According to sources, the PWHL's regular season will begin the weekend of November 21.
It's a full week sooner than the PHWL started last year with the first two games of the 2024-25 PWHL season taking place on November 30.
Sources also confirmed that PWHL training camps will open five days sooner than they did in 2024-25 opening November 7. With the Rivalry Series taking place November 6 in Cleveland and November 8 in Buffalo, dozens of PWHL players will be unavailable for the opening days of camp this year. It could delay west coast expansion teams Seattle and Vancouver who have significant national team representation even longer.
The opening of training camps November 7 means that teams will have exactly two weeks from the time they first meet, until the regular season begins, to prepare. It's a tight timeline for teams, particularly the new expansion franchises who do not have the luxury of systems and familiarity among teammates already in place.
In 2024-25, the PWHL also held two mini-camps in Montreal and Toronto bringing three teams to each market where they practices and played a pair of exhibition games.
Last year these camps took place exactly one week after teams formed on November 19-22.
The PWHL will again stick with a 30 game regular season despite adding two teams with the league growing from six franchises to eight. The PWHL has yet to unveil their 2025-26 schedule which will include another break in December for the Canadian stops on the Rivalry Series, as well as a month long break in February for the 2026 Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy.