Last season the PWHL expanded by two teams, and they plan to add 2-4 teams again this season. But the Toronto Sceptres' roster might force the league to consider shifting their expansion plans and rules.
Last season, the PWHL expanded to add the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent. Each of the PWHL's existing six franchises were permitted to protect three players, with a fourth to be added after they'd lost two players in the expansion process.
In total, each of the six existing teams sacrificed four players in the expansion roster building process for Seattle and Vancouver, and some lost more when you factor in the ensuing free agency period.
This year, the PWHL plans to add another 2-4 teams, which means teams will again lose at least four players, which would give new teams eight players each, four less than Vancouver and Seattle. To reach the same 12 player mark achieved during 2025 expansion, the eight existing teams would each need to disperse six players to give four expansion teams 12 players each like new teams received last season.
One team however, the Toronto Sceptres, could force the PWHL to reconsider those plans.
Why?
The Sceptres only have eight protectable players. The other way to put that is, the Sceptres only have eight selectable players. If Toronto can protect four players, it means there are only four Sceptres available, not enough to reach a six player dispersal.
Toronto's number of course could change if the PWHL allowed an exclusive signing window as they did last season, but there's no guarantee any new team would sign one of Toronto's pending free agents.
It means the Sceptres could enter the PWHL expansion process with only Ella Shelton, Natalie Spooner, Jesse Compher, Emma Gentry, Kiara Zanon, Sara Hjalmarsson, Clara Van Wieren, and Jessie McPherson available.
While the list seems large, it isn't. If the rules remained the same, Toronto could conceivably choose to protect Shelton, Spooner, and Compher to start. Then, for example, if expansion teams selected Gentry and Zanon, and Toronto protected Hjalmarsson in turn, it would leave only two remaining players.
In essence, it would force the expansion teams to select the only remaining players, Van Wieren and McPherson, if each team were set to relinquish four players in expansion. If the league envisioned six players from each team going to four new rosters, Toronto would no longer have enough players available.
If each team is asked to give six players, the Minnesota Frost would also hit this wall as they have exactly 10 players available.
But it's Toronto who could force a rule change.
The Sceptres would have enough players to participate in a four player selection system, which would mean one of the new teams would need to use a selection on third goaltender Jessie McPherson. McPherson is a capable goaltender who could challenge for a backup spot in the league next year, but third goaltending roles typically don't factor into an expansion process, at least not to date.
For Gina Kingsbury and the Toronto Sceptres, it was a perfectly played hand, albeit one that no one could have accurately predicted would need to be played, to best protect the core of their roster in a second wave of expansion.
Last season, Sarah Nurse signed with the Vancouver Goldeneyes during the exclusive signing window. It's conceivable one of Toronto's pending free agents could also sign as a free agent with an expansion team to burn a pick. Players like Daryl Watts, Blayre Turnbull, Emma Maltais, Renata Fast, Savannah Harmon, Kali Flanagan, and netminder Raygan Kirk could all be targets. With the money expansion teams have available, it would not be inconceivable to see a player like Daryl Watts take the payday she deserves in another market.
Still, the PWHL can't bank on Toronto players being signed by an expansion team, particularly in a year where all of the league's remaining three-year contracts signed prior to the inaugural season expire. This offseason will have a wealth of free agents from nearly every market testing the waters, with many receiving the raises they deserve.
It's a reason why some believe the PWHL may shift their free agency plans, or at least how expansion teams approach free agency prior to this round of expansion.
Whether it's two teams, or four, the PWHL will be looking at ways to distribute players to their new teams, and they'll also be looking at the Toronto Sceptres as the baseline for how to approach those plans given the restrictions the Sceptres' contract situations present.