Women's Hockey
The Athletic has live coverage of the PWHL Expansion Draft.
Six weeks after announcing its first expansion franchise, the Professional Women’s Hockey League Expansion Draft is here.
The league, which launched in January 2024 with six teams, is adding franchises in Seattle and Vancouver for the 2025-26 season. PWHL Seattle will play at Climate Pledge Arena, with the NHL’s Seattle Kraken acting in a supporting role. The Vancouver team will play at Pacific Coliseum, the former home of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants.
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A pre-draft signing window allowed the new teams to kick-start their roster building with five signings each before making any selections on Monday night. The draft, which begins at 8:30 p.m. ET, will get each team to a 12-player roster.
Here’s everything you need to know about the PWHL Expansion Draft before Seattle and Vancouver are on the clock.
Each of the league’s six existing franchises — in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, New York and Minnesota — were able to initially protect three players from being selected in the draft or signing during the pre-draft window. Only players under contract or team control through 2026 could be protected.
Once teams lose two players, either through the signing window or the draft, general managers are permitted to protect one additional player, increasing their protected list to four. As of Monday morning, the protection lists are as follows:
Vancouver and Seattle will each select seven players in the draft from the pool of unprotected players. The draft order has not been announced and will be revealed at the start of the league’s draft broadcast.
Throughout the roster-building process, each existing team will lose four players total from their 2024-25 roster. With the signing window now closed, the 14 players taken in the draft will come from: Boston (3), Toronto (3), Minnesota (2), Montreal (2), New York (2) and Ottawa (2).
Free agents — such as Natalie Spooner, Tereza Vanišová, Michela Cava, Susanna Tapani and Jesse Compher — are not eligible to be selected in the draft.
Vancouver and Seattle each signed their maximum of five players during the signing window. Pending free agents and players left unprotected were eligible to sign during the five-day window, which officially closed on Sunday night.
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None of the signings were free agents, with both general managers opting to sign top players from teams’ unprotected lists.
U.S. star Hilary Knight was not protected by the Boston Fleet and signed a one-year contract with Seattle on Wednesday night. GM Meghan Turner later added 2024 second-overall pick Danielle Serdachny and Knight’s longtime U.S. teammate Alex Carpenter. No. 1 defender Cayla Barnes and starting goalie Corinne Schroeder rounded out Seattle’s initial roster build.
Vancouver signed a pair of elite defenders from the Minnesota Frost in Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques, then added star forward Sarah Nurse and No. 1 goalie Emerance Maschmeyer. The final signing of Jennifer Gardiner, from Surrey, B.C., added a local player — and excellent young forward — to the mix.
There are 59 players eligible to be selected over the seven-round draft, including 36 forwards, 19 defenders and four goalies. Given each team was only able to initially protect three players, there’s a lot of top-end talent available to Seattle and Vancouver, even after the signing window took 10 players off the board.
The expansion teams will need to keep the salary cap, which will go up to $1.34 million next season, in mind. So we can reasonably expect some role players with value on their contracts to be selected over some bigger names with higher salaries. With that in mind, here are some names to keep an eye on:
Hannah Bilka, 24, forward (Boston Fleet)
The No. 4 pick in the 2024 draft, Bilka is a creative winger with elite vision and playmaking ability. She spent most of her rookie season on long-term injured reserve, but still finished fifth in team scoring. She would bring legitimate top-line talent to either expansion team, but would look great in Seattle beside U.S. teammates in Knight and Carpenter.
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Jessie Eldridge, 27, forward (New York Sirens)
Eldridge has been one of the top scoring forwards in the PWHL the last two years. She’s top-10 in all-time scoring with 38 points in 54 games, the most of any available player. Eldridge has shown she can slot in beside elite talent (like with Sarah Fillier and Carpenter) in New York, but has remained productive when put on her own line, too.
Emma Maltais, 25, forward (Toronto Sceptres)
It will be interesting to see which Sceptres forward gets taken first between Maltais and rookie Julia Gosling. In our mock draft, I took Gosling as the Vancouver general manager after a strong postseason. But Maltais is a strong 200-foot player who can scale the lineup and be a reliable penalty killer. Teams could see a lot of value in her two-way play, and there’s some offensive upside still, despite a down year with only nine points in 30 games.
Grace Zumwinkle, 26, forward (Minnesota Frost)
Zumwinkle was seventh in league scoring last season, third in goals, and won the 2024 Rookie of the Year award. She wasn’t as productive this season (10 points in 22 games), but she was also hindered by injury. At her best, Zumwinkle is a strong power forward who can score goals in the toughest areas of the ice.
Ashton Bell, 25, defender (Ottawa Charge)
Bell — along with Jocelyne Larocque — was one of Ottawa’s best defenders in the playoffs, logging big minutes against top competition.
Anna Wilgren, 25, defender (Montreal Victoire)
Wilgren is a solid defender who makes smart decisions in her own zone. She was second in blocked shots (57) in the PWHL as a rookie and has proved to be a steady partner beside a more offensively gifted defender like Barnes in Montreal, which could make her a great fit for Seattle or Vancouver beside Jaques or Thompson.
Brooke McQuigge, 25, forward (Minnesota Frost)
McQuigge plays a physical, hard-nosed game, which made her a solid contributing depth forward in Minnesota this season. She finished fourth in rookie scoring, and her eight goals ranked third behind only New York star Fillier (13) and teammate Britta Curl-Salemme (9). That her contract is likely cheaper than other top available players like Kelly Pannek should make her a savvy selection.
Savannah Harmon, 29, defender (Toronto Sceptres)
A team like Seattle might look at Harmon for more offense on the blue line — and given her familiarity with Barnes, the pick would make sense. She didn’t score a single goal this season, but paired well with MVP and Defender of the Year finalist Renata Fast in Toronto, where she averaged over 22 minutes a night, most among available defenders.
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If either team is looking for a young shutdown defender, Megan Carter could be a strong alternative from Toronto. She uses her size well to play a physical game and has an active stick, which makes her disruptive against opposing forwards.
Aneta Tejralová, 29, defender (Ottawa Charge)
It wouldn’t be surprising to see defenders taken early and often in the expansion draft. If that happens, Tejralová is likely in the mix. She scored the most points among defenders who are still available and logged around 20 minutes per game on a strong Ottawa blue line.
Kayle Osborne, 23, goalie (New York Sirens)
Osborne would be a solid backup goalie for either team. She’s young and had a strong rookie season (.916 save percentage) behind Schroeder in New York. Nicole Hensley could make a solid tandem in an expansion market, but she’s older than Osborne and posted a .900 save percentage this season. Toronto starter Kristen Campbell has been inconsistent throughout her career, but could perhaps find her footing with a fresh start in a tandem. Toronto’s No. 2 goalie, Raygan Kirk, would also be a great backup option, but there may be better options to take from Toronto’s remaining three spots.
Other top available players include forwards Kristin O’Neill, Shay Maloney, Abby Boreen, Kelly Pannek, Abby Roque and Brianne Jenner, and defenders Jaime Bourbonnais and Emily Brown.
The PWHL Expansion Draft will be live on the league’s website and YouTube channel starting at 8:30 p.m. ET. The coverage will be hosted by Jocks in Jills podcast hosts Julia Tocheri and Tessa Bonhomme, who left TSN to work with the PWHL in November 2024.
(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Hailey Salvian is a staff writer for The Athletic covering women’s hockey and the NHL. Previously, she covered the Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators and served as a general assignment reporter. Follow Hailey on Twitter @hailey_salvian
