Heartbreak. Shock. Mystery. Ruined dreams. These are some terms that come up when getting cut from an Olympic women’s hockey roster is discussed. Especially when it comes out of the blue.

It’s been like this ever since the inaugural Olympic women’s hockey tournament in 1998. Investing hours of sweat and pain on the ice and in the gym can feel like it was all for nothing when an elite player doesn’t get summoned to the Winter Games.

Today, with more than 200,000 women worldwide playing this sport, talent pools are getting deeper and deeper. The chances of cracking an Olympic roster are getting slimmer – particularly in the U.S. and Canada, who combine for more than 180,000 registered female players.

For 2021/22, there’s an extra layer of intrigue and uncertainty with the IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship starting in Calgary in late August instead of the traditional spring time frame. Depending on who dramatically overachieves or underperforms, will we see even more cuts and changes before the first Olympic puck is dropped in Beijing in February? Or will stability at all costs be the goal? Stay tuned.

For now, let’s look at the lead-up to the six previous Olympic women’s tournaments – as well as what we already know about 2022 – and examine some of the most controversial cuts. We’ll also look toward the future.

1998: The James Shocker

Touted as the “Wayne Gretzky of women’s hockey,” Angela James seemed like a lock for Canada’s roster for Nagano. At age 32, the four-time world champion and two-time tournament all-star remained an elite power forward. Even if James wasn’t quite at her 1990 Women’s Worlds offensive peak (11+2=13) anymore, this intense competitor was expected to provide leadership for the gold-medal favourites.

Until head coach Shannon Miller decided she wasn’t coming.

It wasn’t as if Canada assembled a sub-par roster. The federation’s press release on 9 December 1997 stated: “The 20-player roster includes three rookies and 17 veterans, including 16 players who helped Canada win a fourth straight Women’s World Championship last April in Kitchener, Ontario. Collectively, the women, who range in age from 18 to 39, have amassed 43 gold medals in World Championship play for Canada.”

However, the James cut – sometimes compared to the Canadian men’s decision to leave Mark Messier at home in ‘98 – definitely backfired. Would the U.S. have scored six goals in 12 minutes to rally from a 4-1 deficit and shock Canada 7-4 in the group stage if James was there to steady the ship? Would Canada have lost the gold medal game 3-1 to the Americans? It’s possible but dubious.

James joined Geraldine Heaney and Cammi Granato in the first trio of women inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, she and Granato became the first two women to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame. At that time, James reflected on getting cut for Nagano: “I know what I was capable of. I know they made a wrong decision in my opinion.”

Now 56, she will serve as an assistant coach with the NWHL’s Toronto Six next season.

2002: Drolet’s Stunning Omission

Nancy Drolet was a pure sniper. The nifty Quebec-born forward earned her place in the history books by scoring Canada’s gold medal-winner at both the 1997 and 2000 Women’s Worlds. So when the news came down in December 2001 that Drolet was the final cut for the Salt Lake City Olympic team, the women’s hockey world was taken aback.

“Nancy has been on this team for her offensive ability,” said head coach Daniele Sauvageau. “It just happened that this year it was probably not her greatest year. At one point, we decided to move on.”

It was an evaluation that was based on very recent history, as Drolet had led Canada in scoring (4+7=11) at the 2001 Women’s Worlds en route to her nation’s seventh straight gold. The 28-year-old launched an appeal to the Canadian Hockey Association, but it was denied.

Her replacement, Cherie Piper, proved to be an asset in Canada’s quest for Olympic redemption. Piper totalled three goals and two assists, including a helper on Caroline Ouellette’s opening goal 1:45 in the 3-2 gold medal game victory over the host Americans. Speedster Jayna Hefford got the eventual winner on a breakaway with just one second left in the second period.

Despite not returning to the national team after Salt Lake, Drolet continued to make her mark in different fields, from running a physiotherapy business to serving on the board of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL).

2006: The Granato Fiasco

“Like any player, when you choose to try to play forever, sooner or later your number is going to come up,” said U.S. head coach Ben Smith. That was his stated rationale for cutting ties with long-time captain Cammi Granato in 2005.

Under Smith, the Chicago-raised attacker had led both the 1998 Olympic team and the 2005 Women’s Worlds team to history-making gold medals. Yet now, despite Granato’s all-time U.S. record of 343 points in 205 career national team games, USA Hockey had decided to go in a new direction.

There was no good spin to put on the way this blunder played out – unless you were Swedish, of course. The Swedes met the Americans in the 2006 semi-finals in Turin. Despite outshooting Sweden 39-17, the U.S. squandered the 2-0 second-period lead it had built on power-play goals by Katie King and Kelly Stephens. Swedish goalie Kim Martin shut the door as her mates roared back with two regulation-time goals by Maria Rooth. In the deciding shootout, Rooth scored again and Pernilla Winberg notched the clincher for the ecstatic Damkronorna.

Lacking Granato’s poise and leadership, the Americans settled for their worst-ever Olympic result, beating Finland 4-0 in the bronze medal game.

Granato never wore the Stars and Stripes again, but remains an inspiration for women in hockey as the NHL’s first female pro scout with the expansion Seattle Kraken.

2010: Heartbreaking Cuts for Host Canadians

Sometimes, Olympic roster cuts don’t involve women’s hockey’s very biggest names or lead to disappointing results. Still, that doesn’t mean those cuts don’t hurt on a personal level.

Even though the Canadians delivered Olympic gold in Vancouver with a 2-0 final win over the Americans, thanks to Marie-Philip Poulin’s two goals and Shannon Szabados’s 28-save shutout, their hearts still went out to Gillian Ferrari. The defensive-minded blueliner, who won gold in Turin in 2006, had a special knack for putting smiles on her teammates’ faces. Under normal circumstances, that is.

“A lot of us were crying and we’re thinking about [Ferrari] today,” Caroline Ouellette said after head coach Mel Davidson unveiled her final selections in December 2009, which excluded the 29-year-old Ferrari.

“It’s probably the toughest cut that I’ve seen in all my years,” captain Hayley Wickenheiser said. “That’s a big loss, a big void that we’re going to have to find a way to fill.”

Forward Jennifer Wakefield, 20, who was recovering from a broken wrist, was the other final cut.

It was also heartbreak for the Canadian skaters who’d been released a few weeks earlier. Defender Delaney Collins, who had struggled after a 2008 concussion, was a late cut for the third straight Games. Fellow blueliner Jocelyne Larocque and forward Brianne Jenner would have to wait till Sochi to make their Olympic debuts.

Ferrari, 41, is now a Montreal-based project manager with West Fraser, a wood products company.

2014: A Farewell to Bonhomme

Blueliner Tessa Bonhomme was one of several players who have been dubbed the “face of Canadian women’s hockey.” And it wasn’t simply because the telegenic Bonhomme won the 2011 edition of CBC’s figure skating reality TV show Battle of the Blades alongside David Pelletier.

This former Ohio State captain had shone as part of a dynamic blue line corps at the 2010 Olympics and also boasted two World Championship gold medals (2007, 2012). However, then-Canadian head coach Dan Church cut Bonhomme from the 2014 Olympic roster in November 2013.

Although saddened by the decision, Bonhomme, who was also left off the 2006 Olympic roster, was philosophical: “I don’t think it matters who you are. You’re always surprised when a cut is made. I’ve never counted my chickens before they were hatched and I always knew I would have to earn my spot no matter what. At the beginning of the year, I felt great, like I was playing the way I should. Then I kind of ran into a little bit of health issues and didn’t really bounce back the way I wanted to.”

It was a strange, transitional time for Canada. Church stepped down as coach a month later, citing a lack of confidence in him from his federation, and was replaced by NHL veteran Kevin Dineen. The Canadians still pulled out a gold medal with their stunning 3-2 comeback win over the Americans, keyed by two Marie-Philip Poulin goals, including the overtime winner.

Bonhomme, 36, has forged a successful sports broadcasting career as a TSN anchor, and will host coverage of the 2021 Women’s Worlds alongside Jayna Hefford.

2018: Carpenter and Bozek Left Behind

Considering that the U.S. was in peril of extending its Olympic women’s hockey gold medal drought beyond 20 years, many observers were perplexed when forward Alex Carpenter and defender Megan Bozek did not make the final cut for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

At 19, Carpenter had led the 2014 U.S. team with four goals, and the 2015 Patty Kazmaier Award winner had won gold with the last three Women’s Worlds squads. Bozek, the top-scoring U.S. blueliner in Sochi (five points), was recognized as owning the hardest slap shot in women’s hockey – in excess of 80 miles per hour. She had recently won gold at the last Women’s Worlds in Ottawa and captained the University of Minnesota to its second straight NCAA title.

Nonetheless, American head coach Robb Stauber ended up going with Carpenter’s former Boston College linemate Haley Skarupa and defender Sidney Morin instead for Korea. The U.S. struggled in exhibition play against Canada right before the Games, but came through with a dramatic 3-2 shootout victory in the gold medal game, courtesy of Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson’s dandy winner and Maddie Rooney’s final save on Canada’s Meghan Agosta.

2022: Snipers Sidelined, From Gabel to Pankowski

Of course, we do not yet know the final composition of the 2022 Olympic rosters. But we do know that the North American superpowers made some eyebrow-raising decisions about which players to leave off their centralization rosters. 

At the 2021 Women’s Worlds, Loren Gabel, 24, will not be suiting up for Canada – even though she tied teammate Natalie Spooner for second place overall in goals (6) at the 2019 tournament in Espoo en route to the bronze medal.

The native of Kitchener, Ontario told The Record newspaper: “My goal right now is to still play for Canada at the Olympics at some point in my life. I’m going to work hard like I’ve always done and continue to prove people wrong and obviously prove to them that they made a wrong choice and that I deserve to be there.”

Meanwhile, Annie Pankowski – who scored both the opening U.S. goal and the shootout clincher in the 2-1 gold-medal win over Finland in Espoo – was not centralized. The former University of Wisconsin star, now 26, has experienced variations on this frustration before. Pankowski was one of the last two cuts for Sochi, and was cut again nine weeks before the U.S.’s PyeongChang opener.

“That was really hard to take,” she told The Victory Press in 2018. “I mean, to be honest, when it happened, I was so shocked that it wasn't even real. If you asked me right now, I 100 percent deserved to be on that team. I believe that.”

Toward a Brighter Future

Honestly, these are all tough stories to read and absorb. Granted, from the proverbial 30,000-foot view, all that matters is who wins the medals. Every player in Calgary or Beijing is aware that the correct response when asked about roster cuts is, “We’re focused on the team and the players we have here.” It is part of the game.

Still, these are real people who have invested all their talent, strength, and energy into the dream of winning an IIHF gold medal.

There are dozens of other names we could mention in a story like this. For instance, long-time U.S. supporters will harken back to roster exclusions like Kelly O’Leary, Stephanie O’Sullivan, and Erin Whitten in 1998, or Shelley Looney, Alana Blahoski, and Vicki Movsessian in 2002. And in the future, the non-North American countries will have to make more hard decisions as well, as their female talent pools continue to expand.

Of course, controversial roster cuts abound in Olympic men’s hockey as well. Who can forget the debates over Canada not taking Sidney Crosby in 2006, Steven Stamkos in 2010, or Martin St-Louis in 2014?

The crucial difference is that the Canadian NHL stars still had a well-established pro league to play in with generous salaries. Although there’s nothing that truly compares to playing at the Olympics, those factors certainly help to cushion the blow. The sooner the hockey world builds something comparable for the women’s game, the better.