After a Month of Player Distribution Chaos & Craziness, the PWHL Draft is Here
By Scott Lowe – MYHockeyRankings.com
It was just about a month ago that the Montreal Victoire capped the third Professional Women’s Hockey League season by winning the championship to claim the Walter Cup. As it turned out, Montreal’s victory would be the calm before the storm.
Thanks to the PWHL’s decision to expand by four more teams after adding Vancouver and Seattle a year ago, the 28 days since the Victoire captured the coveted trophy have featured a whirlwind of activity, chaos and even a bit of confusion.
That activity continues Wednesday, June 17, with the arrival of PWHL draft day. The 2026 PWHL Draft gets underway at 5 p.m. EDT and is being held at Fox Theater in Detroit.
The first two rounds can be viewed in the United States on Scripps Sports platforms that include over-the-air channels in some markets. It also can be seen nationally on Scripps FAST channel and Scripps Sports Network. Canadian fans can watch the first two rounds on TSN2. Complete coverage of all rounds will be available on TSN+ in Canada and on the PWHL YouTube Channel worldwide.
Just days after the Walter Cup Finals concluded, the PWHL’s elaborate player-distribution process began, allowing the new franchises in Las Vegas, Detroit, Hamilton and San Jose, to negotiate with and sign players from the existing eight organizations until each of the new clubs had 10 rostered players. And once the Phase 1 signing window opened for all teams June 1, player signings came at us at breakneck speed.
While the process itself was probably a little too involved for most casual fans to spend time digesting it, those who follow the league were provided with virtually nonstop offseason drama and excitement as teams announced new player signings almost daily until just a few days ago. Existing teams first had to decide which three players to protect, adding to the drama as some of the sport’s biggest stars were left unprotected and became available to the PWHL’s new teams.
The first bombshell dropped when Boston announced it would not be protecting Swiss superstar Alina Muller, even though Fleet General Manager Danielle Marmer told media in an emotional press conference that the team hoped to bring Muller back. Not long after that Muller signed a three-year agreement with Hamilton.
Then we learned that one of the game’s all-time greats Hilary Knight, another player Boston unexpectedly had left unprotected a year ago before she signed with Seattle, was heading to Las Vegas with the understanding that she would sign there and be traded to Detroit prior to the draft. The trade was completed June 16, with Vegas receiving Detroit’s first-round pick in this year’s draft.
That concluded a frenzy of activity during which the expansion teams inked a total of 40 players, while the existing six franchises were able to sign, re-sign or protect a total of 36. Existing teams have entered a short period during which they now are allowed to re-sign any of their players on expiring contracts who did not sign elsewhere during the first four phases of the player-distribution process.
In addition to international superstars Knight and Muller, numerous other high-profile players found new homes as the process unfolded, including Cayla Barnes, Hannah Bilka, Jesse Compher, Britta Curl-Salemme, Daryl Watts, Brianne Jenner, Nicole Hensley, Erin Ambrose, Hayley Scamurra and Corinne Schroeder. Minnesota, which won the first two league championships, managed to keep much of its strong core together by re-signing Kelly Pannek, Grace Zumwinkle, Lee Stecklein and Taylor Heise
CLICK HERE for the current Detroit 10-player roster
CLICK HERE for the current San Jose 10-player roster
CLICK HERE for the current Las Vegas 10-player roster
CLICK HERE for the current Hamilton 10-player roster
A week ago, most followers of the PWHL would have assumed that the draft pick Las Vegas would receive in return for Knight would fall among the final four selections of the opening round since Vancouver and Seattle, last year’s expansion teams, received the last two picks in 2025. That proved not to be the case, however, when the league announced this year’s order just two days prior to the draft.
The PWHL abided by its “Gold Plan” and awarded the top selection to the Vancouver Goldeneyes, who finished with the most standings points of any non-playoff team after being eliminated from postseason contention. By the same standard, Seattle received the second pick.
New York got tossed a bit of a curveball, however, as it was announced the Sirens would not pick third as dictated by the “Gold Plan,” but instead would receive the seventh overall selection after each of the four expansion teams had picked. The order for the new clubs was chosen randomly.
While it’s not certain when the league informed its 12 organizations of the draft order, it must have been quite a shock for New York to find out just two days before the draft that it would be picking seventh and not third. While the Sirens certainly will be able to select a supremely talented player with the seventh pick, they likely will miss out on superstar-caliber collegiate stars such as Caroline Harvey, Laila Edwards, Abbey Murphy and Tessa Janecke.
PWHL Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Jayna Hefford told media assembled for a pre-draft press conference that the league decided on the draft order in hopes of maintaining competitive balance after evaluating the success of the expansion clubs during the roster-building process.
"We've said from Day 1 that competitive balance is critical to us," she said. "That is the goal, while maintaining player choice within the process … The order itself is in line with what we've settled on in terms of the ‘Gold Plan’ winner having the No. 1 overall pick … I think with every decision we make at the PWHL, we try to gather as much fact and information as we can. We wanted to ensure we had that before we identified what we believed is the right order for the draft process. We're comfortable with where we're at.”
Hefford mentioned that many pundits expected last year’s expansion teams in Vancouver and Seattle to contend for playoff spots, but both failed to qualify for postseason play.
"These things are tough to predict," she said. "This is a really hard thing we're doing, adding four teams to an eight-team league, and to try to maintain competitive balance. Trying to use all the information we have, we have some really brilliant people that work on our team and that are maybe a little behind the scenes at times, but a lot of people {are} involved in trying to figure out how we do this in the best possible way and the best interests of the league."
This year’s draft features a record 236 eligible players. Included among them are 23 Olympians who competed for eight nations at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games. Draft-eligible players include 128 forwards, 68 defenders and 40 goaltenders. More than 50 percent of all eligible players are from NCAA programs.
Here is a look at the 2026 PWHL Draft order. The order will remain the same for each of the draft’s six rounds. A total of 72 players will be selected.
2026 PWHL Draft Order
- Vancouver Goldeneyes
- Seattle Torrent
- PWHL Detroit
- PWHL San Jose
- PWHL Las Vegas
- PWHL Hamilton
- New York Sirens
- Toronto Sceptres
- Minnesota Frost
- Boston Fleet
- Ottawa Charge
- Montreal Victoire
Five members of the gold-medal-winning United States Olympic team are eligible to be chosen, including Harvey, who was named MVP and Best Defender before concluding her career at the University of Wisconsin. She is expected to be chosen first by Vancouver after recording 64 points in 33 games to lead the Badgers to the NCAA title and earn the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the top player in college hockey.
Murphy, her Olympic teammate and a forward from the University of Minnesota, has become a viral internet sensation thanks to her high skill level and eye-popping highlight-reel goals. She also is projected to be selected at the top of the draft board. She posted a career-high 66 points as a senior, including 40 goals, and led the nation in points (2.19) and goals (1.29) per game.
Edwards, another Wisconsin product and Olympic gold medalist, played both forward and defense during her impressive career before moving permanently to the blue line for Team USA two seasons ago. She played both positions in college and was a catalyst for the Team USA power play from the point, factoring in on some of the team’s most important goals at recent World Championships and the Olympics.
The list of draft-eligible players includes four Olympians from Finland, five from Germany, three from Italy, two from Sweden, two from Switzerland, one from Japan and one from France. Andrea Braendli, named Best Goalkeeper at the Olympics, and leading Swedish scorer Thea Johansson, top that list along with Italy’s Laura Fortino, who previously won gold and silver medals playing for Canada.
Veteran Canadian Olympian Megan Agosta, a three-time gold medalist, also has declared for the draft, and Finland has four players – forwards Petra Nieminen, Elisa Holopainen and Viivi Vainikka as well as defender Nelli Laitinen – who are considered top 15 draft prospects.
Wisconsin center Lacey Eden, who has won gold and silver World Championship medals with Team USA and is the only player in women’s college hockey history to win four national championships, Penn State center Janecke and Wisconsin winger Kirsten Simms, both Olympic gold medalists for Team USA. also are projected to be selected among the top 10.
