The 2025 PWHL Draft spotlighted the wealth of women's hockey talent currently rising through the ranks, as the league ushered in its third rookie class on Tuesday night.
With the first overall pick, the New York Sirens selected Colgate University alum Kristýna Kaltounková, after the 23-year-old Czech forward finished her college career as the team's all-time leading scorer.
"Coming from such a small town in the Czech Republic, it's a great honor," Kaltounková said after the announcement.
The PWHL's eight teams selected a total of 48 players across the Draft's six rounds, with 43 draftees coming out of the NCAA system.
Ohio State produced the most 2025 prospects with six selected players, after the Buckeyes won two of the last four national titles.
Of the five non-NCAA recruits, four made the leap from international pro leagues in Sweden and Russia, while one player joins the PWHL from the University of British Columbia.
With two of the eight first-round picks, New York played the Draft's most aggressive hand, trading defender Ella Shelton to Toronto in order to receive the Sceptres' third and 27th overall picks.
Due to that deal, the Sirens also snagged 2024/25 NCAA MVP Casey O'Brien, a three-time national champion and the Wisconsin Badgers' all-time leading scorer.
New York also traded top forward Abby Roque to Montréal before the 2025 PWHL Draft, receiving forward Kristin O'Neill and Tuesday's 28th overall pick in return.
With league expansion widening this year's PWHL talent pool, college programs have stepped up to fill the gaps as the professional game grows.
The 2025 PWHL Draft has arrived, as the newly expanded eight-team league kicks off its third entry draft on Tuesday while continuing to stock rosters with new signings and front office reshuffling.
Incoming expansion teams Vancouver and Seattle named their head coaches in recent weeks, with the Canadian squad bringing on former St. Cloud State University coach Brian Idalski while Seattle tapped Steve O'Rourke, ex-leader of Ontario men's junior league side Oshawa Generals.
Players are also on the move, with the June 16th opening of the league-wide trade and signing window sending postseason standouts like Ottawa's Danielle Serdachny and Montréal's Mikyla Grant-Mentis to join US hockey legend Hilary Knight in Seattle.
Meanwhile, Toronto star Sarah Nurse and Montréal's Jennifer Gardiner will head to Vancouver.
Other notable signings include Boston snagging back-to-back PWHL title-winning goalscorer Liz Schepers from Minnesota, and deals sending Ottawa forward Shiann Darkangelo to Montréal and Boston defender Sidney Morin to Minnesota.
Teams have also been busy locking in veterans, with the likes of Montréal's Catherine Dubois and Toronto's Natalie Spooner — the league's 2024 Billie Jean King MVP winner — inking contract extensions with their squads.
The next step in finalizing 2025/26 PWHL rosters is Tuesday's Draft, in which 48 incoming players will earn selection by one of the eight teams across six rounds of picks.
For the second straight year, the New York Sirens hold the first pick, with reigning champion Minnesota and the expansion teams bringing up the rear of the selection order.
With a bevy of young talent available, Tuesday's No. 1 pick will likely be one of three NCAA standouts, as Wisconsin's all-time leading scorer and three-time national champion Casey O'Brien, Colgate's scoring leader Kristýna Kaltounková, and Team USA and Clarkson defender Haley Winn are all top candidates to earn the first 2025 call-up.
How to watch the 2025 PWHL Draft tonight
The 2025 PWHL Entry Draft begins at 7 PM ET on Tuesday, with live coverage streaming on YouTube.
Incoming PWHL teams Seattle and Vancouver are one step closer to their 2025/26 season debuts, as Monday's first-ever expansion draft capped a busy trade window to bring each new franchise's roster to 12 players.
Seasoned veterans and young prospects alike found themselves on the move last week, with notable names like former Boston Fleet captain Hilary Knight and New York Sirens vet Alex Carpenter bound for Seattle while Toronto Sceptres standout Sarah Nurse will head to Vancouver.
Each of the six founding PWHL teams could only protect three players ahead of the league's aggressive expansion process, with most front offices opting to prioritize speed and parity.
Team Canada's 2022 Olympic gold medalist Ashton Bell of the 2025 Walter Cup runners-up Ottawa Charge went first in Monday's PWHL expansion draft, with brought each original team's roster losses up to four total players.
Five of last year's six first-round entry draft picks are now en route to either Seattle or Vancouver, with only No. 1 overall selectee Sarah Fillier remaining with her original New York team.
"Selfishly, I'm very excited," Seattle GM Meghan Turner said after Monday's final selection. "I think it's a great roster that we've built so far."
Both Seattle and Vancouver will see their rosters nearly double to the league's 23-athlete tally later this month, when the expansion teams will join the founding six teams in snagging talent from the PWHL's June 24th entry draft.
The PWHL's expansion process incentivizes new teams to hit the ice ready to compete, though its impact on the league's existing clubs will likely not be clear until the puck drops on the 2025/26 season.
With the 2025 PWHL Finals in full swing and new franchises on the horizon, the league rolled out a detailed expansion plan to build its two new teams on Monday.
The expansion process will see 24 current PWHL players — four from each of the six founding teams — join either Vancouver or Seattle next month.
To be eligible for selection, athletes must be either under contract or have rights held by a current team for the 2025/26 season.
Each original team can protect three eligible athletes at the outset, with squads reserving the right to protect one additional player should the incoming clubs select two players off the same roster.
In the lead-up to June 9th's expansion draft, Vancouver and Seattle will have five days to sign up to five unprotected players each.
After that window closes, Seattle and Vancouver will increase their rosters to a required total of 12 players via expansion draft selections, with the number of picks for each team determined by how many athletes the new franchises choose to sign.
Finally, the West Coast squads will then complete their 23-athlete lineups alongside the other six teams during the PWHL's June 24th entry draft.
With such a broad unprotected player pool, about half of the PWHL's current athletes — including some of its brightest stars — will be up for grabs, ensuring a very different landscape when the league takes the ice for its third season.
The PWHL officially announced Seattle as the league's newest expansion franchise early Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of teams taking the 2025/26 season's ice to eight.
The move comes exactly one week after the second-year league tapped Vancouver as its seventh market, capitalizing on the natural rivalry between the cross-border Pacific Northwest neighbors.
While Seattle's bid was led by Climate Pledge Arena's Oak View Group alongside the NHL's Seattle Kraken, both new teams will fall under the league's single-entity structure, with the Walter Group continuing to operate as the PWHL's sole owner.
Rising hockey fervor set up Seattle for PWHL bid success
The West Coast ice hockey hubs join the league's original six teams, as demand for women’s hockey continues to escalate throughout North America following the PWHL's 2024 launch.
Minnesota, Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, New York, and Montreal have all seen fanbases grow over the PWHL's first two seasons, in which the league tested interest in additional markets via very successful Takeover Tours across North America.
As for the factors that tipped the scales in the Seattle's favor, the PWHL cites both the city's enthusiastic Takeover Tour turnout — 12,608 fans showed up for this year's January 5th matchup — as well as its long history as a hub for pro women's sports.
"We are looking forward to returning the love, energy, and excitement the Seattle sports community shared with us during the PWHL Takeover Tour," said PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer in the league's announcement.
"It's a joy to have PWHL Seattle join the WNBA's Storm and the NWSL's Reign, who are skyscrapers in the city's towering sports landscape."
With two new teams officially on board, the league next plans to release details regarding both an expansion draft and the roles Seattle and Vancouver will play in June 24th's PWHL Draft in the coming weeks.
As PWHL action returned to the ice following the IIHF World Championship international break, the Toronto Sceptres booked their 2024/25 postseason berth this weekend, leaving just two spots left in this year's Walter Cup Playoffs.
Despite Toronto's 3-0 Saturday loss to the Boston Fleet, New York's 2-0 win over Minnesota on Sunday gave the second-place Sceptres enough of a point differential over the fifth-place Frost to solidify their postseason position.
Meanwhile, Saturday's games saw the Sirens suffer playoff elimination for the second straight year, with New York immediately banking Sunday's victory points toward securing yet another overall No. 1 pick in June's 2025 PWHL Draft under the league's Gold Plan.
Three teams hunt two remaining spots in 2024/25 PWHL Playoffs
With this weekend's results, the Sceptres join the league-leading Montréal Victoire in clinching a 2024/25 postseason berth, leaving three teams — the Fleet, the Frost, and the Ottawa Charge — battling for the final two spots.
Minnesota's Sunday loss, however, has the reigning PWHL champions on the brink of elimination.
With both Boston and Ottawa holding a significant points advantage over the Frost, Minnesota needs to win both of the final regular-season games and have either the Fleet or the Charge lose their two last matchups to squeeze above the PWHL table's cutoff line.
Following the close of the regular season on May 3rd, the 2024/25 PWHL Playoffs — featuring a semifinals round before the Walter Cup final — will begin the week of May 5th.
The USA skated to victory on Sunday, taking down archrival Canada in a 4-3 overtime thriller to earn the team's 11th IIHF Women’s World Championship title.
The US is now closing in on Canada's record 13 World Championship wins, setting the tone in the run-up to next year’s Winter Olympics as North America’s PWHL showcased its growing influence on the international stage.
After Canada equalized the second-period goals from US defender Caroline Harvey and forward Abbey Murphy — the potential No. 1 pick in June's 2025 PWHL Draft — the game's third period saw Team USA lose starting goaltender Aerin Frankel to injury.
Backup goalie and IIHF World Championship debutant Gwyneth Philips stepped in, seeing the USA to a back-and-forth 3-3 tie at the end of regulation.
Philips's 17 saves — including 10 in overtime — allowed US forward and current Penn State junior Tessa Janecke to play hero, with the 20-year-old capitalizing on a turnover by tapping in a golden goal with three minutes left in the first overtime period.
"Just shows how strong we are as a group and how much we can persevere through anything," Janecke said afterwards. "I wouldn’t want to do it with any other group."
The tournament itself also proved to be a success, setting a new IIHF Women’s World Championship attendance record as 122,331 total fans took in the games in Czechia.
"I think this is a watershed moment for women's hockey, and it's really exciting to be a part of," said US captain Hilary Knight after earning her 10th Worlds gold medal.
In a shifting hockey landscape, the USA-Canada rivalry is only becoming more intense — and the looming 2026 Olympics will provide yet another chance to steal the sport's global spotlight.
The PWHL dropped its 2025 Draft details on Tuesday, with the league’s third-annual entry draft set to take over Ottawa, Canada — home of the Charge — on June 24th.
Eligible NCAA standouts and other pro hockey prospects have until May 8th to declare for selection, following the PWHL’s May 3rd regular-season finale.
Notably, the second-year league follows the Gold Plan when it comes to determining draft order. Under this system, teams eliminated from the playoffs have an incentive to continue hunting wins, as franchises who amass more points post-elimination secure higher draft picks.
The New York Sirens and 2024 champions Minnesota Frost currently sit below the postseason cutoff line, meaning both teams could snag the most draft capital when the league returns from international break later this month.
NCAA stars likely to top 2025 PWHL Draft selections
Last year, the New York Sirens selected Princeton star Sarah Fillier as the overall No. 1 pick, with the rookie forward having an immediate impact in her debut pro season.
Fillier currently ranks second in individual points scored on the 2024/25 PWHL stat sheet, trailing only US hockey legend and Boston Fleet captain Hilary Knight.
As for who will join Fillier and Minnesota Frost forward Taylor Heise — the inaugural 2023 PWHL Draft No. 1 pick — atop this year's draft, two NCAA standouts are likely contenders.
Should she declare, University of Minnesota forward Abbey Murphy is the projected 2025 No. 1 pick.
However, Murphy could return to the Golden Gophers for a final NCAA season following her international duty with the 2025 IIHF Women's World Championship semifinals-bound Team USA.
Should Murphy defer her pro debut, 2024/25 NCAA MVP Casey O'Brien is the likely top selectee, having already declared for the draft.
The Wisconsin captain wrapped up her NCAA campaign as this season's leading scorer, claiming 88 points on 26 goals and 62 assists en route to this year’s national championship — the third NCAA title of her college career.