The PWHL's four-team expansion procedure begins this week as existing teams make huge decisions on protecting players, and the four new teams jockey for positioning to sign and select their new rosters.
The PWHL’s expansion process officially begins June 1, with the rules detailing a tightly controlled free agency period layered with protections and roster limits.
One of the biggest pressure points comes in Phase 1, where existing teams can protect just three players by signing them during a short negotiation window running June 2-3.
Before that begins, each existing team can negotiate with 10 players on their “Master Negotiation List” beginning June 1 at noon ET.
That list can include a team’s own free agents, but also players from rival clubs that teams are interested in pursuing.
Existing teams are the only clubs permitted to officially sign players during Phase 1, but expansion teams are allowed to negotiate with those players and potentially shape the market before protections are finalized.
There are a couple of interesting wrinkles in timing.
If multiple teams submit contracts involving players from the same existing club, the league will approve whichever submission arrived first in the league inbox (since existing teams can only lose one player).
If submissions are timestamped equally — something that could happen at the opening of the signing window — the deciding factor becomes the larger average annual value (AAV).
After expansion teams complete their free-agent signings in Phase 2, the process shifts into the draft-like portion of expansion, where signed players are taken by new franchises.
This is called the 'Foundational Roster Completion' and is scheduled for June 8 between 3-5 p.m. ET, with selection order and procedural details to be finalized in the two hours prior to that start, leaving little room for maneuvering or analysis.
Several signed players appear to be automatic candidates to move to expansion teams, including Nicole Gosling, Hayley Scamurra, Shay Maloney, Daniela Pejšová, Abby Hustler, Mae Batherson, Anne Cherkowski, Maja Nylén Persson, Gabbie Hughes, Michela Cava, Danielle Serdachny, Hannah Murphy, Jesse Compher, Ella Shelton, Abby Boreen, and Teresa Vanišová.
Protection dilemmas could also leave notable players exposed after teams make difficult decisions on protections and risking losses of big-name free agents.
Those could include in Ottawa: Rebecca Leslie or Emily Clark, Ronja Savolainen or Rory Guilday, Boston's Alina Müller or Haley Winn, and Minnesota’s veteran group involving Britta Curl-Salemme, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Kelly Pannek, and Grace Zumwinkle.
Other notable names potentially affected include the Frost's Lee Stecklein or Kendall Cooper, Seattle's Hilary Knight or Alex Carpenter, Sarah Nurse or Jenn Gardiner in Vancouver, Toronto's Blayre Turnbull, Savannah Harmon, Kali Flanagan, and Allie Munroe, and New York free agents Jaime Bourbonnais, Micah Zandee-Hart, and Allyson Simpson.
Overall, existing teams can lose an unlimited number of players on expiring contracts, but can only lose four players already under contract for 2026-27 across Phases 1-4.
Expansion teams, meanwhile, will emerge from Phase 4 with 10 players under contract.