PWHL Expansion Again Next Summer? My Thoughts on How It Could and Should Be Handled

It sounds like expansion is going to be happening again in the PWHL, possibly as soon as summer 2026. Amy Scheer, the Senior Vice President of Business Operations for the PWHL, was recently quoted as saying, “Next year, we are expanding again. It’s either 2-4 teams. If I were a betting woman, I’d say it would be four teams.” She was also quoted as saying if they expand by 4 teams, the league would likely then stay steady at 12 teams for awhile before considering additional expansion.

Why Expand So Quickly?

As a fan of the PWHL, the idea of going through another expansion process again next summer feels almost agonizing. This summer was painful enough, watching all of the original 6 teams lose some of their best and more impactful players to expansion, and the idea of having to watch that again is not appealing, to say the least.

But, there is something to be said for ripping off the Band-Aid, so to speak, and then finally allowing everyone to heal and teams to rebuild and stay more consistent for years afterward. Rather than a small trickle of another team or two every summer, and being forced through the expansion process for years on end, this might be the better option in the long-term. It would allow teams to start to build some consistency in their rosters once this round of expansion is completed. Teams would be able to truly build their identity and continue to grow, draft, and sign players to fit with the type of team they want to be.

The 2026 entry draft will be the strongest one in the PWHL’s short history, and this draft has the likelihood to be one that is looked at many years into the future as the strongest one in a long time. There are so many incredible players ready to join the league that each team (even if we expand to 12 teams) will get an impactful, exciting player to immediately bolster their roster.

Also, the league is losing good players because there just aren’t enough spots for them all to play. If they want as many of the best players of the world playing in the PWHL, there need to be enough roster spots, for them to play, and these players have to feel like they’re not just going to get a roster spot, but will be able to play meaningful minutes and contribute to their team rather than fearing they might be battling for a 4 line spot and the minimal playing minutes that comes with.

How Should Expansion Look?

For the first round of expansion in 2025, each of the original 6 teams had the ability to protect 3 players, and were allowed to protect 1 additional player after they had lost their first 2 players (so each team was able to protect 4 total players). Each of the original 6 teams lost 4 total players, meaning that the expansion teams (Seattle and Vancouver) each took 12 total players from the original 6 teams.

There will obviously be changes to these rules. I could see each of the 8 current existing teams losing 4 players again this round, if there are 4 new expansion teams, so basically each expansion team gets 1 player from each existing team. The expansion teams getting 8 players through the expansion process feels a bit low, but taking 2 per team would get them up to 16 players, which is way too high when you consider a 6 round entry draft and a 23 player roster limit, so 8 players through expansion makes more sense to me.

I think the protection rules for the existing teams could stay more or less the same, if one extra rule was also put into place: none of last summer’s entry draft picks are eligible to be taken by the expansion teams. In this case, that would mean that the 2025 entry draft players would be protected from expansion. A large number of high 2024 draft picks were taken by Seattle & Vancouver in this summer’s expansion process, which wasn’t against the rules, but I think that’s an easy change to make to allow teams to hold on to their new and young talent. If the league doesn’t make this adjustment, I would argue for another protection spot or two for every existing team, to allow them to protect a few more players. If 2025 draft picks are automatically protected, I think 4 protection spots for the existing teams could work.

I acknowledge that it’s a tough balance to strike, of allowing the existing teams enough protections and rules to keep the players most important to each team, but still allowing the expansion teams enough good players to choose from to allow them to be competitive in the near future. Certainly from a league perspective, the better the expansion teams are early on, the better to really solidify those new fan bases behind competitive teams, but that shouldn’t be at the expense of the existing teams and existing fan bases. Again, it’s a tricky balance and I’m thankful I’m not the one who has to figure out how it should all work.

Final Thoughts

Expansion is coming, and might be quite significant next summer. Fans of the existing teams likely won’t love that it’s happening again, and it’s going to be tough to see more good players leave their current teams for new markets, but at the end of the day, if it’s happening, maybe it’s best to let it all happen next summer and then let everything settle in after that. Whether we as fans like it or not, it sounds like it’s coming, so finding any silver lining, or imagining ways we’d like the see the process improved for this next round of expansion, might at least help us cope with what’s to come.

How many new teams do you think will be added next season, and where do you think the new franchises will be located? What rules do you want to see changed for this next round of expansion? Let me know in the comments!