For the second consecutive year, a Thunderbird is headed to the PWHL. Grace Elliott, UBC’s power forward and all-time leading scorer, was drafted by the Seattle Torrent this Wednesday, June 17. The draft, held in Detroit, saw the back-to-back Canada West Player of the Year selected in the fourth round, with the 38th overall pick.
This makes Elliott only the fourth player to be drafted directly from U Sports into the PWHL, following Audrey-Anne Veillette (Montreal) in 2023, Emmy Fecteau (Concordia) in 2024 and Elliott’s teammate, Chanreet Bassi, in 2025. Elliott is the second-highest drafted U Sports player ever, coming seven picks after Fecteau, who was drafted at No. 31.
Of the 42 U Sports players eligible for the draft, Elliott was one of only two selected, with Emilie Lavoie of Concordia being picked after Elliott and becoming the fifth U Sports player ever selected with the final pick of the draft.
There’s a reason why Elliott has made it this far. Her game is driven by her physicality. Now the tallest player in the PWHL, Elliott is known for using all of her six-foot-two frame to chase after pucks and create opportunities for herself and her teammates to score.
And score she did. In her last regular season playing for the Thunderbirds, she was the top goal-scorer in the conference and the country, tallying up 42 points in 35 games last year. She finished with 88 goals and 155 points in her T-Birds career, both program records.
Those aren’t the only all-time marks she’s shattered. She’s also shown her star potential by breaking the Canada West record for game-winning goals in a season, which had been set by none other than Canadian hockey icon and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Hayley Wickenheiser, 15 years ago. Elliott scored 12, far surpassing the seven scored by the four-time Olympic champion.
The White Rock native is only the fourth Thunderbird to join the PWHL, after Bassi was drafted in 2025 and defender Rylind MacKinnon made the Toronto Sceptres’ roster out of training camp in 2024. Current T-Bird Ilona Markova was also selected in the PWHL draft, but she joined UBC after being taken by the Boston Fleet.
While MacKinnon has stuck around through last season, Bassi was released by the Vancouver Goldeneyes after training camp. Based on her play, Elliott has a great chance of making it onto a team’s final roster.
Given her production, coming into the 2026 PWHL Draft, there was no surprise when the forward’s name was called on the stage. The only question left was where she would go — a question answered by her new team, the Seattle Torrent, who are heading into their second season in the league.
Elliott joins a team that is in a period of transition. Leading up to the 2026 PWHL Draft, the Seattle Torrent suffered important losses for their roster, mostly due to the league’s expansion to four new cities: Las Vegas, Hamilton, San Jose and Detroit. Key players such as Hilary Knight, Hannah Bilka and Corinne Schroeder were signed to expansion teams — the first two are going to the Motor City and the latter signed with San Jose.
The roster isn’t the only part of the team in flux. After posting the league’s worst record, the Torrent’s previous coach, Steve O’Rourke, was let go, and assistant coach Christine Bumstead was hired as the new leader for the team.
Despite key changes in the roster, Seattle was still able to protect six players of their choosing in the expansion process. Among those choices were forward Alex Carpenter, forward Julia Gosling, defender Anna Wilgren, and goaltender Hannah Murphy. Defenders Aneta Tejralová and Emily Brown, and forward Theresa Schafzahl also signed two-year contracts with the team.
Adding on the selection of Minnesota phenom Abbey Murphy with the No. 2 pick in Wednesday’s draft, there’s hope that this offseason has made Seattle’s roster a mix of promising young talents and more experienced athletes.
Heading into training camp, Elliott has a tough path ahead of her. The first step will be to secure a roster spot, and while there are more openings on the team thanks to expansion, nothing is a given. Adapting to a completely new team and a new league will require hard work and determination, but if there is anything Grace Elliott has proven time and time again, it is that she is driven to win.
