Five Games PWHL San Jose Fans Should Circle On Their 2026-27 Calendar

There are 30 games on PWHL San Jose's inaugural schedule.

You could make a case for circling all 30. That's what happens when a city gets its first PWHL team.

But five stand out.

Some are obvious. Some have a little extra history attached to them. And one has the makings of a rivalry before either team has even played a game.

PWHL San Jose's first home game is Dec. 5 at SAP Center against the Minnesota Frost.

There isn't much analysis necessary here. This is the night San Jose finally gets to see its PWHL team in person.

The franchise has spent months putting together a roster, introducing players to the market and selling fans on what this team can become. On Dec. 5, all of that stops being theoretical.

The puck will drop in a packed arena and PWHL San Jose will officially have a home.

New York is an especially interesting first opponent for San Jose at SAP Center.

The expansion draft helped make that happen.

San Jose brought in several former Sirens players, including Kristin O'Neill, Anne Cherkowski and Maddi Wheeler. So when New York comes to town on Dec. 27, there will be plenty of familiar faces on the other bench.

O'Neill is probably the biggest name in that group. She was one of New York's regulars last season before becoming one of San Jose's foundational additions.

Now she'll get to play her old team in San Jose.

The first time the two Western Conference expansion teams meet at SAP Center will be Jan. 13, and this is the kind of game that should have a little more juice than your average regular-season matchup.

Part of that is geography. San Jose and Las Vegas are two of the league's newest markets, they're the closest thing the PWHL has to a built-in West Coast rivalry, and their fan bases are going to spend a lot of time in the same conference.

The NHL has spent years showing what a Sharks-Golden Knights rivalry can look like. The PWHL doesn't have that history yet, but San Jose and Vegas have the opportunity to create their own version of it from scratch.

It's the first time San Jose gets Vegas in its building. It's the first chance for fans on either side to decide that, yes, they really don't like the other team very much.

That's how rivalries usually start.

This is the one where the magic happens. 

hockey nerds get their matchup.

Laila Edwards and Caroline Harvey spent their collegiate seasons together at Wisconsin, and have played together on Team USA for years. Now they're both starting their professional careers in the PWHL… just on opposite sides of the conference.

Harvey went No. 1 overall to Vancouver in the 2026 PWHL Draft. Edwards went No. 4 to San Jose.

When Vancouver comes to San Jose on Feb. 13, it's not just another game between two Western Conference teams. It's the first time Edwards gets to play against her former Wisconsin teammate at the professional level.

There will be plenty of attention on both players throughout their rookie seasons. 

The only catch: this one is part of the PWHL's Takeover Tour, so the venue hasn't been announced yet. Wherever it ends up being played, put it on the calendar.

There's no mystery about why the final home game matters.

It's the last time San Jose fans get to see the inaugural team at SAP Center during the regular season.

By April 9, nobody will need an introduction to this team anymore. Fans will have watched 29 games, figured out their favorites, developed their complaints and, hopefully, gotten a pretty good idea of where San Jose fits in the PWHL.

And Vancouver is back in town, at SAP Center this time.

That gives this game a little extra juice after the first meeting with Harvey and the Goldeneyes earlier in the season. More importantly, it'll come late enough in the year that the standings could make the game mean something whether San Jose is chasing a playoff spot, protecting one or simply trying to finish its first season on a high note.

Opening night will be about the novelty of seeing PWHL hockey in San Jose.

The last home game will be about the team itself.

That's a pretty good way to bookend the first season.