What A Year Without Olympic Or World Championship Interruption Could Bring The PWHL In 2027

In the PWHL's inaugural season, the league shut down for the better part of a month for the World Championships only months after dropping the puck. They repeated the same pattern in year two of the league, and this season will shutter operations again, this time for close to a month in February to allow athletes to compete in the Milano Cortina Olympics.

While the league was built on a tenet of valuing international competition, the 2026-2027 PWHL season will bring the best of both worlds. The World Championships have been moved to November as a preseason event, followed by, for the first time, uninterrupted play aside from a pair of week long international breaks until playoffs.

Internally, there will be many reasons for celebration in this. In particular, it will open more potential dates not only for weekend home games, but also for the league's existing events like in-market games at NHL venues, and the PWHL Takeover Tour.

With the expected expansion of the PWHL by another 2-4 teams ahead of next season, they'll need the added time.

But a wide open calendar may also prompt the league to turn their eye to initiatives that help engage fans in different ways by adding iconic events to their own offerings.

If an outdoor game were high on the league's priority list, they could have already jumped on board with one of the many venues hosting these types of games this season. But the need to keep their schedule tight with the PWHL Takeover Tour, west coast expansion, and the Olympics certainly killed some of that availability. Next season, however, the schedule will remain wide open. The NHL has already announced that they'll host their Winter Classic in Utah on January 1, and their Stadium Series in Dallas on February 20. The league's Heritage Classic in Winnipeg is off the table as it falls in October, prior to the PWHL's annual start date. 

With the league already partnering with the Dallas Stars for a Takeover Tour game this season, it's conceivable they could look to piggyback on the February date, or to explore a new market in Salt Lake City. Women's hockey has had its moment in the sun in Salt Lake at the 2002 Olympics, including a gold medal game between Canada and USA, won 3-2 by Canada in front of 8,599 fans.

Whether they do it on their own, or alongside the NHL, it could be time for the PWHL's first outdoor game.

Yes, the PWHL played a showcase at NHL All-Star weekend during year one. It wasn't a selection of the top performers in the league, but rather a predetermined group of players from the league's inaugural signings, and it was a brief addition to the NHL offerings, not a true showcase for women's hockey fans and players.

2027, however, will be a year where the league could finally host an All-Star game of their own. There are only so many years remaining for the league to showcase players like Hilary Knight and Marie-Philip Poulin, who were founding members, alongside young incoming stars that represent the future of the game. The game could be hosted in a PWHL venue or market, or somewhere new. The options, format, and additional offerings would be wide open, but to continue marketing the league not only to their own fans, but to new fans, with a premier event putting faces and names in lights, would be spectacular.

You don't have to listen to members of the PWHL's inner circle long before someone inevitably mentions Europe. At one point, it was mentioned as a possible expansion location. Those goals have seemingly been tempered, but the league still wants to a) attract more players from Europe, and b) grow their global fan base. The success of the 2025 World Championship in Czechia, which broke the all-time attendance record for a women's World Championship, was obvious. With the league featuring a growing group of European players from Czechia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and elsewhere, the interest in seeing those players in person, playing PWHL style hockey, would be a draw.

In Europe, Hungary, Czechia, Germany, and Switzerland all boast arenas with capacities exceeding 17,000. Sweden and Finland both have rinks with more than 13,000 seats. The opportunities are endless, and sending two to four teams overseas for a global series could help take the league to new fans in a significant way.

The PWHL needs to find ways to develop more players, and open doors for potential free agents. Perhaps nothing could be more valuable in lieu of a formal development league, than hosting development camps following the PWHL Draft. In the NHL, development camps bring together players picked at the NHL draft only days after their selection, along with a group of free agent invitees, and often young prospects in their system. Similar camps for the PWHL could be crucial in allowing drafted and undrafted free agents to showcase their skills head-to-head several months before training camps open, and more importantly, prior to being forced to make potentially career-altering decisions about signing in Europe, or staying and taking the chance at PWHL camps. Players and teams could gain immediate clarity, and it would be another opportunity for fans to engage with players they'll soon be following. 

It might be lower on the priority list of the league, but eventually, finding more opportunities not only to scout incoming players, but to showcase those players to fans sooner will be a growth opportunity. It's easy to imagine an NCAA top prospects game, similar to the NHL's events, and perhaps a PWHL combine weekend coupled to it. There remain PWHL teams with limited to no scouting capacity, and the league wants to maintain parity to some extent. Giving teams a direct opportunity to see these players, media an opportunity to hype the next wave of talent, and fans the chance to get excited, would be a win on and off the ice.