Outside of the Walter Cup playoffs, expansion news is the hottest topic in the PWHL right now.

While almost nothing has been officially confirmed, things are clearly moving toward an announcement.

An email from PWHLPA Executive Director Malaika Underwood, obtained by The Hockey News, confirms the league has "moved away from a traditional expansion draft model." Instead, the process will consist of "a series of signing windows."

The email to PWHL players reasons that the change was made "to protect as much player choice as possible throughout the process."

For context, during the 2025 expansion process, pending free agents couldn’t be protected and weren’t eligible for the expansion draft. Only players under contract or with their rights held through 2025–26 required protection. Teams could protect three players initially, followed by a fourth after they lost two players.

Seattle and Vancouver were also granted an exclusive window to sign up to five players from the pool of unprotected players or free agents.

This year is a different story with a stacked pool of unrestricted free agents. 

The list features over 120 players, including Kelly Pannek, Taylor Heise, Brianne Jenner, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Abby Roque, Daryl Watts, Jessie Eldridge, Julia Gosling, Susanna Tapani, Alex Carpenter, Hilary Knight, Sarah Nurse, Lee Stecklein, Renata Fast, Blayre Turnbull, Erin Ambrose, and Emma Maltais, among others. 

Some teams, like the Toronto Sceptres and Minnesota Frost, were the league to follow last season's expansion rules, would barely have enough players to protect, leaving expansion teams with little more than fourth line or third-string goalies to pick from. 

The Toronto Sceptres have likely played a big role in these changes.

With currently only five players under contract for next season – and four more with rights held through 2026–27 via the 2025 PWHL Draft – they realistically could have walked out of an expansion draft with less than one line secured.

On top of the first wave of expiring three-year deals, GM Gina Kingsbury said the spike in free agents also reflects what players wanted.

“There was definitely a feel that [last summer] players wanted to know more what the rules were, what the landscape was before signing,” Kingsbury said at the team’s end-of-season availability.

While the specifics are still to come, moving PWHL player dispersal during expansion from a traditional draft to various signing stages appears to be the plan.

Last year, original teams could still negotiate with their players during the expansion window, although they could not officially re-sign them until the opening of free agency.

One possibility during this round of expansion, is that expansion teams could get first crack at a the pool of unsigned players, before teams lock in or protect more players ahead of another window.

That approach could also kill two birds with one stone, keeping rookies with their teams, unlike last year, when five of the six first-round picks headed to the West Coast.

Or it could look completely different. For now, it’s all speculation. The PWHLPA note to players also made no mention of how many, if any, players will be protected initially, or during any subsequent signing window. 

Sources have confirmed that the PWHL and PWHLPA's model is built on a projected four team expansion. That number has not been confirmed officially by the league.

That confirmation however, is expected on May 3.

The PWHLPA communication indicated more details are coming Sunday, “at which time we also expect to be able to share the number of expansion teams.”