It was an off-season full of change in the PWHL.
Players were stunned by some of the roster movement, and some fans were disappointed.
But with the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent joining to bring the league to eight teams, the PWHL says expansion has triggered a roster shakeup that’s added extra intrigue ahead of Friday’s season opener between Minnesota and Toronto.
“The process for expansion was always going to be a hard one, and change is hard for many people,” said PWHL executive vice-president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford. “We understand there was going be some fans that would be disappointed to see some players move.
“It was important for us that when the puck drops on Friday, all eight teams are competing for the Walter Cup. And there’s no expansion team that is going to take two or three years to build to be competitive. We wanted them all to be to competitive on day one.”
Hefford said both expansion rosters were built around marquee players — with Hilary Knight in Seattle and Sarah Nurse in Vancouver — to boost the league’s visibility in those new markets.
Vancouver, especially, put together a star-studded lineup, plucking away top players across the league.
Nurse aside, the Goldeneyes signed away Defender of the Year finalists Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson from two-time defending champion Minnesota Frost. In addition, the Goldeneyes added Nurse’s Toronto Sceptres teammate Hannah Miller, who was tied for fifth in the PWHL in scoring in 2024-25.
Vancouver also got former Ottawa Charge starting goalie Emerance Maschmeyer and former Toronto starting goalie Kristen Campbell, the latter via trade.
“It’s really exciting to get to see all these great players in new markets play with other great players,” Jaques said. “Like you’ll see how the chemistry works out, but I think it’s going to be lots of fun to watch.”
The toughest losses for the Montréal Victoire were top-end rookies Jenn Gardiner and Cayla Barnes. However, their core remained intact, with sights set on chasing an elusive Walter Cup.
The Charge committed to Gwyneth Philips as their starting goalie after her Walter Cup MVP performance in a loss to Minnesota by not protecting Maschmeyer. But losing Tereza Vanisova, who scored 15 goals last season, hurts considering it was tied for last in the league in scoring with last-place New York and no splashy moves were made to address that.
In Toronto, there were wholesale changes that saw a star-studded lineup essentially get torn in half by the process. Nurse, Miller and Campbell were big departures, but the team also lost its top three picks from last season in forwards Julia Gosling and Izzy Daniel and defender Megan Carter.
Gosling and Carter showed promise last season for a team that dealt with injuries to Nurse and Natalie Spooner, who returned in February but wasn’t herself after knee surgery.
However, Spooner — the MVP and scoring champion of the inaugural 2024 PWHL season — is healthy again. The team also traded for star defender Ella Shelton from New York. But in the crease, it could end up becoming a committee approach with Elaine Chuli, who was a backup in Montreal, and Raygan Kirk, who was Campbell’s backup last season.
“You try to put people in situations where you set them up for success,” Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan said. “But there’s a lot of different things to kind of work out this year.”
ARENA QUESTIONS
In Ottawa, the league is at odds with the city over its newly approved development plan, Lansdowne 2.0.
Ottawa council voted 15-10 for a plan that includes a 5,850-seat arena to replace the aging 8,500-seat facility at TD Place almost two weeks ago.
“Every option’s on the table at this point. We’ve certainly been clear with OSEG and the city that we will not go backwards,” said senior vice-president of business operations Amy Scheer. “We will not play in a 5,500-seat building. These women have worked too hard to get to the point today where a 5,500-seat building is well below what we average in Ottawa. And so we will not play at Lansdowne 2.0.
“We certainly don’t want to leave Ottawa. We chose Ottawa for a reason, and the fans have been wonderfully supportive of us there. And we’d like to find a solution that works for us to stay in Ottawa, but you know, the city hasn’t made it easy for us and it’s disappointing.”
HOW TO WATCH?
Canadian fans once again have a wide mix of television and streaming options to follow the league this season.
Games will be available across TSN, RDS, Sportsnet, and CBC platforms, as well as Prime Video, which returns for a second season with its Tuesday-night package.
Outside Canada, all PWHL games will stream on the league’s YouTube channel and website for international audiences.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2025.
Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press
