It’s been almost a month since Laila Edwards fell to San Jose in the PWHL 2026 Entry Draft. San Jose has a very special player with Edwards. Edwards has won an Olympic gold medal playing defense but also has won a National Championship and World Championship gold playing forward.

The 6-foot-1 right shot brings a level of versatility to a very young PWHL San Jose team. PWHL San Jose will have the advantage of teams not really knowing how to game plan due to the fact of not knowing where Edwards will be playing.

In the expansion process, PWHL also grabbed another young blue liner by the name of Rory Guilday, who was selected 5th overall in the 2025 PWHL Entry Draft. Guilday is a very defensive defender with one of the hardest shots in the PWHL. Guilday and Edwards just won a gold medal together at the 2026 Milano.

San Jose will have so many options on what to do on the blue line, but the most interesting is pairing Edwards and Guilday. Both Edwards and Guilday are shot threats from the point. Both are also very young. San Jose could form one of the best young pairings for years to come, and they would be able to build chemistry and stay together for the foreseeable future. And if the offense isn’t clicking, you can always put Edwards at forward for a few shifts.

PWHL San Jose selecting Edwards gives them so much leeway and flexibility, not just in the short term but long term also. They gave themselves probably one of the best young defensive pairings in the league, but also another strategy that most teams don’t have and will have to game plan around. PWHL San Jose is a fun young team that will grow together and learn together, and they already have some very strong foundation blocks in place. 

For a full draft analysis of PWHL San Jose’s draft, check out this article written by Caroline Fenyo.