It's a new season, with renewed hopes in New York. The New York Sirens are the lone original six PWHL team yet to appear in the Walter Cup playoffs. 

On paper, many saw the Sirens as a frontrunner heading into the inaugural season. It didn't work out for the Sirens under head coach Howie Draper, who lost the room, as leadership among the players pushed the coach out, and guided many decisions themselves. While the hiring of Greg Fargo as New York's next head coach brought stability, it didn't immediately bring wins. 

The Sirens dropped to last again. 

The good news for New York was that they were able to draft Sarah Fillier and Kristyna Kaltounkova. 

The bad new for New York was that through the league's rapid expansion, doubling the PWHL's footprint over two seasons, New York lost talented player after talented player erasing any advantage they'd gained through the draft. To make matters worse, despite sitting in a position to pick third overall in the PWHL Draft in 2026, a position that would have enabled the Sirens to select Tessa Janecke or Laila Edwards, the PWHL pushed New York down to 7th in the draft order, behind the four new expansion teams as well as Vancouver and Seattle.

They still made the best of the selection grabbing Ohio State captain Emma Peschel. 

Despite their losses this offseason including Anne Cherkowski, Kayle Osborne, Kristin O'Neill, and Maddi Wheeler, the Sirens look poised to be competitive, and finish what they started in 2025-26.

Prior to the Olympic break last season, New York looked like a team who would crack a playoff spot. Following the break however, New York watched starter Kayle Osborne struggle, and they saw top pick Kristyna Kaltounkova miss the final nine games of the season due to injury.

The result was another missed playoff. 

Off the ice, the Sirens grew immensely seeing their best ever home average at the Prudential Center in New Jersey, while also selling out Madison Square Garden in New York.

Now, it's up to New York to not only grow off the ice, but to finally crack the Walter Cup playoffs.

New York still has one of the better top four in the league with Micah Zandee-Hart, Maya Nylén Persson, Jaime Bourbonnais, and Emma Peschel. But their depth at the position including veterans Nicole Vallario, Dayle Ross, Lauren Bernard, and rookie Grace Wolfe gives New York substantive stability on the back end. 

They'll need it in front of veteran, yet unproven starter in the league Elaine Chuli. Chuli comes to New York as their starter after two seasons as a backup in Montreal, and last season backing up in Toronto. 

New York's blueline is mobile, and can contribute on both sides of the puck. Last season Nylén Persson continued her ascent as one of the league's top defenders, and others, like Vallario, emerged with promise. Dayle Ross started last season injured and struggled to catch up, This could be her breakout season.

At the top end of New York's attack, Sarah Fillier, Kristyna Kaltounkova nad Casey O'Brien will continue to drive the ship. They'll be bolstered by six other returning forwards, and a talented group of rookies. Late season acquisition Denisa Krisova added an element and veteran presence that helped stabilize New York's roster, and Paetyn Levis has grown as a leader up front as well, and this season with additions like Makenna Webster, Carina DiAntonio, Elisa Holopainen, Katelyn Roberts and Naomi Boucher, veteran guidance will be even more important. Watch for analytics sleeper Anna Bagman to take another step as well.

Some teams in the PWHL have great skill at the top, but are missing their bottom six. New York has both.

Regardless of whether the PWHL moves to six or eight playoff teams this season, it won't be easy to secure one of those spots. Last year's playoff teams including Montreal, Ottawa, and Minnesota look strong again, and it seems implausible that the stacked rosters Vancouver and Seattle built in year one can fail to put together a better campaign than they did in year one. 

Last season only the Toronto Sceptres scored less than New York, and last season only the Seattle Torrent allowed more goals than New York. Neither is a flattering stat, and the Sirens will need to rectify one or both. It's likely the Sirens can boost their goals for with a sophomore boost from O'Brien and Kaltounkova. The success of rookie Elisa Holopainen could be a factor as well. Clearly one of the most skilled players outside the PWHL, Holopainen can struggle at times against physical, tight checking teams. But surrounded by elite offensive talents, she could find the space she needs to be an impact player. But team defence, and consistency in net will be crucial to getting allowing less against. One aspect of their goals against was a league worst 19 goals against while shorthanded last season. It's an element of New York's system-play they must improve this season.

With a bigger player pool, and four new teams, making the PWHL playoffs will only get more difficult in 2026-27. But there's no other goal in mind for the New York Sirens, and for the first time, they might have enough pieces of a winning puzzle for the playoff picture to be in view.