The PWHL has five head coaching vacancies heading into next season in the 12 team league. It's going to create a large shuffle. Where will the PWHL find their new candidates?
The PWHL launched in 2024. From the six coaches hired to guide the inaugural teams, only Kori Cheverie and Carla MacLeod remain with their respective teams. Troy Ryan, a third inaugural coach recently made the move to a combined coach/GM role, the first of its kind in the PWHL, with San Jose.
In a bizarre fate, Ken Klee has also coached three full seasons in the PWHL, all with the Minnesota Frost, but he started that by taking over from Charle Burggraf who didn't make it through the inaugural PWHL preseason.
Now, the PWHL not only faces the challenge of launching four expansion teams, but also in filling head coaching vacancies in Toronto, Seattle, Las Vegas, Detroit, and Hamilton.
Who Is In? Who Is Out?
Excluding the two teams who played for the Walter Cup this month, the Montreal Victoire where Kori Cheverie remains, and the Ottawa Charge where Carla MacLeod has stayed, the PWHL has seen a lot of coaching turn around in three seasons. Coaching turnover is normal in professional hockey. In the NHL, the average tenure of a head coach has fallen to an all-time low at only 2.23 years. In the PWHL, not enough time has elapsed to know if the league will fall above or below that mark. In the three seasons the league has been in existence, most teams have made a change. This week, the Seattle Torrent parted ways with head coach Steven O'Rourke after only one season. It was the same run Howie Draper had in New York, lasting only a single season before he was replaced. Since then, Greg Fargo has spent the last two seasons on New York's bench. In Minnesota, Burggraf never coached a game, but was still the team's trivia answer as first ever head coach. Since then Minnesota's bench has belonged to Ken Klee, who himself had a very challenging first season that resulted in a variety of complaints about Klee, including his role in an ouster of Hockey Hall of Famer Natalie Darwitz as general manager. Klee wanted the role, but the league ultimately opted to replace Darwitz with Melissa Caruso. Boston replaced founding head coach Courtney Kessel after two seasons behind the bench with Kris Sparre after Kessel took the top coaching job at Princeton. Toronto is now facing their first coaching change with Troy Ryan taking both the coach and GM role in San Jose. And Vancouver is heading back to a second season with Brian Idalski at the helm.
Pay Is At The Forefront Of Recruitment
In the PWHL, the general manager jobs in Vancouver and Seattle came with annual base salaries ranging between $150,000 and $180,000 USD, including participation in the company-sponsored benefit plan. Head coaches earn the same, between $150,000 to $180,000 as a starting base salary. Some may earn slightly higher.
The PWHL however, can't begin to recruit the best coaches in the sport hockey, until they pay them salaries that can compete with collegiate programs or other top professional leagues like the AHL, let alone the NHL.
In Canadian university hockey, University of British Columbia coach Graham Thomas made $132,844 CAD in 2024. University of Toronto head coach Vicky Sunohara earned a nearly identical $133,877 in 2025. For either, it's roughly the equivalent of $96,000 USD, which is below what PWHL coaches make. The duo are two of the highest paid coaches in U SPORTS women's hockey.
But on the NCAA side of things, there isn't a team staff, from GMs to coaches to business staff, in the PWHL who could hold a candle to what top coaches are earning. It's why while some coaches, like Greg Fargo and Brian Idalski have moved to the PWHL, others like Courtney Kessel and former Minnesota assistant Mira Jaluso have gone the opposite direction to the NCAA.
It's not the only factor, as the opportunity to coach in a professional league is appealing in itself, but to widen their pool of applicants to include some of the best in the business, the PWHL will eventually need to offer more financially.
But the gap from PWHL to NCAA can be large. Leading the way is University of Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson whose base salary was $550,000 this season, a $100,000 increase over his salary from last year. Ohio State's Nadine Muzerall signed a new contract in 2026 worth $397,512.50 per season. With bonuses for conference titles and Frozen Four appearances, Muzerall could climb over $500,000 if her bonus structure mimics her previous contract. Her previous contract, signed in 2021, included an 8.5% bonus on top of her base salary for each WCHA conference title and Frozen Four appearance, as well as a 17% bonus for a national title. Even their assistant coaches are paid more than the best PWHL players, with Ohio State's James Wisniewski earning $134,225, and Wisconsin's Dan Koch taking home $120,942.
At the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Laura Schuler made $232,500 this season, with annual raises climbing to above $250,000 by the conclusion of her contract. Brad Frost, who was fired by the University of Minnesota this year, was making close to $300,000 annually, with a 2023-24 salary of $280,500. Frost could be a candidate for a PWHL job now that he’s no longer in Minnesota.
When you head east, the top paid coaches at ECAC programs are also unlikely to make the jump to the PWHL due to finances. Clarkson head coach Matthew Desrosiers made $303,451 in 2024-25 as one of the top. Some are less, like UConn head coach Chris MacKenzie who in 2023 had a publicly reported salary of $134,014. Many salaries in the NCAA also come with additional perks like housing and a vehicle. Only public institutions are subject to salary disclosure laws meaning privately run universities, like many of the Ivy League programs, do not have to disclose the salaries of staff, including athletic staff.
Another difference between professional hockey and the NCAA is the job security most NCAA coaches enjoy. Collegiately, many coaches stay with a program for more than a decade, compared to pro hockey's high turnover rate. When Greg Fargo left Colgate to join the New York Sirens, he was leaving a role he'd held for 12 seasons. Mark Johnson has been head coach of Wisconsin for 23 years.
Still there is plenty of interest from the PWHL, and one of their most power pathways may soon come not from looking externally, but from the inside.
Internal Candidates Are Waiting
The PWHL is the top league in the world and is elevating the level of women's hockey. It is going to do the same for coaching. Soon, like first time NHL coaches, the main candidates are going to come from within the league. Assistant coaches are going to become the most viable pool because they're the only ones who know the requirements of coaching a professional team.
Caroline Ouellette could already be a head coach for any market in the league. The Montreal Victoire assistant is a Hockey Hall of Famer, and longtime assistant for Team Canada and associate coach at Concordia prior to joining the PWHL. Montreal has a long line of coaches who could someday get tapped, which also includes Noemi Marin and Alexandre Tremblay.
In Minnesota, no one on the planet would question the PWHL hiring Brianna Decker as a head coach. She's spent the last three seasons at Shattuck St. Mary's, and has worked with USA's U-18 national team. This was her first season at the pro ranks as a coach, but the Hockey Hall of Fame inductee's playing career is another realm of valuable experience.
Haley Irwin actually has PWHL head coaching experience taking over in an interim role for Carla MacLeod with the Ottawa Charge while MacLeod dealt with her cancer treatments. Irwin is an Olympic and World gold medalist who not only has three seasons of PWHL experience, but also a number in U SPORTS as an assistant.
After 16 seasons of head coaching experience at the University of Guelph, Rachel Flanagan took the jump to the PWHL with Toronto. She's served as their top assistant the last three seasons and has already been in conversations for head coaching roles in the league.
Also in Toronto, Jim Midgley was a head coach in the QMJHL and spent two seasons as an assistant coach in the NHL with the New York Rangers.
Vancouver's BJ Adams was a head coach in the ECHL and OHL prior to joining the PWHL.
Josh Sciba of the New York Sirens has Olympic and World gold as an assistant with Team USA and spent eight seasons as an NCAA head coach at Union. It's the ideal mix.
Fellow New York assistant Valerie Bois isn't far behind. Bois was an assistant coach in the CWHL with the Montreal Canadiennes and joined Bishop's University as an assistant when the CWHL folded. She took over as Bishop's head coach leading them to their first ever U SPORTS national title in 2025 before joining New York.
Stefanie McKeough has been an assistant with Boston since day one. She's also currently an assistant with Canada's U-18 national team and was named the head coach at the University of Ottawa before she jumped to the PWHL.
It's a long list of internal candidates who know what it takes to compete in this league, and how the PWHL operates. With five jobs on the line, it would not be surprising to see at least one internal candidate open the pipeline for the future.