The W: Izzi takes the last open seat, and Wisconsin is the target

This is the first edition of The W, so a word on what it is. Every Wednesday this column covers the women's game as hockey: the PWHL, the college season, the national teams. No throat-clearing about whether it deserves the space. It does. Let's go.

The last empty chair

The PWHL has 12 front offices for the first time, and as of Tuesday all 12 are staffed. Vancouver named Alison Izzi general manager of the Goldeneyes, filling the seat Cara Gardner Morey left in July when she moved behind the bench as head coach.

Izzi is a lawyer, not a former player. Per the league's release, she clerked in the NHL's legal department and before that was the AHL's vice president of hockey operations and governance, sitting on its collective bargaining committee. Player contracting and league administration are her lane.

That's a telling hire for a team that needs a rebuild done properly. The Canadian Press's account of the move notes Vancouver went 9-18-3 in its first season, was the first team out of the playoff race, and fired coach Brian Idalski before taking Caroline Harvey first overall in June.

Now the roster gets built by someone who has read every page of a CBA. Per the CP, nine of the league's 12 GMs are women.

The W read: Vancouver hired a contract person to run the team that just took the No. 1 pick. That's the right order of operations.

San Jose is building from the draft

The newest team on the West Coast signed two more of its draft picks Tuesday. Forward Sloane Matthews (Ohio State, 16th overall) and goalie Tia Chan (UConn, 28th overall) each took three-year deals through 2028-29, per Daily Faceoff. That puts 16 players under contract in San Jose.

Chan is the one to circle. Daily Faceoff lists her senior line at UConn as a .951 save percentage and a 1.55 goals-against average, with 27 wins and the national goaltender of the year award. She also has Olympic and Worlds experience with China.

A third-round pick with that résumé is a scouting win before the team has played a game.

Matthews brings 44 points from her senior year and four straight national title game appearances with the Buckeyes. And she joins Laila Edwards, the fourth overall pick who signed her own three-year deal on Sept. 14.

The league's release on Edwards noted she was the first of San Jose's draft class to sign and, at the time, the only player on the roster locked in through 2028-29. Now there are three, and all three are 2026 picks. That's a front office telling you who its core is.

The college weekend that matters

College hockey is back, and the poll argument is already on. USCHO's preseason poll has Wisconsin first, Ohio State second and Minnesota third, per the Gophers' athletics site. The WCHA coaches went the other way, putting Ohio State on top 48 points to 44 over the Badgers, per Badgers Wire. Daily Faceoff's Tyler Kuehl also leads with the Buckeyes.

Rivalry file: Wisconsin and Ohio State have met in four straight national championship games. The Badgers won the last two. Ohio State returns Hilda Svensson and Joy Dunne, per Kuehl, but needs a new starting goalie. Wisconsin has Ava McNaughton in net and Adéla Šapovalivová up front. They'll also play outdoors at Lambeau Field on Feb. 20. Circle it.

Out East, the Hockey East coaches gave Northeastern eight of ten first-place votes over UConn, per Boston College's release on the poll. The Huskies went 29-9-1 and reached the Frozen Four, and New England Hockey Journal's Eli Cloutier has them bringing back four of their top five scorers.

Stryker Zablocki put up 44 points as a freshman and won the conference player of the year, per Daily Faceoff. Lisa Jonsson posted a .939 in goal.

Kazmaier board, week one: Zablocki, Svensson and Šapovalivová are the names to start with. Quinnipiac's Kahlen Lamarche scored 42 goals last season, per Kuehl, and nobody has explained to me why she isn't in that conversation.

National-team note

The IIHF Women's World Championship runs Nov. 6-16 in Herning and Esbjerg, Denmark. It's before PWHL camps open on Nov. 18, which is the league doing the sane thing and building its calendar around the tournament instead of through it. Training camp rosters land the week of Oct. 5.

The Euro Hockey Tour stop in Lahti is the appetizer. Finland alone brings seven PWHL players, including Susanna Tapani and Petra Nieminen, per The Hockey News. Czechia's roster is nearly a PWHL all-star list. If you want a read on the Worlds field before Denmark, that's the tape.

What I'm watching

The rumor that Hockey Night in Canada will hitch itself to the PWHL this season. CBC and Sportsnet ended their NHL arrangement earlier this year, so the Saturday-night brand needs a home, and the speculation writes itself. But it's speculation. HockeyFeed's piece points to a Thursday announcement without naming who reported the partnership. Nobody with a byline has. Grade: Smoke.

If it lands, it's the biggest broadcast story in league history. Until then, the men's-hockey guys can discover the PWHL again in April like they always do.