What Gives? The PWHL's Stacked Expansion Teams Sit Last Overall

There wasn't a pundit out there who didn't have the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent at or near the top of the league standings in their preseason predictions. Speaking to general managers, coaches, and players across the league, they were disappointed with the player dispersal process for expansion, and firmly believed they'd all be looking up at Vancouver and Seattle in the standings.

Nearing the halfway mark of the 2025-26 PWHL season however, Vancouver and Seattle sit tied for last place in the PWHL standings with only 12 points.

Meanwhile, three teams many believed would miss the playoffs, the Boston Fleet, New York Sirens, and Ottawa Charge all sit in playoff positions.

What gives?

Both Vancouver and Seattle brought together groups of players who had played together in the past, but the chemistry hasn't returned or resulted in wins. What's clear however, is that star power isn't enough to win games.

In the league's inaugural seasons, many saw the talent the New York Sirens had on paper both on their blueline and up front and anticipated the team would contend, but it never played out that way with the Sirens finishing last overall in two consecutive seasons despite having some of the top individual scorers in the league. The storyline out of New York's locker room however, was that players were on very different pages, and that negative influences in their locker room impacted on ice performance, and team cohesion. It's what prompted general manager Pascal Daoust to leave many players expected to be protected, free for the taking in expansion, and for the GM to look at other ways to remake his roster this offseason.

In Seattle and Vancouver, there hasn't been the same type of negative conversations around team culture and cohesion, but it's also obvious that things are not clicking. 

In Vancouver, none of the team's top acquisitions up front – Hannah Miller, Jennifer Gardiner, Tereza Vanisova, Michela Cava, or Michelle Karvinen – have managed to produce consistently. The top players in that group are only managing 0.41 points per game. Vanisova, who finished second in the PWHL in goals last season playing for the Ottawa Charge has yet to score this season in 12 games, while 14 current Charge players have already notched their first goals this season.

In Seattle, the Torrent selected six high end forwards, and a balanced blueline, but their depth has struggled to produce secondary scoring, and more starkly, none of their defenders have scored through 10 games, and Cayla Barnes, who was the top scoring blueliner added to Seattle's roster in expansion, has yet to register a point. 

What's clear, is that neither team lacks talent, but both teams have yet to find chemistry that can produce the expected on-ice sparks.

Opponents are starting to figure out the Boston Fleet, and by the time the year ends, they might find themselves fighting harder than expected to remain in the playoff hunt, but their unexpected torrid start was a direct result of a shift in coaching philosophy, tight team defence, relentless puck pursuit, and more than anything else, an emphasis on team play.

For much of the first month of the PWHL season, Boston had no clear delineation between their first, second, and third lines. Each included offensive players, each included checkers, and each included youth. The only thing Boston did stack was their top defensive pairing of Megan Keller and Haley Winn. 

The rest of the league have since adapted to find ways to combat Boston's approach, and some like Ottawa and New York have since shuffled their lines to look more balanced, and results have followed as well. 

For years, women's hockey teams were stacked with a talented top line, or two, followed by a steep drop off in depth and talent. Teams typically weighted their ice time allocation heavily to those lines, but in the PWHL, where the depth is stronger than ever, it's been a failed tactic. For the Montreal Victoire, they learned that lesson the hard way in their inaugural playoff round, running their stars, and the team's playoff hopes, into the ice.

Vancouver and Seattle do not sit last in the PWHL in power play or penalty kill. Special teams is often a spot to look when things aren't working. 

Goal scoring however, is a significant concern for both. Vancouver and Seattle each have 21 goals this season. For Vancouver that equates to only 1.75 goals per game. In the NHL, the team with the fewest goals for, the St. Louis Blues, have scored 2.47 per game and the last place Canucks are scoring at 2.75.

Vancouver, despite boasting a current and former Canadian national team goaltending duo of Emerance Maschmeyer and Kristen Campbell also sit last in the PWHL in goals against allowing 32, or 2.66 per game. When you look at goals against per game, Seattle is actually worst in the PWHL however, allowing 2.7 per game. 

Goaltending looked like a strength, but all four goaltenders who have played from Seattle and Vancouver sit in the bottom six in the PWHL in goals against average, and all four sit among the bottom six in the league for save percentage, topped by Seattle's Hannah Murphy who has a save percentage of .925.

While both teams have the talent to win, neither team has put it together to date, and as the calendar clicks toward the midway point of the season, time is quickly running out for both teams to turn it around. In a league however, that awards three points for a regulation win, a hot streak is all it will take to turn the PWHL's expansion teams from underperforming favorites, into true contenders.