When news broke that the PWHLPA and PWHL had reached tentative expansion rules for player dispersal, the lede was that player choice was the priority. The reality of the lede, however, may have been misleading.
Editorial:
When news broke that players would soon learn of the PWHL expansion rules for player dispersal, the lede was that the plan was designed "to protect as much player choice as possible throughout the process."
But was it misleading?
After the PWHLPA shared the proposed five phase expansion process with players, the potential for player choice remained written into each step, but the reality is likely far different. Still, the plan is a step in the right direction for player autonomy over their careers, but the potential remains for the many players in this year's expansion process to be forced to move to a new market, whether they choose to or not.
In Phase 1, each PWHL team will be allowed to protect three players, choosing either contracted players, by qualifying an unsigned 2025 rookie, or by signing one of their pending unrestricted free agents.
When Phase 2 opens, pending free agents can sign with the expansion teams, but will expansion teams burn valuable opportunities on free agents they could still sign later, or will they follow the more straight forward path by 'drafting' contracted players in an expansion draft-free process? It's presumed that new general managers will attempt to sign players in good faith, but at what cost to their team building process?
The first move each expansion team will likely complete is to utilize their one Expansion Franchise Offer (EFO). It allows the expansion teams to sign a player waiting for their chance at unrestricted free agency without negotiation, and without choice of whether or not they want to play in that market. It comes with a minimum $100,000 salary. The only choice involved, is if more than one expansion team offers offers a player an EFO, and after they receive the offer, the player can choose the duraction of contract, although they can't turn down what the PWHLPA called a "binding offer requiring the player to sign with the offering expansion team."
Even though players, in this case veteran stars, earned their chance to test the open market, they'll lose all choice if an expansion team comes calling with an EFO. In some cases, it could mean the player loses money by being required to accept $100,000 on the dot, rather than allow for bidding in free agency.
When you read behind the statement of protecting "as much player choice as possible," it becomes more clear that there's very little player choice to protect.
In Phase 2, expansion teams are also permitted to select contracted players. It's not being called an expansion draft, as players were told the new system "moved away from a traditional expansion draft model," but just because it's not being called a draft, doesn't mean this expansion will not function like one.
During Phase 2, "existing teams can lose a maximum of 3 players under contract," and the plan clearly states that if an expansion team doesn't sign five players in Phase 2, "the team will be allowed to select unprotected players either under current contract or with their rights held by existing teams."
By definition, that's a draft.
Knowing that each team will be able to protect an additional three contracted players in Phase 3 of the expansion process, allowing contracted players to pass through Phase 2 would be a massive missed opportunity. From Boston it means passing on Alina Muller or Haley Winn. It means not taking Nicole Gosling or Kati Tabin from Montreal. It means missing out on some combination of Rory Guilday, Ronja Savolainen, Emily Clark, and Rebecca Leslie from Ottawa. Or Kendall Cooper, Britta Curl-Salemme and Maddie Rooney from Minnesota. In New York it's letting the Sirens keep Anne Cherkowski, Micah Zandee-Hart, Jaime Bourbonnais, and Maja Nylen Persson. In Seattle it's passing on Hannah Bilka or Cayla Barnes, Danielle Serdachny or one of their two signed netminders. For Toronto it's not taking Ella Shelton or Jesse Compher. And In Vancouver it's allowing three of Ashton Bell, Hannah Miller, Tereza Vanisova, and Emerance Maschmeyer to stay untouched.
No general manager who should be a general manager would do that, especially when expansion teams will already have had the opportunity to negotiate with free agents during Phase 1, and make them promises of contracts following the all-important Phase 2. It's how Vancouver passed on several stars last season and inked them quickly in free agency later.
There's no incentive to sign free agents instead of selecting, or drafting, contracted players from the league's eight existing teams during Phase 2. Especially considering how cap friendly many of the already signed deals are.
And there's no choice for contracted players to avoid that situation.
The reality is, of the 20 players who join expansion teams in Phase 2, it's highly likely most will do so without choice.
For those who survive without signing or being selected in Phase 2, choice will return, temporarily. At this point, existing teams will be permitted to protect or sign three additional players. It's their last chance for protection. When Phase 3 opens, all remaining unprotected players can choose to sign with the expansion teams. This is the freedom outlined by the PWHLPA's initial correspondence. But even then, expansion teams may see more value in bypassing those signings if it means grabbing a contracted player. At the end of Phase 3, each expansion team will be required to have 10 signed players. If that number is not achieved through the expansion teams negotiating with and signing players, it will be achieved through another round of drafting.
Last year, five players had the opportunity to choose to sign with the Seattle Torrent and Vancouver Goldeneyes before they rolled the dice to be selected by one or the other in the expansion draft. This year, some free agents, and some contracted players may again choose to sign with the expansion teams, but the bulk of the league will still find themselves unable to choose, and unable to control their own career path in expansion.
Perhaps it will work out that the four expansion teams will negotiate and sign the bulk of their 10 required players. But it would mean leaving a significant amount of cap-controlled talent on the table.
It's why player choice was the lede in the 2026 expansion plans, but based on the current outlined system, that lede may have been misleading.
