After a five-month offseason that included shuffling rosters and adding two new teams, the PWHL's third season begins Friday.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games with a long break in the middle at the Milan-Cortina Olympics in February. The top four teams will advance to the Walter Cup playoffs. You can find preview of each individual command here.
The league is targeting the West Coast for its first expansion, with the Vancouver Goldeneyes hosting the Seattle Torrents in both teams' first game on Friday night (7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET).
But it won't stop there. Two to four more teams could arrive as early as next season as the PWHL plans to secure a major broadcast deal in the United States.
The PWHL's newest expansion team, the Vancouver Goldeneyes, are set to begin their first season in the league.
A busy opening weekend awaits, with Season 3 kicking off with defending Walter Cup champions Minnesota Frost hosting the Toronto Scepter in a playoff rematch (7:00 p.m. ET) on Friday, followed by Torrent at the Goldeneyes later that evening.
The Ottawa Charge will then host the New York Sirens on Saturday (7 p.m. ET) and the Montreal Victoire visit Boston on Sunday (1 p.m. ET).
Seventeen games this season will air on CBC and CBC Gem, starting with the Nov. 29 matchup between the Toronto Sceptres and Boston Fleet (2 p.m. ET).
Here are five storylines to watch in League Season 3:
How will the two expansion commands work?
The Goldeneyes and Torrent emerged from the expansion draft process with plenty of stars.
In Vancouver, goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer is looking to bounce back after an injury in Ottawa stalled a successful season. She is supported from the blue line by three smart, puck-moving defensemen: Sophie Jacques, Claire Thompson and Ashton Bell.
They are joined by sophomore guard Sydney Bard and Melissa Chennell-Watkins, who played an underappreciated role in Minnesota Frost's last two championships.
They are led up front by Sarah Nurse, who was one of the team's original players, hometown forward Jennifer Gardiner and Finland star Michelle Karvinen. Vancouver added a ton of star forwards in free agency, including Hannah Miller, Michela Cava and Teresa Vanisova.
Hosts Carissa Donkin and The Athletic's Hailey Salvian unveiled the rosters of the Professional Women's Hockey League's two newest teams.
There are also young forwards who have room to improve, such as Izzy Daniel, Abby Borin and Brooke McQuuige, all of whom were selected from the original six teams.
That leaves Vancouver with a number of options as head coach Brian Idalski builds a top-six.
“I like our core group,” Idalski said. “I think now it's just about putting together combinations that will work and work, and working out some of our structures and the details of how we want to play.”
Seattle, meanwhile, boasts size and offensive skill as well as a closing mentality on its blue line. Torrent's roster features some of the league's best shot blockers, including Mariah Keopple, Aneta Teiralova and Anna Wilgren.
“They were built on physicality and toughness,” Idalski said of his team's first opponent.
The ability to field Team USA's Hannah Bilka, Alex Carpenter and Hilary Knight, followed by Julia Gosling, Danielle Serdachny and Jesse Eldridge, should give Seattle a potent offense.
But the big challenge for two new teams is that it may take time for players to gel and adapt to the new systems. The rosters were only finalized on Thursday after a two-week training camp, meaning the coaches still have a lot of work to do.
It's easy to say that Vancouver and Seattle will end the season at the top of the standings, but things don't always pan out right away.
One thing is clear, however: Vancouver and Seattle are already successful off the ice.
Amy Shear, the league's executive vice president of business operations, said earlier this week that Vancouver leads the league in season ticket sales. Seattle ranks third in season tickets but set a new record for single-day jersey sales.
“They have quickly become two of our strongest markets and have proven to be an example of how to do this in the future,” Scheer said.
More teams will come
With two to four more teams joining the PWHL in the near future, the league is once again looking for new markets.
“As we did last year, we will negotiate with interested markets and go through an evaluation process, and when we feel the time is right and we have the right partners, we will announce where we are expanding,” Scheer said. “This process is ongoing and will continue over the next few months until we ultimately reach a conclusion.”
The Women's Professional Hockey League says a recently approved plan to redevelop part of Lansdowne Park includes an arena that is too small for their fans.
Part of this process will take place on the Takeover Tour, where the PWHL will play neutral-site games in 11 different cities: Edmonton, Hamilton, Halifax, Quebec City, Winnipeg, Calgary, Dallas, Detroit, Denver, Chicago and Washington, DC.
Some of these cities will host more than one game, including Edmonton and Halifax. The league currently visits Edmonton, Denver and Quebec City for two straight seasons (and Detroit for three).
But Scheer is tight-lipped about which cities are at the top of the league's scoring list.
A few things to consider: The league may want to fill some of the distance between Seattle, Vancouver and Minnesota on the map, especially since it's targeting a major U.S. broadcast rights deal in the future.
Just as important as location, infrastructure is just as important. One of the main advantages of Vancouver was having its own ice skating rink.
Lineup changes
The original six teams each dealt four players to either Seattle or Vancouver as part of the expansion draft process. Another part of the players changed teams in the summer through trade or free agency.
The New York Sirens team is completely revamped from last season and is now built around a young core of Sarah Filje, Casey O'Brien and Christina Kaltunkova.
Montreal Victoire will also look significantly different, adding to their depth and making a major deal to bring in veteran pest Abby Roque.
While some fans may be upset to see their favorites change teams, the league says it has designed its expansion process to maintain competitive balance among all eight teams.
“Every team still has a core,” said Jayna Hefford, PWHL executive vice president of hockey operations.
“The challenges in the expansion market may be more serious. [around] It's a new team, new building, new staff, so they're going to have to face challenges that maybe other teams have faced in their first year. But ultimately we really like the lineup now.”
Olympic year
This season will be the first to have the Olympics in the middle, meaning the PWHL will take a few weeks off.
It's a welcome break as the league sees the potential for new audiences that could come from watching women's hockey on the biggest international stage.
In the past, women's Olympic hockey has attracted huge crowds in both Canada and the United States. But viewers weren't sure how to follow these players throughout the rest of the season.
Now that the PWHL is here, that's no longer the case.
“We take the Olympics very seriously as something that will certainly help grow our business,” Scheer said. “Our goal will be to turn that casual fan who may be tuning in for the first time into a PWHL fan.”
For the top players, this year will bring a lot of hockey as they juggle their national team commitments with league play.
But the league has also given players a new stage to prove they belong on their national team. We've already seen how the PWHL's performance has helped some players get invited to Team Canada's training camp.
Rule changes
PWHL is not afraid to experiment.
In the first season, there was a jailbreak rule, according to which a player is released from the penalty area if his team scores shorthanded.
Last season there was a “no walk” rule in place, which prevents a penalized team from changing its formation at the start of a power play. This rule change was aimed at increasing the number of offenses and appears to have had the desired effect. Hefford said power-play scoring is up about three percent.
The rule changes this season are not as dramatic, but will still have an impact on the game. The league is eliminating coaches' concerns and requiring three goalies to be under contract.
As soon as a goalkeeper is injured and cannot play, he is immediately replaced by a second goalkeeper in the playing lineup. From this point forward, a third goalkeeper will be added to the bench “with full goalkeeper privileges.”
The PWHL also inducted official Bill McCreery into the Hall of Fame as its Director of Officiating, Strategy and Performance. During his career, he officiated over 1,700 NHL regular season games.
He will be responsible for ensuring that PWHL officiating is consistent, especially when it comes to the physicality for which the league has become known.
“We all know that officiating is an important part of the success of our product on the ice,” Hefford said. “It sets the standard for the game. It speaks to the integrity of the competition and promotes the trust and confidence of our fans and our players.”
