The PWHL effect: Players expand their individual arsenals for international stage

The Professional Women's Hockey League not only altered the makeup of rosters at the women's world hockey championship but allowed even experienced players to expand their tool kit for the world stage.

A player who might not get a sniff of power-play time with her national team might get those minutes with her PWHL club, which is a chance to prove she can handle that responsibility.

That poses interesting decisions for Canada's head coach Troy Ryan, who also coaches the PWHL's Toronto Sceptres.

With 23 of Canada's 25 players at the world championship from the PWHL, Ryan has seen how players' skill sets evolved in a league now in its second season.

"Do we adjust to fit their new roles or do we try to squeeze them back into what they've done so well at the national-team level?" he asked from Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, where the Canadians boast a 3-1 record entering Thursday's quarterfinal against Germany or Japan.

"Those dynamics can be really, really tough because they've branched off a little bit and they're liking their new role and their new responsibility.

"Do they understand that may not apply here? There's other people to do that? Those are the things our new dynamics exposed a little bit."

The six-team PWHL, which put 57 players on seven of 10 rosters at this world championship, has nine games remaining in its regular season when it resumes April 26.

An example of the PWHL altering a player's role on the national team can be seen on its forward line.

Laura Stacey, Blayre Turnbull and Emily Clark were a Canadian staple, but the Montreal Victoire's top line of Stacey, Marie-Philip Poulin and Jennifer Gardiner stayed intact in the preliminary round in the Czech Republic. The trio was Canada's most productive