Opinion: The PWHL Should Return To The Coach's Challenge For 2026-27

After a season without the Coach's Challenge in the PWHL, it's clear the league's removal of the rule was a change that negatively impacted the product, disrupted game play, and was not met with favour from fans, players, or teams.

The league has yet to announce their rules for the 2026-27 season, but after multiple seasons of innovating and altering rules to fit their own model, one of those changes, last season's removal of the Coach's Challenge, backfired.

Following the dismissal of the PWHL's central situation room staff only days before the 2025-26 season started, along with some of the league's in-house video review staff, lengthy and confusing reviews ensued disrupting many games. The replacement of staff came after central situation room staff requested a raise for what they considered would be additional work without a coach's challenge and with an expanded schedule. With the league expanding again this season, there will be more work yet again for the staff the league brought in to replace those they removed.

With a Coach's Challenge in place in almost every other major league, the onus rests with teams playing the game. In the PWHL, the league controls the outcome unilaterally. With the removal of a delay of game penalty for a mistaken challenge, it actually increased the frequency of reviews as coaches and players continued to advocate for reviews knowing there was no risk to their team, and it was often a way for those teams to stop momentum and reset following a goal, whether or not a review was warranted.

Those reviews frequently lasted several minutes, disrupting momentum, broadcasts, and drawing the ire of fans. And they did not go unnoticed by players who also felt uncertainty not only around what constituted a good goal, but also what constituted a penalty. Confidence in league officiating, whether it's on-ice or in a central situation room.

"I think us, the referees, nobody really knows what’s a penalty," Vancouver Goldeneyes forward Sarah Nurse said last season. "That gets frustrating because you go into a battle and you’re like, ‘Could I get called here? Maybe. Could I not? Maybe.’” 

During the 2026 Walter Cup finals, despite the league's disruptive system of reviews, multiple missed calls directly impacted the result of games. In particular, the first two games of the Walter Cup finals both ended with missed calls directly leading to goals in overtime. Had those calls been made, the Ottawa Charge may have been champions, but that's an uncertainty that will never be known.

"That last game-winning goal, you know, our net front D is in the corner because she was tripped right beforehand," said Ottawa Charge head coach Carla MacLeod following one of those goals and blatantly missed calls.

By taking the control away from those in the game, the league was able to make game, series, and championship altering decisions. A Coach's Challenge is a mechanism for seeing these blatant mistakes are rectified, and insuring the integrity of results.

While the PWHL has been an innovator in rules, the removal of a Coach's Challenge was a step in the wrong direction, and one that goes against other leagues where Coach's Challenge opportunities and privileges have been expanded in recent seasons. 

Last season the NHL, 109 coach's challenges resulted in overturned calls, while only 59 coach's challenges that were upheld. The result is a highly effective system of upholding the integrity of goals and games in the NHL. 77 of those were reviews as offsides, an item that can't be reviewed, even centrally, in the PWHL, and where other obviously missed calls with players feet, not inches offside went on the score.

The impact to the PWHL's product and integrity is clear, and in 2026-27 with not only the expansion of teams, but the expansion of the officiating staff to include more officials unfamiliar with the PWHL, and inexperienced at this level, could cause more missed calls.

The league can continue to attempt to manage missed calls at the league level, which will result in lengthy reviews whether they're needed or not, or they can put more control back into the hands of teams. Aside from the on-ice officials, players and coaches are those witnessing the game first hand, having a view of the action that those in a booth don't in real time. 

For the sake of the product, the integrity of the game, and to see the efforts of players and teams validated without season-altering reviews made selectively and at the sole discretion of the league, it's time the PWHL reinstates the Coach's Challenge as a mechanism to improve flow, results, and the overall product.