Screen shot of Kendra Woodland in a short film about her UNB Reds team winning the AUS Championships in overtime in 2023/via UNB Reds
“Obviously disappointing, but now it’s just more fire to push forward to the free agency period.”
Not the way many in Kamloops had hoped Kendra Woodland’s Tuesday would end, as once again her name was not spoken from the dais in Ottawa at Tuesday’s 2025 Professional Women’s Hockey League Draft.
The 25-year-old Kamloops native — a national award-winning goaltender at the U-Sports level with the University of New Brunswick women’s hockey team through the end of the 2023-24 season — will now have to travel down a different path to achieve her dream of playing professional hockey.
“It doesn’t stop here,” Woodland told Radio NL the day after the Draft. “Feeling it a little bit last night and this [Wednesday] morning, but really just focusing on pushing forward.”
Under the PWHL rules, those who hope to be picked up by one of the now-eight teams in the League have two opportunities to submit their name and hope a team will take a chance on them.
Kamloops goaltender Kendra Woodland as Blood.ca ambassador for Hockey Gives Blood campaign/via Kendra_Woodland on X
Having been passed over the previous Draft, Woodland is now poised to hit the free-agent market, which remains open until Friday, June 27, where it will take a short hiatus.
But once the free agent market reopens on July 8th, Woodland can then be signed by any one of the eight teams in the PWHL to a contract.
While that’s the ultimate goal, she says for now, she’s going to regroup and begin speaking with her agents about the next steps forward.
“Everything’s still pretty fresh,” said Woodland. “They’ve definitely got a plan moving forward.”
Woodland says the goal at this point is to get her skate in the door with one or more of the PWHL teams to try to convince them she’s worth a look, and a possible investment.
“We’ll just have to keep our eyes on the prize and meet and see what we need to do as a team to just even get an opportunity to try out,” said Woodland.
The recipient of the U-Sports MVP award as Canada’s top female hockey player at the end of the 2022-23 season, Woodland wrapped up her university hockey career last year in New Brunswick with an impressive stat-line.
After turning in a .960 save percentage and a 1.10 GAA in the 2022-23 campaign for UNB in Fredericton to cement her U-Sports MVP award, she would follow that up with an 11-5 regular season in 2023-24.
While her goals against wasn’t quite as impressive during the regular season as it was the year before, Woodland proved herself in the playoffs, putting together a .970 save percentage and a blistering 0.89 GAA to end her U-Sports career.
Kamloops goaltender Kendra Woodland keeping watch as UNB Reds battle St. Francis Xavier in AUS Finals in 2023/via UNB Reds
Woodland was one of 26 goaltenders who made themselves eligible for the PWHL Draft on Tuesday.
Five were selected from that group, joining just 43 other women who were picked to potentially join the league this coming season, as the PWHL Draft included 6 rounds for each of the eight teams.
As she awaits free-agency and the challenge that lies within, she says she intends to stay in-shape this summer with many of the professional hockey players she’s been practicing with the past several years during the off-season.
“Every summer I train with a Junior-Pro group,” noted Woodland. “It’s anyone from WHL and up — ECHL, AHL, NHL…all the guys that come back to Kamloops to train.”
“It’s pretty high-calibre hockey,” added Woodland, who says she’s been sharing ice time with former Kamloops Blazers captain and now-Carolina Hurricane Logan Stankoven. “I’ll be rubbing elbows with Logan again this summer. I have for the past couple of summers.”
Saying she appreciates all the support she’s been getting from within the Kamloops community and beyond, Woodland says he plans on being tenacious once free agency becomes a reality in a couple of weeks.
“It’s sending emails, texts and calling,” noted Woodland. “Just being persistent and really putting yourself out there.”
Kamloops goaltender Kendra Woodland on a short film depicting AUS Final against St. Francis Xavier in 2023
