Expansion. It is a word that brings initial excitement for fans, followed immediately by an intense feeling of dread and despair. Sure, it's tremendous for a new league to see franchise growth double in three years, but what about your favourite players? That's how fans across the PWHL feel as the league's expansion process looms just over the horizon, and that remains the case in the nation's capital. 

Revisiting last season's expansion, the Ottawa Charge protected Gwyneth Philips, Ronja Savolainen, and Emily Clark, followed by Gabbie Hughes during the Expansion Draft. Fans were then forced to watch as impact defenders Ashton Bell and Aneta Tejralová were selected with the first and second overall picks by Vancouver and Seattle, respectively.

This year, the team is fresh off another Walter Cup Finals run and saw returning players take a monumental step forward in their development, while draft picks looked like seasoned veterans rather than first-year players. Now that the season is over, the franchise shifts its focus entirely to the next deadline: expansion. And the decisions made will not be easy ones.

Here are the three players most likely to be protected in Phase One of the expansion process, followed by what it means for three players who have likely played their final game in Ottawa Charge colours.

While many decisions regarding expansion and who to protect will be difficult, this one is not. Gwyneth Philips is going nowhere, as she proved once again to be a difference maker and the backbone of the team, whether during the regular season or in the team's back-to-back runs to the Walter Cup Finals.

Over her two seasons in the league, Philips holds a 2.12 GAA and a .925 SV% during the regular season, and in her two years in the league, she's finished top-five in both categories. And, as her Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP award would prove, Philips takes her performance up a notch when the pressure is the highest in the playoffs, finishing with a 1.61 GAA and a .940 SV% in the postseason. Philips also reached the 1,000-save milestone this year, spanning both the regular season and playoffs, another mark that shows how important she is to the Charge's success.

Philips is the starter for this team, this coming season and every season she remains with the team. She's the group's MVP, pillar, and whatever other superlative one could come up with.

This is where things start to get interesting. The team needs to protect a defender and have two candidates worthy of building a team around. While Rory Guilday showed a ton of promise, it's her defensive partner, Ronja Savolainen, who finishes just ahead and gets protected.

Savolainen saw growth in almost every statistical category from her first to her second season, including goals scored (two to four), power-play goals (one to two), and shooting percentage (4.3 to 7.3), while also seeing maturation in her game. Her penalty minutes were cut almost in half (18 down to 10) while maintaining the physical edge, finishing the regular season with the third-most hits on the team (42). Savolainen also elevated her play in the postseason, finishing with four points, including the game-winner in the final minute of Game Three against Boston. She also saw confidence on both sides of the puck, unafraid to jump in and activate in the offensive zone.

Again, the team can't go wrong choosing one or the other here. While management would love to keep both, it's Ronja Savolainen here.

Following this season, it felt pretty clear just how important one forward in particular was to the organization: Rebecca Leslie.

Much has been made of the offseason work put in and how it translated into an unbelievable season, and with good reason. Leslie finished this year miles away from her three-point 2024-25 season, with 14 goals and 23 points, good for sixth place in the league, and was the team's leading postseason point-getter with six and tied for first in league goal scoring with four. Many of her goals will stand out to fans, but the hometown hero's biggest remains the final-minute game-winner in Game Three of the Finals against Montreal.

Between the regular season and playoffs, Leslie's offensive consistency and tenacity undeniably showed how integral the Ottawa native remains to the Charge's success, making her a leading candidate to be protected.

With Philips, Savolainen, and Leslie all protected, attention will shift to the players who have likely played their final games with the organization.

We start here for good reason. Rory Guilday was the team's fifth overall pick in the 2025 Draft and stepped onto the ice at TD Place, looking like a seasoned pro from day one. Sure, there pay have been bumps along the road, but it's safe to say that she made her impact felt.

During the regular season, the 5'11" Guilday was able to show so much promise and upside, whether from her booming shot from the blue line, the fact that she finished fifth in the entire league in hits per games played (1.90), or that she led the team in blocked shots with 35. Guilday proved in her rookie season that she's a player that an organization would very much like to build a defensive corps around, which means that she won't make it through the expansion process as a member of the Charge.

While losing Guilday will undoubtedly sting, fans will likely be nursing this wound more. Kadirova may have entered the league as a sixth-round pick and relative unknown, but didn't take long at all to make a name for herself. Game in, game out, Kadirova was making an impact with her relentless style of play and embodied the "never back down" attitude, which became a hallmark of the team. Her 12 points during the regular season placed her fifth on the team in scoring.

In the postseason, she helped the Charge get to Game Four of the Walter Cup Finals by scoring five points, including a game-winner, good for fifth in playoff scoring, and was all too often the first player in on a forecheck, challenging the defenders to play the puck quickly, and helping to generate scoring chances and sustained offensive zone time. Kadirova's play, personality and hair will all be missed in the nation's capital.

Drafted in the third round of the 2025 Draft, Sarah Wozniewicz quickly established herself on the top line alongside Brianne Jenner and Leslie, and didn't look out of place for a moment. She wrapped up a rookie season which saw her put up 13 points, good for sixth in the league and breaking Gabbie Hughes' rookie scoring record in the process, and contribute a league-leading four game-winning goals. That's a lot, but for Wozniewicz, it looked easy, as did so many aspects of her game. At every game, fans and spectators came to expect her to put on a show with her speed, dynamic playmaking, and chemistry with her teammates on the top line.

The Ottawa Charge enter the expansion process in the same position the team did this time last year: fresh off a Game Four defeat, staring down the reality that important pieces to the team's success have played their final games in Charge colours. While tough decisions will need to be made, the management group was effective last year at offsetting the losses with a strong draft class and sneaky-good signings in free agency.

Expansion is a double-edged sword, there's no denying that. On the one hand, it shows the growth and enthusiasm for the sport, as on the other, it is a stressful and often downright discouraging time for players and fans. The good news this time around is that, following this expansion process, teams can finally begin to truly establish their organizational cores. At the same time, fans can breathe just a little easier knowing their favourite players won't be selected to wear a rival's colours.