The PWHL season is just over three months away. It's a long time in the hockey world, nearly six months without a game, but the 2025-26 season will be worth the wait for women's hockey fans.
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1. West Coast Games
The fact there will be games in Seattle and Vancouver this season is fantastic for the sport. Not only are their two new teams in the PWHL, but they're star studded. Games against the two new PWHL franchises will be circled on calendars across the league, but the west coast itself will also be thrilled. In the first two seasons of the PWHL's existence, the league almost never played a weeknight game that wasn't already well underway before the work day had ended on the Pacific Coast. This year, things will be different. The games in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena, and at the league's first primary venue in Vancouver, the Pacific Coliseum are destined to draw strong crowds. As well, for fans on the east coast, it opens the opportunity to watch double headers late into the night. For new and existing fans, West Coast games and expansion means more games, more times, more excitement.
2. More Players And More Stars
The creation of PWHL Vancouver and PWHL Seattle means 46 additional players will be in the PWHL this season. It also means new stars will have the opportunity to make a name for themselves on the existing original six teams who lost top talent in expansion. Through the draft the league welcomed players like Kristyna Kaltounkova, Casey O'Brien, Michelle Karvinen, Haley Winn, and Nicole Gosling, among others. Ottawa selected and signed the first Russian players who will step on the ice in the PWHL. Expansion is good for the growth of the game, and it will only cause more girls and women to see a possible future playing pro hockey.
3. The 2026 Olympics
The World Championships happen every year, but they still don't hold the international appeal of the Olympic Games. Canada is the reigning gold medalist from 2022, but USA is coming in as World Champions, and with a young and dynamic roster. Czechia, Finland, and Sweden have seen growth in the number of players coming to the PWHL, and will all challenge for respect at the Olympics (and possibly challenge for an upset), and nations like Germany and Switzerland remain viable competitors. The PWHL still hasn't explained how the month break will align with their schedule, and there are even more question marks about the World Championships, which could potentialy be moved to the summer or Fall, but the Olympics are a memorable moment in the women's hockey world. In the past, it was Olympic years that sparked the most growth in girls hockey registrations. With the birth of the PWHL, there has already been a boom in that category, and coupling it with an Olympic year, the global game looks to take a leap forward, not just another step.
4. New Stops On The Takeover Tour
When the PWHL unveils their 2025-26 schedule, some of the most talked about games will again be the on the Takeover Tour. Last year Vancouver and Seattle parlayed their PWHL Takeover Tour stops into expansion. Denver set an American attendance record, breaking Detroit's, and then Detroit broke it right back on the same night the league surpassed one million fans. Edmonton and Quebec City tickets sold like hot cakes, and the new bench mark for attendance at these games pushed higher to a point where markets not drawing 10,000 or more fans was deemed "unsuccessful." Two years ago the numbers seen at the least attended PWHL Takeover Tour games would have been heralded as massive success stories. That's a testament to the growth this league has spawned in the sport. Where will the PWHL Takeover Tour go this year? Wherever the league goes, excitement and the fan base will continue to grow.
5. The Race For The Top Continues
At the team level and individual level, 2025-26 will hold importance. Now seven teams in the PWHL will look to dethrone the back-to-back reigning PWHL champions, the Minnesota Frost. Veterans like Kendall Coyne Schofield, Kelly Pannek, and Lee Stecklein now have their championships, while other active legends like Marie-Philip Poulin, Hilary Knight, Brianne Jenner, and Natalie Spooner continue to chase theirs. Not only will each fan base's desire for a title continue to increase with each passing season, but the aforementioned players and many others will continue striving to entrench their individual legacies. Players like Poulin and Spooner have done just that winning the first two PWHL MVP awards. Knight and Sarah Fillier tied for the league scoring championship last year, and Ann-Renee Desbiens earned her first Goaltender of the Year award. Renata Fast continued to prove she's the best professional defender on the planet with hardware of her own. As the league continues, all-time lists will start to form, including the league's all-time scoring lead, which right now belongs to Poulin, who sits five points ahead of Daryl Watts and six in front of Alex Carpenter. This honor will ultimately go to a younger player like Fillier, who has her entire career ahead of her, but she'll continue to work to catch the veterans of the game who built this league for the next generation.