2024 Top 25 Under 25: Sophie Jaques (8)

If you asked someone a few games into the 2024 PWHL season where they thought Sophie Jaques would finish in a Top 25 Under 25 list it definitely would be lower than eighth and some might have her off the list entirely. It started out strong with Jaques being taken 10^th overall in the second round by Boston. After that, it just fell apart.

Jaques was on the second pair which was a good spot for her on paper. On the ice though it just never worked out. In her seven games with Boston, she would play 15:16 minutes per game, have 1.29 shots per game, and ZERO points. For someone who had put up two straight +20-goal seasons in the NCAA as a blueliner that was extremely disappointing. Boston’s front office felt the same way and made a trade with Minnesota making it the first-ever trade in PWHL history sending Jaques to Minnesota in exchange for Susanna Tapani and Abby Cook.

That was the turning point for Sophie Jaques to shoot back up the T25U25 list as she showed herself to be the highly touted prospect she was expected to be. Ken Klee wasted no time in seeing what Jaques had to offer by putting her on the top pair with Lee Stecklein. She went from playing 15:16 minutes per game to 25.50 minutes per game.

In 15 games with Minnesota, Jaques had 10 points which translates to a 1.55 Points/60 and if Jaques kept that pace for the whole season she’d have a better PTS/60 than Megan Keller. That momentum kept going into the playoffs where Jaques would be given her own defensive pair to lead to make it more difficult for teams to counter her and Stecklein. This appears to have worked as Jaques finished third in playoff scoring on the Walter Cup-winning team.

What helps to power Jaques to this spot despite the poor start to her season is the fact that her career leading up to this season is stellar, especially the last two years in the NCAA. She’d always been a good blueliner for Ohio State University finishing in the top six in team points in her two U20 seasons. That’s good though not “maybe a first overall pick in the PWHL draft” good, which she would later become because of the last two seasons of her NCAA career. It's hard to pick which year was the better one so I’ll lay out the stats and you decide. In her fourth NCAA season, Jaques would receive her first time being honoured as a First Team All-American, WCHA Defender of the Year, and be a top-3 Patty Kazmaier Award finalist. Oh, and she’d win this small thing called the NCAA National Championship with OSU.

To add to all of those accolades and trophies, Jaques would put up the second-best NCAA season of all-time from a blueliner with her 59 points putting her behind Angela Ruggiero. Her 21 in 21/22 placed her sixth all-time for goals in a single season for a blueliner. The next season, in 22/23, Jaques raised the bar putting up 24 goals which placed her fourth in all-time NCAA single-season history. She’d find herself once again back on the First All-American team and the WCHA Defender of the Year. This time around though Jaques would find herself winning the Patty Kaz Award instead of being a top-3 finalist. Unfortunately for Jaques, that would be the only trophy she’d take home that weekend as OSU would lose to Wisconsin in the NCAA National Championship.

The path ahead for Jaques looks full of possibilities. She’s a legitimate top pair blueliner in the PWHL and just won the first-ever Cup. The only questions left remaining for Jaques are can she take or share the 1D role in Minnesota from/with Stecklein and can she reach a level that puts her in the top six of Team Canada’s roster? You’d feel a lot better about the optimistic possibilities playing if there has been the turmoil there has been going on in Minnesota. We just don’t know what effect this is going to have. Winning solves everything is usually a true statement in sports. The winning happened and we don’t know if it’s going to continue moving forward into the season. She left the turmoil of her poor start in Boston behind and now she’s faced with another challenge.

Too High/Too Low

If you’ve read my previous articles on Chloe Primerano and Gwyneth Philips, I was pretty adamant that those two were not placed as highly as they should have been. When it comes to Sophie Jaques I’m at peace with where she finished. At this stage of the rankings, the differences are miniscule and it's personal preference. On my list, Jaques is a top 5 U25 player but eighth is close enough that I’m not going to be throwing things like I was for Primerano/Philips.