{"id":601208,"date":"2026-06-18T01:39:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T01:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/601208\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T01:39:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T01:39:20","slug":"pwhl-san-jose-makes-historic-4th-overall-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/601208\/","title":{"rendered":"PWHL San Jose Makes Historic 4th Overall Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the 4th-overall pick in the <a href=\"https:\/\/sharkshockeydigest.com\/tag\/2026-pwhl-draft\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"3191\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 PWHL Draft<\/a>, PWHL San Jose selected defender Laila Edwards, marking the first pick in team history.<\/p>\n<p>PWHL San Jose picking Edwards brings more history than just the first pick in the franchise\u2019s history. At 6-foot-1, Edwards will be the tallest player in PWHL history. The Wisconsin product is also the highest-selected <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/IanKennedyCK\/status\/2067363162337284572?s=20\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">black female hockey player<\/a> in league history.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards was selected as a defender in the draft, but she can also play forward. Her calling card is her offensive instincts, which apply regardless of position. In 28 games at Wisconsin, Edwards put up 12 goals and 33 assists. For <a href=\"https:\/\/sharkshockeydigest.com\/tag\/team-usa\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"43\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Team USA<\/a> at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games, Edwards had two goals and six assists.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards has a wicked shot, and PWHL San Jose gets a player who will become the face of the franchise for its inaugural season. The overwhelming reaction from the new fan base has been positive. Edwards\u2019 play at the Olympics helped her rise to stardom in the sport of Women\u2019s Hockey. She is a recognizable face and player and will only bring good things to San Jose. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Love what Laila Edwards said about not taking being a role model lightly!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ll hopefully have a fan in every building I play in\u2026that&#8217;s my goal.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/J7VDUCHmtL\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/J7VDUCHmtL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Sheng_Peng\/status\/2067383580813119812?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although the team doesn\u2019t have an official name yet, Edwards immediately becomes the top star on GM\/coach <a href=\"https:\/\/sharkshockeydigest.com\/tag\/troy-ryan\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"3179\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Troy Ryan\u2019s<\/a> roster.<\/p>\n<p>                                                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the 4th-overall pick in the 2026 PWHL Draft, PWHL San Jose selected defender Laila Edwards, marking the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5127],"tags":[66747,5,50354,4,23103,63986,519,168,5306,5305,1780,3255,46983],"class_list":["post-601208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose-sharks","tag-2026-pwhl-draft","tag-hockey","tag-laila-edwards","tag-nhl","tag-olympic-winter-games-milano-cortina-2026","tag-pwhl-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sanjose","tag-sanjosesharks","tag-sharks","tag-team-usa","tag-troy-ryan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116768562499611594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}