Goldeneyes hand the GM job to NHL lawyer Alison Izzi

The Vancouver Goldeneyes have a general manager again. The PWHL named Alison Izzi to the job on Tuesday, filling the seat Cara Gardner Morey left in July when she moved behind the bench as head coach.

Izzi is a lawyer by trade, and her résumé reads like a league office, not a scouting department. She most recently worked in the NHL's legal department on hockey operations and player safety files, per TSN and the Canadian Press.

Before that she was the AHL's vice president of hockey operations and governance, sitting on the minor league's legal and collective bargaining committees.

She started out in ticketing and events with the Providence Bruins, per the PWHL's release. Eight-plus years later she's running a pro team.

Why this hire

Jayna Hefford, the PWHL's executive VP of hockey operations, made the case in the release: "She has spent her career working across so many areas that are central to running a professional hockey team."

Read between the lines. The Goldeneyes already have their hockey person. Gardner Morey built the roster as GM for the inaugural season, and now she gets the bench.

What the front office needed was someone who can handle contracts, collective bargaining and league paperwork without a learning curve. That's Izzi's whole career.

The team has 18 of 23 roster spots filled for 2026-27, per Daily Faceoff's Tyler Kuehl, so the first job is finishing the roster before camp opens on Nov. 18.

What she inherits

Not a lot of wins, but a lot of upside. Vancouver went 9-18-3 in its first season and was the first team eliminated from playoff contention, per the Canadian Press. The consolation prize was the No. 1 overall pick in June, and the Goldeneyes used it on Wisconsin defender Caroline Harvey.

Harvey is the reigning Patty Kazmaier winner. She put up 18 goals and 64 points in 33 college games and won Olympic gold with the U.S. in February, per TSN. A franchise defender and a coach who already knows the room is a decent place to start a rebuild.

Ferda take

Hiring a lawyer to run a hockey team is not the sexy move, and that's the point. The PWHL is four seasons old and 12 teams deep, and the teams that win the next few years will be the ones that stop making paperwork mistakes.

Izzi has been on the other side of the table at the NHL and AHL. She knows where the bodies are buried in a CBA.

Also worth noting: with this hire, nine of the league's 12 GMs are women, per the Canadian Press. That's not a quota story. That's a league growing its own executive class from people who've been in the sport for years.

What's next

Izzi's hire fills the PWHL's last open GM or head coaching job before the fourth season starts in late November or early December, per the Canadian Press.

Vancouver's camp opens Nov. 18 with the rest of the league. Five roster spots, one new boss, and a No. 1 pick who's about to make the blue line a lot more fun to watch.