Growing up in Switzerland, Andrea Brändli always wanted to be the second woman to ever play in the NHL. Wednesday night at Fox Theater, the first woman to play in the NHL drafted her.
Brändli became PWHL Detroit’s first ever draft pick 15th overall in Wednesday night’s entry draft in front of a cheering hometown crowd at Fox Theater. General manager Manon Rheaume — the first woman to ever play in the NHL — was the one who selected Brändli, who could hardly contain her excitement.
“Oh, it was incredible,” Brändli said. “You know, I got a little, like, fan girl moment up there. No, it was incredible, standing up there with her, that she’s a trailblazer herself, and being her first pick in the draft is incredible.”
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Rheaume, a goaltender herself whose 1992 exhibition game appearance for Tampa Bay made her the first woman to suit up in the league, was named the inaugural general manager for PWHL Detroit. She didn’t add a goaltender in the expansion draft process because she had one in mind in the draft.
Brändli, 29, played four years of college hockey at Ohio State and a final year at Boston University from 2018 to 2023, owning a career record of 64-39-9 with a 1.99 goals against average and .929 save percentage.
When she graduated, she went back to Europe and played three seasons in Sweden — two for MoDo Hockey and her most recent for Frolunda. But it was her Olympic experience with Switzerland, which won bronze behind her play at the Milano-Cortina Games, that convinced her to make the jump to the PWHL, founded in 2023.
“It was a huge part,” Brändli said. “I was thinking about coming here before that, but the bronze medal kind of, like, was the tipping point when I was 100% sure that I will end up in this league, and I will end up as hopefully the starter.”
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Detroit traded its first round pick, third overall, in a sign-and-trade with expansion peer PWHL Las Vegas for star forward Hilary Knight.
For an expansion team, Brändli thinks she possesses traits that will help her first-year squad.
“I’m very calm,” she said. “I’m a calming presence behind, and I think with the team that they have already, I think where I’m a good addition to that, I think we can, we can use that … giving them the security of doing their own thing, and scoring.”
Casey Borgiel had a feeling that Detroit would get a PWHL expansion team when she started hearing about construction at Little Caesars Arena. She had no idea, however, that she’d be one of the first draft selections of that team a few months later.
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Borgiel, who grew up in Port Huron, became the second player ever drafted to PWHL Detroit when the organization drafted the defender in the second round, 22nd overall, Wednesday night at Fox Theater.
“I grew up an hour away,” Borgiel said. “I used to literally practice in the same facility I’m hopefully going to be practicing in again, so it’s like almost a full-circle moment.”
Borgiel played five seasons of AAA hockey for Little Caesars before playing college hockey at Holy Cross from 2022 to 2024 and two more at Colgate from 2024 to 2026. In 143 games, she scored 11 goals and 57 assists. What excites her about playing in the PWHL is the league’s physicality, where she excels, though she said this offseason will be all about getting stronger. For Detroit fans who want to see a physical game, she can provide that.
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“Every shift, I try and go out there, and I love to run my mouth, I love to get under people’s skin,” Borgiel said. “Growing up, I had a coach that was like, ‘Nobody gets within 10 feet of the net without taking a beating.’ So I’ve kind of grown up with that mindset.
“And I love that Detroit, if you go around, every sports team in Detroit, it’s about grit. So I think I would love to carry that over into the league and to keep it going.”
Regardless of where she went in the draft, Borgiel — a big fan of the PWHL since its 2023 launch — was going to follow Detroit’s new team. She paid sharp attention as general manager Manon Rheaume, who was Borgiel’s first girls’ hockey coach, started constructing a roster.
“I was like, oh, I wonder what Manon’s got up her sleeve,” said Borgiel, whose eyes got wide when Rheaume started rattling off big adds like Taylor Girard, Hilary Knight and Daryl Watts.
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“The signings were like, oh, wow, she just picked up those players in a row, and then I was like, wow, that would be unbelievable to walk in the locker room one day and be sitting the same way as those people, and let’s hope that’s a reality.”
It is, indeed, reality for Borgiel. So is playing women’s hockey all together. She said she could never have guessed this day would come growing up because a professional women’s league didn’t exist. Now, she’ll play for a pro women’s team in her hometown.
“It’s definitely like just an incredible experience to even be in Detroit, nevermind being drafted by the team that is hosting.”
Some of Borgiel’s new teammates should be quite familiar for her: She still plays with some of them in a summer league. In fact, Tuesday night — less than 24 hours before the draft — she and alumni of the Little Caesars AAA program got together for their weekly game at John Lindell Ice Arena in Royal Oak.
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Borgiel’s team won 4-2, though the result of that game is a source of faux controversy for the group: Borgiel says her new teammate Taylor Girard might’ve made a scoring error.
Borgiel is the second Michiganian off the board at the draft, behind another Little Caesars alumna in Wisconsin forward Kirsten Simms, who went eighth overall to Toronto. Both play on that same summer league team together. For the next generation of Little Caesars players — including some 2010-born players who she says make her feel old — Wednesday’s draft and the establishment of a PWHL team provides a blueprint Borgiel didn’t have growing up.
“It’s like being a role model in that top-tier summer league, but also just joking around with them and seeing that they can go from Michigan to University and then playing in the PWHL.”
And if there’s any pressure to playing in her home state, Borgiel says she’s ready for it.
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“I want to represent my state, and I want to do the best that I can do,” Borgiel said. “So, I do think it’s added pressure, but like anyone playing in the PWHL, it’s a step up from what you were doing, and regardless of where you’re playing, it’s going to be an unbelievable amount of action.”
@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Andrea Brändli, PWHL Detroit goalie, adds ‘calming influence’
