This morning the Markham Thunder revealed that their second and final pre-signing of 2018 is forward Ailish Forfar.

Forfar comes to the CWHL by an interesting route. After completing three years of NCAA eligibility with Dartmouth University (she redshirted her sophomore year), she came home to Ontario and played two seasons with the Ryerson University Rams.

At Dartmouth she put up 19 goals and 18 assists over 85 career games. At Ryerson, she scored 36 points in 45 games, where she became the Rams’ record holder for both points and goals in a single season.

This offseason she was selected as part of the U Sports team that took on the split Canadian National Women’s Development Teams of Team Heaney and Team James, as well as Team Japan, during Hockey Canada’s development camp. She scored a goal in U Sports’ second game against Team Japan, but earlier in the week she also did this:

The quality of CWHL goalies keeps going up and this year’s draft class looks to contribute to that trend, so anyone with shootout skills like that could be pretty useful to the Thunder. This signing also reunites Forfar with former Dartmouth teammate Laura Stacey, so we may see some chemistry there.

It should be noted that PPP would also have been glad to sign Ailish Forfar. A Sports Media major at Ryerson, she was one of the Samsung Paralympic Bloggers covering the Pyeongchang Paralympics this year.

Markham Thunder land CWHL top prospect Victoria Bach

It’s possible that in an NHL-style draft Forfar might not have been taken as high as the second round but she’s certainly a top prospect and a solid add by GM Chelsea Purcell. It definitely suggests that whatever as-yet-unpublicized pre-signings the Toronto Furies have made, there are some big names on the list.

We now know Markham’s top two picks for the 2018 draft. The rest of the Thunder’s 2018 draft class will be revealed this Sunday, August 26 and PPP will bring you all the details.

A reminder that we’re still taking applications for an opening for a Markham Thunder writer — you could cover Ailish Forfar and many more CWHL stars!

Women's HockeyCanadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL)