How the Ottawa Charge added defence, speed while also making history early at the PWHL draft

Vivian Jungels (centre) is all smiles after being selected 11th overall at the PWHL draft in Detroit last night. Photo by PWHL /Submitted photo

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The Ottawa Charge was in no position to take Wisconsin superstar Caroline Harvey with its first pick in the PWHL draft.

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But her longtime blueline partner, Vivian Jungels, fell right into Ottawa’s lap.

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The Charge selected Jungels with its first-round pick, 11th overall, at the Fox Theatre on Wednesday night.

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Not a flashy player, the 5-foot-7 Edina, Minnesota native is considered a smooth skater with a good stick who closes out plays defensively.

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Over a four-year career at Wisconsin during which she helped the Badgers win three NCAA national championships, Jungels scored 19 goals and added 57 assists for 76 points in 162 games.

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More impressively, she had a combined plus-218 rating, including a plus-46 mark as a freshman in 2022-23 that was the best in the nation.

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In her junior season, her plus-67 rating was second-best in the NCAA.

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“I’m looking to bring whatever the team needs,” said the 22-year-old Jungels. “I take a lot of pride in my defensive ability for the team, and I’m looking to help them out on that aspect of the game.”

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Jungels has never been to Ottawa, but she is a close friend of Charge winger Sarah Wozniewicz, whom she played with at Wisconsin.

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She attended the draft with her parents, while the rest of her hockey-playing family was at home watching the proceedings on TV.

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“I have two brothers and one sister,” said Jungels. “My brothers definitely picked on me a lot growing up, and I even got to play on the same team as my sister for a couple of years. So they’re definitely the ones that prepared me for this moment and got me here.”

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Who did Ottawa take in the second round?

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With its second pick and 23rd overall, the Charge selected Jordan Ray, a fast-skating forward who scored 17 goals and 50 points in 36 games last season with the Yale Bulldogs.

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Ray, 21, is the first Florida-born player drafted into the PWHL.

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“There was no girls’ team at all when I was growing up, so I played boys until I was 14, and then they got too big, so I couldn’t play with them anymore,” said Ray, who was born in Rockledge and grew up in Viera. “My dad didn’t want me to leave and go to a prep school, so he actually built the Florida Lions, which is the only girls’ team in Florida, just so I could stay home, which has been so phenomenal. It was a tight group of girls growing up, and just coming back and seeing how much it’s grown, and helping out in the summer camps with them, has just been awesome.”

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Ray has also never been to Ottawa, but she’s prepared for climate change.

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“It’s definitely going to be a lot colder than Florida, which will be an adjustment,” she said. “But I played at Yale, and in my freshman year I did have to spend a lot of money on winter clothes, so at least we have some now.”