Erin Ambrose talks about choosing PWHL Las Vegas, how excited she is to join Las Vegas, the new challenge of building something new, and setting the foundation and culture for PWHL Las Vegas.
PWHL Las Vegas is looking to build an identity and a winning culture. Erin Ambrose will be at the forefront of leading the team.
“I think if you look at anything in life, you wanna build things from the ground up, you wanna have an impact on them,” Ambrose said.
On June 8, 2026, PWHL Las Vegas announced the signing of veteran star defender Erin Ambrose. Ambrose signed a two-year contract that will keep her in Las Vegas.
Ambrose is coming off a Walter Cup championship. She is also an Olympic gold medalist, an NCAA champion, the first-ever PWHL Defender of the Year, a leader on and off the ice, and a champion through and through.
Ambrose described herself as, “a very cerebral player. I like to kind of assess situations, see what's going on the ice. Very vocal and just try to have an impact whenever I'm out there, whether that be defensively blocking shots or trying to, I guess, contribute as much as I can offensively. But very sound defensively and try to add offense whenever I can.”
The expansion process has been a big one this year, with four new teams coming into the fold. Ambrose talked about what the expansion process was like for her. There was a lot of player movement throughout the league and many new opportunities on the horizon.
“It’s incredible to see the growth of our league, another four teams after the two teams last year. It's huge for our sport, really good for our game,” she said.
While discussing PWHL Las Vegas' identity, a theme appeared: hardnosed, hard working players and a winning pedigree. Ambrose spoke a bit about the decision behind selecting PWHL Las Vegas.
“I just really like the foundational pieces that we put in place. And then I thought our draft was phenomenal.”
Ambrose is also reuniting with two former teammates from the Montreal Victoire, Maureen Murphy and Hayley Scamurra.
“A little bit comforting especially for me like Vegas is a very unknown place for me so to have the comfort of those two is pretty awesome,” Ambrose said.
For fans who might not know the playing styles of Hayley Scamurra and Maureen Murphy: “The two of them are very hard-nosed players, very north south. Both can shoot the puck very, very well. And I'd say scams his hand eye is some of the best in the biz based on her hat trick against Vancouver last year.”
Being an expansion team, Ambrose and company will be able to set the foundation and culture for what PWHL Las Vegas intends to be not just now, but also in the future. Being hard to play against is a common theme Ambrose referred back to several times.
“How hardnosed and how hard working they are. I think it's gonna be a really big part of our DNA in Vegas," she said. "And I like that because I know that makes it difficult to play against.”
Ambrose couldn’t state enough just how excited she is to start this chapter in Las Vegas and build a culture and set a foundation for PWHL Las Vegas for years to come.
“I think if you look at our group, everybody’s just good human beings. Even the people I don't know I've had the chance to connect with throughout the summer or had people tell me about who they are. I think that we just have a great group of human beings and that's going to be a lot of fun.”
