of trading former Badger forward Abby Roque. O’Brien is projected to be the Sirens’ second-line center behind 2025 Rookie of the Year Sarah Fillier.
Forward Sarah Wozniewicz was taken in the third round by the Ottawa Charge. Wozniewicz put up 71 points in her college career, but that doesn’t show her full impact on the ice. Wozniewicz was an important defensive piece of the national championship squad, whose strong forechecking ability should translate well to the faster pace of the PWHL.
This season, Wozniewicz showed some clutch scoring ability, scoring the game-winning goal in the waning seconds of Wisconsin’s WCHA Final Faceoff championship victory over Minnesota.
Wozniewicz will enter into a much better situation than O’Brien, joining a Charge team fresh off a PWHL finals appearance. Ottawa stifled teams with a tough defense and amazing goaltending last year, but was dispatched in five games by the now two-time champion Minnesota Frost. The Charge didn’t lose quite as much as the Sirens in the expansion process, but still had to say goodbye to players like goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer and defender Ashton Bell. Wozniewicz is likely to be a depth piece as Ottawa tries to build on their 2024-25 success.
