Ingersoll's Ella Shelton picked fourth overall in inaugural PWHL draft
Ella Shelton is heading to the Big Apple.
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Ella Shelton is heading to the Big Apple.
The 25-year-old Ingersoll native and London Devilettes grad was New York’s first ever selection – and the fourth overall pick – in the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League draft on Monday at CBC headquarters in Toronto.
“I’m excited to join a new centre,” the standout defender said after being drafted, “and really just kind of take hold of a franchise that is really going to be there for the team and really get to know the community around and play a great game of hockey with all these girls.”
The Canadian women’s national team member is no stranger to New York state. The five-foot-eight, 176-pounder played four years (2016-20) at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., won two NCAA women’s hockey championships and served as captain in her final season.
Internationally, she was part of two Canadian world champion teams and has an Olympic gold medal from the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. Shelton previously played for Team Scotiabank and Toronto on the PWHPA circuit.
“I think right now I’m going to focus on what I can do better for my (new) teammates,” she said, “and really focus on my own skills and see what that’s going to bring to the team.”
Shelton was the fourth player to join the New York team after it signed American free agents Alex Carpenter, Abby Roque and Shelton’s Canadian teammate Micah Zandee-Hart.
The PWHL team has yet to announce its nickname or home arena.
Later Brittany Howard, the scoring star with the former Premier Hockey Federation’s Toronto Six, was picked in the eighth round (47th overall) and will stay in Toronto with the new PWHL franchise. Fellow local forward Lexie Adzija went in the 11th round (65th overall) to Ottawa.
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