The PWHL's inaugural expansion process was flawed. The league wanted Seattle and Vancouver to contend immediately, but they sacrificed the competitiveness of the league's original six teams, and drove a knife through the heart of many fans in the process.
The league can't repeat the process, or existing teams will struggle for years to come, and the league will see an unsustainable shuffle flipping over rosters without allowing fans to form long term connections to each roster.
The first order of business for the PWHL is better planning. The league was flying by the seat of their pants yet again on the hockey operations side waiting to make decisions on a number of items from roster building roles, to eligibility, the exclusive signing window that general managers, agents, and players didn't understand until hours before it opened, and even the decision of where the new teams would pick in the draft, which seemingly depended on how the rest of the process went rather than pre-planning. Even the "exclusive signing window" turned into a wild west that inevitably hurt teams. At some point, the business side of the PWHL might burn the hockey side of the PWHL to the ground if the year over year trend of confusion continues.
But the expansion process itself will continue, sooner rather than later. And the league needs to change course. This year the league allowed only three players to be protected, with another protection coming after a team lost two players. Each team was required to relinquish at least four players to the expansion teams. The result was five of six first round picks from 2024 ending up with expansion teams, the co-league's leading scorer in Hilary Knight heading West, as well as the league's 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 19, and 20th leading scorers heading to expansion teams as well. The flaws were obvious, but it can be saved moving forward.
Here are several ideas that could help save the PWHL's expansion process moving forward. It's unlikely any one solution is the full answer, but each holds merit in keeping the parity this league has celebrated and allowing teams and fans to build a foundation.
1. Protect early draft picks
This alone would have changed the entire expansion draft. It's also good for the league's young players to help provide stability. Toronto and Montreal each lost their top three picks from 2024 in expansion. These picks are tied to salary tiers which is another important aspect in the league's long term roster building. This pathway would have caused more high price players to be exposed, so perhaps it's not the full answer. Now that expansion has occurred, perhaps this needs to be shifted to only the top two picks for each team allowing them five initial protections, three of their choice, two by their picks.
2. Give teams compensatory picks
It's a small concession, but giving existing teams a compensatory pick for each player they lose from the previous draft that would have remained protected in their system for another season would help. A compensation round could occur midway through the draft, and another at the end. Or the league could even just place it completely at the end of the draft. It would allow teams to scoop any free agent they thought could make their roster from day one, or teams could opt to pass if they didn't have a player they wanted at that point.
3. Hold off on free agency until after the draft
The "exclusive signing window" was a horrific flop. Yes, each of the expansion teams signed their maximum five players in the window, and that part worked. What should never have been allowed was giving those expansion teams the opportunity to negotiate with existing free agents. If anything, the exclusivity of this period should have been reserved for the original six teams. All this window did was allow a savvy general manager like Cara Gardner Morey to negotiate with the league's top free agents and soon sign Michela Cava, Hannah Miller, Tereza Vanisova, Mellissa Channell-Watkins, and Emma Greco when free agency officially opened following expansion. The league may have believed that Vancouver would sign Hannah Miller and forfeit a pick, but why choose one when you can have both within the rules? Free agency before the entry draft was not wise, and should not be repeated unless it's a window for existing teams to begin signing restricted free agents.
4. In the future, force Vancouver and Seattle to lose more
There's no way to correct the PWHL's mistakes this season, but they could make a dent toward returning parity next season. This year, each team lost four players giving the two expansion teams 12 players each heading to free agency and the draft. With eight teams, a four player loss would give a new team 16 players, which might be too many. There are multiple ways to generate a tiered system for expansion losses. For example, if each PWHL playoff team in 2025-26 was made to lose four players in the next expansion, and non-playoff teams three each, it would give two new expansion teams 14 players each. That tiered system could shift with the teams reaching the PWHL final losing four, the middle four teams losing three each, and the last two teams losing only two. This would give two new expansion teams an identical 12 players to what teams received this year, and it would help protect teams that hit the bottom of the standings allowing them to retain more. Alternatively, the PWHL could force Vancouver and Seattle to be the only players who lose four players, and allow added protections to the original six. The league threw out parity, their next job is finding a way to bring it back.
5. Increase the number of protections
Simpler than any other solution would have been increasing the number of protections initially to four, and perhaps allowing teams to protect an additional player later. This could have come through automatically protecting each team's first round pick, or allowing each team to protect four players and a goalie. Even at that level, this entire process would have received less criticism while still allowing Seattle and Vancouver to form rosters that would immediately compete with a chance to win a Walter Cup. Instead, the expansion teams enter the 2025-26 season as the odds on favorites.