Mandy Cronin named General Manager of Toronto NWHL team

Another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place for Toronto as Mandy Cronin was named the General Manager of the NWHL’s newest team today.

Cronin joined the NWHL last season as the General Manager of the Buffalo Beauts. She lives in Toronto with her family so the move to the Toronto team. She also is the founder and director of M-Power Hockey, which trains players in the Toronto area. Previously, Cronin helped found the CWHL in 2007 and played in the league as a goaltender.

Last season, she walked into a Beauts team that needed to rebuilt both on and off the ice. Pegula Sports and Entertainment had returned the team to the league’s control shortly before Cronin was hired. At that point, every Beaut from the 2018-19 season had joined the ForTheGame movement and was pledging to not play in any North American league.

She continued on to find the team a new home rink in NorthTown Center and build a team that included returning two Beauts from the previous season plus some promising newcomers.

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Cronin will join a thus-far all women front office in Toronto. They are owned by Johanna Neilson Boynton with Tyler Tumminia serving as the club’s chairman and Digit Murphy as the president.

Nate Oliver to be the new Beauts general manager

Cronin’s departure meant the Beauts role needed to be filled, and the league announced Nate Oliver as her replacement. Oliver was the team’s community manager last season and was instrumental in getting the team into the community for more visibility.

No changes on other teams

The league also confirmed the remaining teams’ general managers.

Bray Ketchum, Kate Whitmann Annis, and Jack Brodt will be returning to their roles for the Whale, Riveters, and Whitecaps respectively. In early April, they announced Karilyn Pilch had signed a multi-year contract to remain the general manager of the Boston Pride.

This will be the second consecutive season the league has had general managers in place for each team. When the NWHL began in 2015, each team had a general manager for the first and second season. For third and fourth, there were no general managers appointed to the teams owned by the league. When the Beauts were owned by PSE, they did have a general manager.