Each PWHL team will play only two preseason games heading into the 2024-2025 season. The brevity of the league's preseason could impact players and teams in a variety of ways.
The PWHL ran their inaugural centralized preseason camp in Utica, New York in 2023. At that event, each team played three games to help finalize their rosters, prepare for the season, and at that time, test out novel rule adaptations. This season, the PWHL has split their preseason between two locations with three teams playing in Montreal, and three playing in Toronto.
The result however, is an even more condensed preseason with less opportunities for teams to build chemistry, make roster decisions, and prepare for the 2024-2025 season. This time around, each team will only play two preseason games.
Those games will not be open to the public, whether it's in person, on television, or streaming.
The condensed preseason schedule, which will last only three days, will have a number of impacts on PWHL teams, both potentially negative and potentially positive.
Less Chance For Injury
Without a farm system for PWHL teams, preserving talent and player health is important to on-ice success, and the on ice product. Last season, Minnesota's Sydney Brodt saw her season disrupted by an injury in Utica. She did not return until the final stretch of the season, playing the final seven games of the season. While she was the only player to suffer a long term injury in Utica, there were a number of close calls, and players started to accumulate wear and tear. Keeping the preseason short is risk mitigation for the league, reducing the chances a star player is impacted before the puck drops on the season.
Rookies May Be Impacted
For players coming from the SDHL where bodychecking is the norm, the physicality won't be a huge issue, but the speed will. For players coming from the NCAA, they'll be adapting on the fly to both. For rookies, this could mean abnormally slow starts as they find ways to take space in a more physical game, to shield themselves and the puck, and all the while playing the game at a higher pace with less time to make decisions. In men's professional hockey, many of these issues are ironed out in the preseason, or playing in an affiliate league. For players making the jump to the PWHL, they'll be learning the pace and physicality in games that matter during the regular season. How quickly rookies make that adaptation could make or break playoff hopes.
Unpredictable, Yet Important Starts To The Year
Teams won't get a chance to test out their special teams, they won't be able to see how practice chemistry translates to a game. That means that the first weeks of the PWHL season could result in unpredictable results as individual performances could play a larger role in determining outcomes. The league has increased to 30 games this season from the 24 last year, but every game remains crucial for playoff points. Until players adapt to the pace and physicality, until coaches find line combinations, until new goaltenders can manage stronger shooters, until special teams get their reps...anything can happen, and the postseason implications are real.
Less Opportunity to Build Fan Base
It's still incredibly confusing that the PWHL is keeping preseason games closed to the public, training camps closed to the public, and that there won't be streaming opportunities. After the massive success the league enjoyed in year one, the preseason could be a worthwhile appetizer for fans, and also an opportunity for youth or new fans to get their first glimpse of the league. The centralized locations in Montreal and Toronto was never going to help the markets, including Boston and New York, who need the most support to grow a fan base, but keeping the doors closed and not streaming games will slow the year two growth. Excitement for the league remains at an all-time high, and that's the good news, but every opportunity to market the game, and grow the fan base is critical.