Hamilton, Canada appears poised to become the next PWHL expansion city after the league officially announced PWHL Detroit as its ninth franchise, setting the stage for a rapid four-team addition ahead of the 2026/27 pro women's hockey season.
The plans call for all four new teams to have staff in place before the player dispersal process potentially kicks off on May 28th. And after January's successful Takeover Tour stop drew more than 16,000 fans to TD Coliseum, PWHL Hamilton seems increasingly likely to join the fold.
Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath's office hasn't commented on expansion talks after hyping up the original Takeover Tour game. Though Horwath did drop hints while discussing the AHL's Bridgeport Islanders impending relocation to Hamilton.
"Without spilling any beans, I can say I'm pretty confident that there's more to come," Horwath told reporters.
Ice Warriors magazine also chimed in, confirming rumors that Hamilton is next in line.
Beyond PWHL Hamilton, the league is likely looking West to create geographic connections for Seattle, Vancouver, and back-to-back defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota.
According to The Hockey News, Las Vegas remains a frontrunner, while California markets including San Jose and San Diego are additionally under consideration. However, San Jose drew just over 3,000 fans to a November preseason showcase — well below the PWHL's current average of 5,000+ fans per game.
Despite submitting an application, Quebec City appears out of contention after receiving no official PWHL response.
"We had several discussions with the PWHL, but have not received any official response to date," said Québecor's Sports and Entertainment Group Martin Tremblay.
"This is a highly competitive process where several major North American cities have also submitted their applications."
The Seattle Torrent defeated the New York Sirens 4-1 on Wednesday night, with the hockey teams taking the ice at Allstate Arena as the PWHL surpassed the 2 million all-time attendance mark.
10,006 fans attended the game in Chicago, pushing the league's total attendance to 2,001,975 through 275 games since its January 2024 launch. As with many such attendance milestones, the feat was achieved during the 13th of this year's 16-game PWHL Takeover Tour.
Seattle dominated the first period with three goals. Theresa Schafzahl opened scoring with a wraparound at 10:33, before Danielle Serdachny made it 2-0 at 14:25, and Cayla Barnes scored on the power play at 19:34. The three first-period goals marked the most the 2025/26 PWHL expansion team has ever scored in a single period.
The Torrent snapped a four-game losing streak behind strong performances from their top line. Alex Carpenter, Schafzahl, and Serdachny combined for eight points, while goalie Corinne Schroeder stopped 29 shots in her first appearance against her former team.
Sarah Fillier cut New York's deficit to 3-1 nearly six minutes into the third period, before Carpenter restored the three-goal lead at 9:48 to seal the victory.
The win marks Seattle's second away victory this season.
New York has now lost five straight road games, sitting three points behind fifth-place Ottawa in the PWHL playoff race. Seattle now moves within two points of seventh-place Vancouver.
The fan-favorite hockey teams take the ice again this weekend, when the Sirens face Montréal in Detroit on Saturday while the Torrent host a Sunday showdown with Ottawa.
The PWHL is going national, with the third-year league announcing Thursday that it will air its first-ever nationally broadcast game on US linear television later this month.
The New York Sirens and Montréal Victoire's upcoming Takeover Tour matchup at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit will air live on ION on Saturday, March 28th, reaching more than 126 million households in an effort to expand "the visibility and viability of women's sports across the country."
While PWHL games air live across Canada on TSN, the league has yet to secure a full-time broadcast partner in the US, relying instead on local media deals and YouTube streaming.
Game sponsor Ally — a longtime investor in women's sports — will pull double-duty as the presenting sponsor of the historic broadcast as well, with the Detroit-based financial services company partnering with ION parent company Scripps Sports to give the Tour stop a national platform.
The PWHL is looking to build on Team USA's Olympic momentum after February's gold medal win over Canada averaged a record 5.3 million viewers — marking a watershed moment for women's hockey in North America.
"Fan interest in women's hockey is at an all-time high," said Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor in a statement, calling the company "thrilled...to bring the excitement of this league to a national audience for the first time."
How to watch the 1st-ever nationally televised PWHL game
The New York Sirens will take on the Montréal Victoire in Detroit at 1 PM ET on Saturday, March 28th, airing live on ION.
New York Sirens forward Taylor Girard made PWHL history this week, earning a record four-game suspension for leaving the bench to join a line skirmish at the end of Sunday's 2-1 win over the Montréal Victoire.
The brawl occurred at the the final buzzer of the PWHL's record-breaking Takeover Tour stop in Washington, DC, with eight players — four Sirens and four from the Victoire — subsequently issued 10-minute misconducts in addition to Girard's infraction.
As the sole player not originally on the ice to join the skirmish, Girard was the only player to receive an additional 20-minute charge.
Even more, Girard's actions immediately triggered a four-game suspension, as the PWHL Rulebook dictates that exact punishment for "the first player to leave the players' bench illegally during an altercation or for the purpose of starting an altercation from either or both Teams."
The four-game ban marks the longest punishment in PWHL history, doubling the two-game suspension that Seattle Torrent defender Aneta Tejralová received for an illegal check to the head last month.
With the PWHL on break after January 28th as 30% of the league's rosters compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics, the four-game suspension means that Girard — who sits second on New York's scoring sheet with five goals on the season — will not be available for the No. 2 Sirens until March 5th.
The PWHL is continuing to break records, as Sunday's 2025/26 Takeover Tour stop in Washington, DC, saw 17,228 fans pack into Capital One Arena to see the No. 2 New York Sirens top the No. 4 Montréal Victoire 2-1 — setting a new US women's hockey attendance record in the process.
The benchmark surpasses the previous US record set this past November, when the Seattle Torrent welcomed 16,014 fans to their inaugural home opener.
Sunday's DC crowd also sees the US mark inch closer to the overall professional women's hockey attendance record, set in April 2024 when 21,105 PWHL fans sold out Montréal's Bell Centre to watch the Victoire take on the Toronto Sceptres.
"Washington, DC, showed up in such a big way, and the energy our fans brought into the arena turned this game into something truly special," PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer said of the first-ever PWHL game in the nation's capital. "Moments like this capture the joy of our sport and the momentum behind the league."
The third-year league is currently racing through its best-attended month on record, drawing more than 154,000 fans across the last 16 games while averaging crowds of 8,726 across all 49 games so far this season.
The PWHL is coming to the Garden, as the No. 2 New York Sirens announced on Thursday that they'll host the No. 6 Seattle Torrent at Manhattan's legendary Madison Square Garden (MSG) on April 4th.
While MSG staged a fan-less PWHPA game in February 2021, this year's PWHL takeover marks the iconic arena's first-ever ticketed pro women's hockey event.
"Madison Square Garden has a storied women's sports history," said Sirens GM Pascal Daoust in the team's announcement. "New York doesn't just watch moments; it lives with them. This is one of those nights meant to be experienced together, in the building, as part of the history of our team, our league, and everyone who helps bring it to life."
The April showdown will serve as the pair's final regular-season clash, with the 2025/26 series currently tied at 1-1.
Seattle took the first meeting 2-1 behind goals from captain Hilary Knight and Alex Carpenter on December 3rd, before New York stole the second game 4-3 as NYC local Casey O'Brien's hat trick lit up the league's Takeover Tour stop in Dallas on December 28th.
The Torrent and Sirens will next face off in Chicago on March 25th before closing out their four-game slate by making history at MSG at 8 PM ET on April 4th.
How to attend the PWHL clash at Madison Square Garden
While New York season ticket-holders can currently access tickets to the MSG clash, the presale for Sirens newsletter subscribers will begin on Monday before general sales opens at 10 AM ET on Tuesday via Ticketmaster.
The puck dropped on the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour on Wednesday, when the No. 2 Montréal Victoire took down the No. 5 Toronto Sceptres 2-1 in an overtime shootout in front of a sold-out crowd in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Packed into Scotiabank Centre, 10,438 fans watched Team Canada and Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin score the shootout's lone goal, handing Montréal their third straight win.
"It was amazing to see the young girls and boys in the crowd wearing our jerseys, saying our names, and wanting our autographs," said Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie. "It's just extremely special."
The PWHL's 16-stop Takeover Tour is just beginning, with nine games planned for Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Washington DC, Denver, and more before the league pauses for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
"We hope that the impact is a positive one. Everywhere we go, that's the impression we want to leave — for little girls to know that they have a dream and that their dream can become a reality," said Sceptres captain and Nova Scotia product Blayre Turnbull following Wednesday's Tour stop.
Halifax marks the third-year league's fourth sold-out stop, joining fellow Canadian cities Edmonton, Québec City, and Vancouver.
How to attend the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour
The PWHL will next pull into Chicago's Allstate Arena for a Takeover Tour stop on Sunday, when the No. 8 Ottawa Charge will take on the No. 6 Minnesota Frost on at 2 PM ET.
Tickets are currently available for purchase via Ticketmaster.
The PWHL is rapidly looking to ramp up expansion, with EVP of business operations Amy Scheer saying this week that the third-year pro hockey league could welcome "two to four" new teams as soon as next year.
"If I was a betting woman, I'd say it'd be four teams. And then I think we'll hold at 12 for a bit," she told CNBC Sport, noting the league's immediate success with 2025/26 expansion sides the Vancouver Goldeneyes and the Seattle Torrent — the latter of which shattered the US women's hockey attendance record in their Friday home opener.
Accordingly, the PWHL will continue testing possible new markets using the league's historically packed Takeover Tour, with this season's 11-city route expanding to feature seven new host venues.
"What does the support of women's sports look like there?" Scheer said, outlining the league's criteria for assessing potential markets. "If there's an NHL team, what does that look like? Or from the building, is there government support there? How does it impact travel? So there's a lot of factors."
As for the league's notably speedy expansion pace, Scheer told Front Office Sports that the PWHL has "proven that time is overrated."
"The more our numbers grow, the more value we have as a league, the more value we have against our partnerships we sell, the more merchandise we sell," Scheer explained. "Those two things — growth and profitability — are not separate."
The PWHL is hitting the road once again, with the newly expanded third-year league adding seven new markets to the 2025/26 season's neutral-site Takeover Tour.
Across 16 regular-season matchups running from December 17th through April 7th, the pro hockey upstart will visit Calgary, Chicago, Dallas, Halifax, Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Washington, DC, for the first time, with Denver, Detroit, Edmonton, and Québec City returning to this season's lineup.
"The passion and support from fans, and the enthusiasm from cities eager to engage with our league, have fueled our ambition to grow the Tour for Season Three," PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer said in Monday's league statement.
The inaugural 2024/25 PWHL Takeover Tour drew 123,601 fans across nine games, setting a new US pro women's hockey single-game attendance record when a crowd of 14,288 packed Detroit's Little Caesars Arena in March.
The success underlines the sport's booming popularity, with PWHL expansion teams Seattle Torrent and the Vancouver Goldeneyes joining the league's founding six clubs later this month after serving as Takeover Tour stops last season — setting a precedent for potential future markets.
"We're going to expand at least two to four teams next year," Scheer recently told members at an Ottawa City Council meeting. "We are in growth mode, and this league is exploding."
How to attend the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour
The 2025/26 Takeover Tour ticket pre-sale kicks off on Thursday, with host markets opening general sales to all tour dates via thepwhl.com at 10 AM local time on Friday.
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.