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The PWHL will expand to eight teams next season by adding Seattle as its second new franchise alongside Vancouver, and The Associated Press has learned that plans are already in the works to add two more in a year’s time.
Seattle’s addition, announced Wednesday, gives the PWHL a strong foothold in the Pacific Northwest and comes a week after the unveiling of the new team in Vancouver for the 2025-26 season. The westward move broadens the league’s reach across the continent in two markets with a history supporting women’s sports and separated by just a three-hour drive.
“Of course, the geography makes a ton of sense and I think we have a built-in rivalry here that will just naturally happen,” executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer told the AP.
“But most importantly is they met all the criteria in terms of what we were looking for,” she added. “There’s just a ton of business reasons to do it. And those are the only things we’re focused on.”
STEADY GROWTH
The two-team expansion for Season 3 is only the beginning for a league that launched in January 2024 with five Eastern franchises — Boston, New York, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto — and one in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The PWHL plans to grow to 10 teams for its 2026-27 season, a person with knowledge of discussions told the AP on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private. The person said the league is accelerating its plans based on the strength of responses and feedback received during its eight-month expansion search in which the PWHL considered more than 20 markets.
Scheer didn’t entirely dispute the plan, without providing an exact timetable.
“I think we’ve been pretty clear from the outset that this is the first year of a multi-year process,” Scheer said as the PWHL closes the final week of the regular season. “It could come in Year 4. It could come Year 5. I think that those conversations are still being had.”
SEATTLE SPORTS SCENE
Neutral site stops this past season in Denver, Detroit, Quebec City and Edmonton each topped 14,000 fans.
The new team will initially go by PWHL Seattle and its colors will be emerald green and cream. The team will play out of the NHL Kraken’s Climate Pledge Arena and practice at the Kraken Community Iceplex. Vancouver also has not announced a nickname yet.
Seattle features a growing youth hockey program, is home to the WNBA’s Storm and NWSL’s Reign, and previously shown support for women’s hockey. In November 2022, Seattle drew a U.S.-Canada Rivalry Series record crowd of 14,551. In January, the PWHL drew a crowd of 12,608 in kicking off its nine-game Takeover Tour of neutral site games in Seattle.
Boston Fleet captain and four-time U.S. Olympian Hilary Knight was a proponent of Seattle in the weeks ahead of her team’s Takeover Tour game against Montreal.
“I have yet to experience another crowd like that,” Knight said of the Rivalry Series game. “Seattle holds a special place in my mind, and that’s why I’m super excited to be able to share that experience with other teammates, whether it’s on the Fleet or on the Montreal team.”
The PWHL plans to announce the date of an expansion draft and how Vancouver and Seattle will be integrated into its entry draft on June 24 at a later time.