For the last two seasons, PWHL Draft picks have been bounced between teams from season to season via expansion, and have been buried on fourth lines and as seventh defenders without the chance to develop. With multiple seasons without expansion ahead, the chance for development has arrived.
Sitting at a 12 team league, with the idea of pausing expansion for at least a season or two, rookies entering the PWHL this season now have a chance to do something rookies before them did now…develop.
Frequent Movement And Unpredictable Futures
Entry drafts typically pave the future path of professional hockey teams. Not in the PWHL. In the PWHL the draft has paved the path for the league, but not for any individual team rendering the selection process nearly meaningless the past two seasons. Certainly, drafting impacts the forthcoming season, but there has been no multi-season purpose to the draft to date.
Why? The league's rapid expansion has sent young players between markets before they ever have a chance to settle in, built familiarity, gain confidence, and develop under a coaching staff.
From the 2024 PWHL Draft, the only first round pick to remain with her team for multiple seasons was first overall pick Sarah Fillier. The other five picks were all swapped in expansion, and from that group two have since moved in another wave of expansion and one is considering retirement. Looking at the 2024 second and third rounds, only four of 12 remain with the team who drafted them, and no players picked in the fourth round are still with their original team.
From the 2025 PWHL Draft, five of eight first round picks won't return to the league with the same team. Four of eight from round two changed programs already as well. Moving is common in professional hockey, but being bounced year after year across North America, with very little time to adjust to professional hockey, or gain confidence and comfort in the league and under a staff is detrimental to prospects.
Draft Picks Aren't Being Developed
Arguably, the teams doing the most in season development of first and second year pros are the ones peaking at the right time. Without a farm system, PWHL teams must develop their own picks in house, on the fly, under pressure. It's not ideal, but it's the reality of the league. Certainly it means limiting ice time and managing starts at certain moments to ensure young players find success. But it's a balance of sapping confidence versus protecting players. In most cases over the last two seasons in the PWHL, the confidence drain, and players whose development looked stalled from start to finish, while peers passed them by, was more evident than not. Lack of ice time is a key factor.
First round defenders Kendall Cooper, Rory Guilday, Nicole Gosling, and Haley Winn certainly got their chances. They combined to average over 22:30 on ice per game. But chances dropped off from there. Riley Brengman was the only other defender drafted who saw consistent time, averaging 18:25 on Boston's blueline. Nina Jobst-Smith, the fifth defender chosen in the draft played the next most time, but it was only 12:27, and the numbers went down from there.
The rest of the league's drafted defenders averaged 8:08, but they also averaged less than 20 games of the 30 game schedule, and that's not including fourth round pick Ava Rinker who didn't see the ice all season in Minnesota. Undrafted Kate Reilly was an aberration earning time in Ottawa, which could have shifted the numbers up slightly.
Up front, six rookie forwards - Casey O'Brien, Kristyna Kaltounkova, Anne Cherkowski, Maddi Wheeler, Sarah Wozniewicz, and Abby Hustler - averaged more than 15 minutes per game. If you removed the youthful quartet from New York however, the league numbers for rookie time on ice up front would plummet. Only three teams in the league - Ottawa, New York, and Boston - had more than one rookie forward average over 13 minutes in ice. Montreal was next with Natalie Mlynkova (12:03) and Skylar Irving (10:41). Other teams like Toronto, Vancouver, and Seattle gave their rookie forwards almost nothing, and each missed the playoffs.
Seattle drafted four forwards including Jenna Buglioni (6:05), Lily Delianedis (6:55), Jada Habish (7:38) and Olivia Wallin, who they cut in training camp. Toronto's forwards, who were picked 11th, 16th, and 23rd overall, were another drastically underplayed group given where they were chosen in the 2025 Draft.
Even if a prospect could make an impact, they haven't been able to find a rhythm with limited ice time, and no farm team where they can showcase their skill.
European Development An Option
The lack of opportunity to earn a chance and sharpen their game is why the decision for some to go to Europe to play before coming back has payed off. Players like Gabrielle David and Sam Cogan found themselves buried and oscillating between roster and reserve. They went to Sweden and dominated for a season, and were both scooped up instantly when their campaign overseas ended joining top six units. The ability to continue developing and playing major minutes is not only important for rookies, but for more seasoned players who were outside top units. Noemi Neubauerova similarly went to Switzerland, before joining Boston's blueline for the stretch and playoffs, and this year signed as an offseason free agent in Seattle. Others who have returned to Europe before signing contracts this offseason include Dominika Laskova and Akange Shiga.
This season, a large number of undrafted players have already signed in Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany to get big minutes and show themselves as PWHL ready, looking to either sign in the spring, or as free agents in 2027. It worked for Laura Fuoco who went to Europe last season before signing as a free agent this offseason with Vancouver.
More than a dozen PWHL eligible players have already signed in Europe this offseason looking to springboard their careers back to North America after proving themselves in the world's second best pro league.
Now Is The Time
While development has never been demonstrated as an aspect of the PWHL's model due to lack of development camps, unreasonably short training camps, lack of protection and pay for rookies, and no farm system or partnership with other leagues, this season will provide the first true opportunity since the league's inaugural season for players to gain their footing on a roster and develop. For those lucky enough to be returning to the same rosters, likely with thinned out depth charts ahead of them, players will be able to move into bigger roles and use the lessons they learned, albeit with limited ice time, last season.
For rookies, they can look at this season and next with some level of confidence that as long as they aren't traded, which is a rare occurence in the PWHL, they're likely set to stay put for multiple seasons. That comfort alone, where players aren't facing the back-of-mind itch that they could be relocating days after the season, will benefit prospects.
With the 2026 PWHL Draft being expanded to 72 players this year to accommodate four new teams, the PWHL will need that space for players to grow and develop. In particular, the PWHL needs internal growth from this draft class as the 2027 PWHL Draft will likely face a significant impact from the new NCAA eligibility rules, all while being a shallower draft to start.
After sitting on benches and bouncing between teams and systems across the league, the 2026-27 season is a new opportunity for young players in the PWHL, one in which they can develop and make the league, their teams, and themselves stronger.
