Torrent Face A Thinned Blue Line And The Murphy Question
The Ice Garden's Seattle beat reporter breaks down expansion losses on defense and the reaction to Abbey Murphy's White House visit.
Seattle's offseason problem is not complicated: the Torrent have to rebuild a blue line that expansion picked clean.
On this week's episode of The IX Sports Podcast Hockey Edition, host Maya Smith spoke with Silvia Leija Rosas, who covers the Torrent for The Ice Garden, about where the roster stands.
"I mean, [Seattle's] biggest weakness? Definitely the blue line," Leija said. "You know, we lost Cayla Barnes, Megan Carter, Mariah Keopple. Like that's three defenders just totally gone."
The departure Leija expects Seattle to feel longest is up front. Hannah Bilka is headed to PWHL Detroit after producing what Leija pegged at nine points in 14 games for the Torrent.
"Like she was incredible in the time that she got to play," Leija said. "Seattle desperately needed scoring, and like we really saw that, so Bilka might be the one that Seattle generally, like, regrets the longest."
The conversation then turned to Abbey Murphy, the second overall pick in the 2026 PWHL Entry Draft and one of only two players from the gold medal winning United States women's Olympic team to visit the White House in August. Leija said she raised the topic with Murphy because the fan base wanted an answer, and that the strength of the reaction is tied to the culture the club has built in its first year.
Leija said she spoke with Torrent defender Emily Brown, and separately with the club's business operations staff, about how Seattle has built that culture: "bringing in these community groups and like having tabling events, and just having this very Seattle environment in there that was so welcoming."
The episode also gets into expected jersey redesigns for Seattle and Vancouver ahead of Season Four.
