PWHL Expansion Begins With Vancouver, With More Cities To Come

Forbes

24-04-2025

Three months after drawing more than 19,000 fans to Vancouver's Takeover Tour date, the PWHL ... More announced it is placing its first expansion team in the city.
Less than 16 months after dropping the puck for its first game on January 1, 2024, PWHL expansion has begun.
On Wednesday, in front of a picture-perfect backdrop on the roofdeck of a downtown skyscraper, members of the U11 Vancouver Angels girls hockey team were given the honor of officially announcing that Vancouver will be home to the league's seventh team, starting play in the fall of 2025.
Wednesday's announcement may not be the only one from the league this spring, either. After drawing 12,608 to Climate Pledge Arena for the opening date of the Takeover Tour on Jan. 5 and with its reputation as a strong market for women's sports, it was widely expected that Seattle would also be part of the 2025 expansion plan.
That may still happen in time for next season. And if it's not Seattle, it could be another U.S. market like Denver, which would still help spread the league's footprint.
'I think we are hopeful that we will add a second team going into Season 3,' said the PWHL's executive VP of business operations, Amy Scheer, on a media call Wednesday afternoon. 'At this time, we are not ready to say when and where that will be.'
And while Scheer said that there's no hard deadline for an announcement, a decision will need to be made soon. When the regular season wraps on May 3, two teams will be eliminated from the playoffs and ready to start their off-season planning. But no details have been shared yet for an expansion draft or alternate player dispersal process. And that process will look different if two teams are building their rosters rather than just one.
According to Jayna Hefford, the league's executive VP of hockey operations, the goal is to distribute talent in such a way that the expansion team or teams can be competitive immediately.
'The priority is that this Vancouver team will compete on Day 1 for the Walter Cup,' Hefford said. 'That's been guiding us as we've worked through what an expansion draft could look like, or a player dispersal process. The parity and competitiveness across this league is one of the greatest assets that we have, and our intention is to keep that across all teams that compete in Season 3 and beyond.'
The league's third entry draft is set for June 24 in Ottawa. In June of 2024, 167 players declared for the 42-pick draft, which spanned seven rounds. By February of 2025, 38 of those 42 players had appeared in at least one PWHL game. Rookies like Sarah Fillier, Jennifer Gardiner and goalie Gwyneth Philips quickly established themselves among the league's top players.
This year's draft class is expected to be headlined by 2025 Patty Kazmaier Award winner Casey O'Brien from the University of Wisconsin. It should also include a number of top European players including Czech forward Kristyna Kaltounkova, a 23-year-old senior at Colgate University who was named to the tournament all-star team at the just-concluded 2025 IIHF women's world championship.
For the rapidly-growing PWHL, Vancouver checked multiple boxes as an expansion market. As Canada's third-largest city, it's valuable to the league's Canadian broadcast partners — TSN, CBC and Prime Video. It also has a dynamic and growing womens' and girls' hockey community, which was turbo-charged after the Canadian women brought home gold on home soil at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
'I think the last stat I saw from B.C. Hockey was, the girls and boys registration is just about 50/50, and that's huge,' said Scheer. 'B.C. Hockey's efforts have been huge in growing the game, and we want to help build and continue that momentum."
For the first time, the league was also able negotiate an arena deal in Vancouver where its team will be the anchor tenant — at the Pacific Coliseum on the grounds of the Pacific National Exhibition in East Vancouver, with a dedicated practice facility right next door at the smaller Agrodome.
Capital improvements to both venues have begun immediately, with an eye toward completing Phase I before the beginning of the 2025-26 season in November. Costs will be covered by the non-profit PNE, which is owned and managed by the City of Vancouver.
The original home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, the Coliseum hasn't housed a sports team since the WHL's Vancouver Giants moved to suburban Langley, B.C. in 2016. Since then, the 16,000-seat arena has been used primarily for concerts and other touring events.
PWHL Vancouver will play out of the Pacific Coliseum (left) and practice at the nearby Agrodome.
'We've got assets here that we don't have in any other market,' said Scheer. 'We're coming here with a clean sheet of ice that we could sell, the Zamboni that we could sell. That primary-tenant thing is huge. It provides us with ways that we could have our sponsors engage with us that they really can't in other arenas.'
Yes, there will be some longer flights. But the PWHL schedule is currently at 30 games per season, far fewer than the 82 games played by NHL teams, so the toll of travel is not as grueling. If another Western market isn't introduced immediately, scheduling through Minnesota in the middle of the country and building the next set of Takeover Tour dates strategically should be enough to avoid sending teams 3,000 miles across the country for a single matchup.
Vancouver's selection did cause disappointment in markets like Detroit and Quebec City, where fans believed they were strong contenders. Scheer underscored that this won't be the only PWHL expansion cycle. 'Vancouver is the first step in our expansion process,' she said. 'There are many more steps to come — this year, potentially next year, potentially the year to follow. So this is really our first step in a long journey to continue to grow and build this league.'