With the expansion process and draft complete, and free agency slowed to a crawl, the PWHL now has four new teams.

The PWHL also has a mess to clean up with fans. Bit by bit, the league has dissolved trust and leached the goodwill of fans who were desperate for a singular professional women’s hockey league. Now, however, the PWHL finds themselves very early in their existence as an organization that has found rapid success, but has also steamrolled some of their most ardent supporters.

In many ways, the PWHL has operated unlike other hockey leagues. They have innovative rules, they have a markedly different in-arena culture driven by passionate fans, and they have single-entity ownership. The league also has no transparency, and has drifted closer to the NHL's faux-social consciousness than anyone imagined this quickly. The league has pushed their business plan forward, often dismissing fan concerns, but the growth is unquestionable. And it might have all been okay, had the league communicated or been transparent about their operations. 

The league's complete lack of transparency has hurt fan trust, caused many to reconsider renewing their season tickets, and even has many staff wondering about the behind the scenes ethics of the league.

Year one was a grace period that few questioned. There were issues, many of them in fact, but the league itself was a smashing success on and off the ice. The PWHL proved naysayers wrong, sold out buildings, and built the foundation of a lasting league.

As soon as the first season ended, however, the league showed the first crack in not only their transparency, but their integrity, in how they cast off Minnesota GM and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Natalie Darwitz. It came with stories of mutinies and backroom deals between players and the league. And as the league has shown, there will be no transparency, decisions come with what seems like autocratic force, and attempts by fans or media to communicate are stonewalled.

When the PWHL expanded last season, fans were upset by the process, but even the most perturbed fans accepted the situation in the name of longevity and league stability, believing the PWHL would adjust ahead of future expansion. But when the league expanded by four teams this year, executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer showed the league hadn't been listening. Instead, she addressed media implying that real fans of the league and sport don't choose teams becasue of players, and they remain fans of teams after players move on, including through the league's second massive shuffle in expansion. It was instantly clear the league did not understand how women’s hockey fandom survived without a singular league, and the importance of fans being fans of players, as much as they are teams or a league.

At the same press conference, executive vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford attempted to explain the league's reasoning for not announcing the 2026 PWHL Draft order to players, team staff, or fans until 48 hours prior to the Draft. In the end, the reason was that the league was playing puppet master to ensure 12 teams with parity. The result was a second straight season of teams losing their first- and second-round draft picks from the previous season, and watching captains and stars plucked from their teams. It harkened a league operating more closely to the WWE than the WNBA.

Perhaps there was no clearer example of the impact of shifting star players against their will, even ones who have earned free agency as collectively negotiated, and the league's willingness to make up rules on the fly, bend them to fit a plan, or change them altogether, than the movement of Hilary Knight, and the rampant and unchecked tampering during expansion.

It was clear from the opening day of PWHL expansion that Hilary Knight had her heart set on joining PWHL Detroit after things fell through in Seattle. But when Knight was forced to sign with Las Vegas, her own contractual free will, and the league's willingness to adhere to the plans they set forth were challenged. In the end, a deal was struck before Knight officially signed with Las Vegas that she would be traded to Detroit for a first-round draft pick. The problem was, at the time of the trade, which was league-approved, that trades weren't allowed, draft picks couldn't be traded, and Knight had to be an active member of the Las Vegas roster, since league rules stated each expansion team must have 10 players signed.

After the trade had been agreed upon was when the league decided that Las Vegas and San Jose, two teams who unquestionably exited the PWHL's expansion window with the least talent, were awarded the third overall, fourth overall, and fifth overall picks. 

The process called the league's rules and transparency into question. Everyone knew multiple teams were tampering, and then, because the process was announced after all of this shuffle (and was clearly created to benefit certain teams) it felt like the league itself was tampering.

It harkened the many complaints from GMs, players, agents, and fans of questionable hiring practices, and ongoing conflicts of interest between Hockey Canada and PWHL teams, and their use of that power and personal information to recruit or select players. 

Bumps could be expected with any start-up, but the league's subjective implementation of rules, inequitable treatment of athletes, dismissal of fans, lack of communication, faux social consciousness, and complete lack of transparency have eroded the trust of fans and onlookers.

And it will take time, and consistency, and transparency to rebuild what's been lost.

"Rules" within the PWHL change annually to fit situational needs. Fans and onlookers may be more open to those changes if there were any public-facing rules, protocols, or procedures to govern and guide off-ice dealings from the draft, to free agency, to contracts, to social issues and equity. But there aren't. Some have been pledged and dismissed, such as a proposed gender inclusion policy that the league promised prior to their inaugural season, which has not been delivered on. In fact, there are no public policies and procedures at all. Some of it is due to the skeleton collective bargaining agreement that was signed, an almost complete copy-and-paste of a now replaced version of an old NWSL CBA.

As the league grows, it makes sense that some items will change, but without the league communicating those items, it calls their integrity into question. During one offseason, one-year contracts can be guaranteed; during the next, all one-year contracts are non-guaranteed. But then one of those guaranteed contracts is terminated.

Salary levels change each year, offseason roster limits have changed, draft eligibility rules changed, short-term contracts have evolved, and on and on. It's hard to track, because it changes quietly each offseason. The league's lack of transparency leads to questions, confusion, and speculation.

The appearance is a hockey operations department that says one thing and does another, that allows some teams and players to do as they please while holding others to task, and seemingly makes arbitrary rules at the last minute only to break them later.

And it does impact fan enjoyment and engagement negatively, and it also affects the on-ice product. The expansion process has left some teams behind, while favoring others, with rules that are built but not kept. In the end, it's been the teams who follow the rules as planned that now find themselves in the worst situation competitively.

Some perplexing league decisions eroded the on-ice product in other was. This season that included quietly firing central situation room staff days prior to the season after the group requested a pay increase. It resulted in long and baffling on-ice reviews and decisions. Officiating is another point of concern in the league, where rules appear to be subjectively applied, and it was made worse this season by the gutting of an experienced central situation room coupled with the removal of the coach's challenge. With no policy or procedural guidelines existing in a public-facing manner, and with the implementation of existing rules changing, it raises questions on how much control the league has over players, staff, and the on-ice product.

Since the beginning, the PWHL has always been a league run by and for a few.

And when rules are broken, or when they change without communication or transparency, trust dissolves. PWHL fans are beyond loyal, as seen by their willingness to buy tickets and $100 t-shirts, and their fervent debate of all things women's hockey. Fans have eaten up merchandise, but only to buy player jerseys who may now be on their third or fourth teams in as many years. They've bought generic team jerseys while waiting for branding, in some cases that will be announced within months. They've bought Pride merchandise with players actively campaigning against the LGBTQ+ community and no league policies related to equity and inclusion.

Amy Scheer got one thing right in her statement about PWHL fans, they are smart. But those smarts extend beyond the skills, tactics, and strategies of the sport. It extends to how the league operates, to how people within the league are treated, and to a desire for a league that operates more equitably and with more integrity than hockey is used to.

As a single-entity ownership league, the PWHL isn't going to reprimand GMs, players, consultants, or league staff that break the rules, because they would in essence be reprimanding themselves, shining a spotlight on their own shortcomings.

But the league has been filled with constant rule changes, unwillingness to communicate on issues, reports of conflicts of interest, rules being unequally applied for different players and people, tampering, and what can only be desired as an Oz-like or autocratic control that involves last-minute decisions that look unplanned and unvetted. 

The result of this cycle which pushes fans away, and pulls them back, then confuses them again, is reduced traction and lost trust.

The PWHL is going nowhere. The league and its players are beloved, and the fans have created a unique space in the stands for themselves. But the league itself, in its sprint to do things fast instead of right, has created distrust, and cost themselves valuable season-ticket holders and supporters in the process. With transparency, that trust can be rebuilt.