This fall, the Professional Women’s Hockey league will begin it’s fourth season. This season they will do so with the addition of four new franchises as San Jose, Las Vegas, Hamilton and Detroit all take to the ice. The defending Walter Cup Champion Montreal Victoire will look to repeat as champions this season but with the addition of new teams to the league, the odds will be slightly harder than in previous seasons. The question becomes how well will the new expansion teams fair in the 2026/27 PWHL season?

PWHL Expansion Team Draft Recap

The PWHL conducted its 2026 draft in June and you would have to think that of the new expansion teams, the Las Vegas franchise holds an early edge over the three other expansion teams. Let’s take a look at how the draft went for the expansion franchises.

PWHL Las Vegas

The Las Vegas franchise appears to be looking to build from within the forward position. Las Vegas held picks three and five in the first round where they selected forward Tessa Janecke from Penn State (NCAA) and forward Lacey Eden from the University of Wisconsin. With their third pick at #13, they selected Canadian forward Issy Wunder out of Princeton University. The remainder of their draft picks shaped up as follows:

• Forward Josefin Bouveng from the University of Minnesota – 29^th overall
• Goaltender Saskia Maurer from SC Bern – 41^st overall
• Defense Kendall Butze from Penn State – 49^th overall
• Forward Alexis Petford out of Colgate University – 53d overall
• Forward Sydney Healey from Boston University – 65^th overall

PWHL San Jose

The San Jose franchise also had some strong picks as they selected Laila Edwards (defense) with the fourth overall pick out of the University of Wisconsin. Other San Jose draft picks included:

• Forward Sloane Matthews out of Ohio State University – 16^th overall
• Goaltender Tia Chan from the University of Connecticut – 28^th overall
• Forward Lily Shannon from Northeastern University – 40^th overall
• Forward Mckenna Van Gelder from Cornell – 52^nd overall
• Forward Reichen Kirchmair from Providence College – 64^th overall

PWHL Hamilton

The Hamilton franchise selected Finnish forward Nelli Laitinen from the University of Minnesota with their first ever draft pick at 6^th overall. With their second pick at #18, Hamilton went after some NHL pedigree selecting forward Jade Iginla from Brown University. Other Hamilton selections included:

• Forward Elyssa Biederman from Colgate – 30^th overall
• Forward Megan Woodworth out of the University of Connecticut – 42^nd overall
• Danish Goaltender Emma-Sofie Nordstrom from St. Lawrence University at 54^th overall
• Forward mya Vaslet out of Penn State – 66^th overall

PWHL Detroit

Detroit held the third overall pick in the PWHL draft but traded it to Las Vegas and picked goaltender Andrea Brändli from Frölunda HC of the SDHL with the 15^th overall pick. Other picks from Detroit included:

• Defense Casey Borgiel from Colgate – 22^nd overall
• Forward MK O’Brien from the University of Minnesota Duluth – 34^th overall
• Forward Kyla Josifovic from the University of Connecticut – 39^th overall
• Forward Sena Catterall from Clarkson University – 51^st overall
• Forward Georgia Schiff from Cornell University – 63^rd overall

By way of making trades to get extra draft picks you have to give the nod to Las Vegas and Detroit for their work at the draft.

If you look at the player signings from June, July and August, many of the expansion teams made notable signings this summer. Of note:

• Hamilton signed forward Brianne Jenner who played last season with the Ottawa Charge.
• Hamilton also signed forward Emily Clark who also played with the Ottawa Charge last season.
• Las Vegas signed Kendall Cooper to a two-year deal after she played seasons with the Minnesota Frost.
• Las Vegas also signed another defender in Erin Ambrose who played with the Montréal Victoire last season.
• One of the biggest signings by an expansion team just might be the signing of Hilary Knight by Detroit who played previously with the Seattle Torrent. Knight had 14 points in 22 games for the Torrent last season. PWHL Las Vegas traded forward Hilary Knight to Detroit, with Las Vegas receiving Detroit’s first-round pick of the 2026 PWHL Draft in exchange.

Which PWHL Teams will make the Playoffs in 2026/27?

At the time of this writing, the PWHL has yet to announce a new playoff format for next season. The expectation is that it will expand from four to 6-8 teams. If that is the case, here is our take on which of the expansion teams have the best chance of making the playoffs in year one.

PWHL Detroit

The Detroit franchise has a pretty strong group of core players that includes Daryl Watts, Hannah Bilka, Cayla Barnes, Jesse Compher and Britta Curl-Salemme in addition to Hilary Knight. New Detroit General manager Mannon Rheaume is off to a strong start in motor city.

PWHL Hamilton

With the signings of Brianne Jenner and Emily Clark, you have to think that Hamilton has the talent to sneak into the post season in their inaugural season. Goaltender Kayle Osbourne also has the goods between the pipes to sneak out a couple of wins.

PWHL Las Vegas

We like what Las Vegas did with their draft and the signings of Kendall Cooper and Erin Ambrose. The Las Vegas team could very well be a strong contender for a playoff spot this season.

PWHL San Jose

For us, as of now it looks like the PWHL San Jose team may have difficulty scoring in their first season. Just not enough firepower as of yet to be considered a serious playoff contender in their first season. They could prove us wrong, but they will be hard pressed to win a lot of 5-4 games.

All in all we are looking forward to the fourth season of the PWHL. Expansion is here and you have to think that more is coming in the next few seasons. We expect some fast skating and some tight games this season. Will the inaugural six dominate the expansion teams? Hard to say, but there will be a lot of entertaining hockey on most nights.