2025-26 PWHL season

Puck drop is tonight! There are thirty games per team now through April 25.

With the expansion to 8 teams, I think the arguments about the expansion process favoring the two new teams (Seattle and Vancouver) have been a little overblown. Because they wanted to snag some stars like Carpenter, Knight, Nurse, et al., those teams then needed to keep their sights a little more limited in draft and free agency, because of the salary cap. We will see, though - perhaps they will dominate!

The league has existing women's hockey experience behind the new teams, including with Cara Gardner Morey going from Princeton coach to Vancouver GM and Brian Idalski going from St. Cloud State coach to Vancouver coach, for example; but the Seattle coach and new Boston coach have not coached women's hockey before. Courtney Kessel, past Boston coach, is back to the college coaching ranks as head coach at Princeton (and her Tigers just beat Quinnipiac in OT last night).

Here is a good article - LJ Bachenheimer retro jersey designs for PWHL teams - observing that the 8 PWHL teams do not yet have 3rd jerseys and that these could be dreamed up as homages to past women's hockey teams.

The author has made designs for the four Canadian teams and is going to create the designs for the four American teams in another article. It's especially interesting if you enjoy jersey design. She highlights teams from the 1910s and 1920s (the Ottawa Alerts), as well as from the first NWHL around 2000, the CWHL (including the Montréal Canadiennes and Toronto Furies), and the later NWHL/PHF (Toronto Six).

Bachenheimer mentions that in the CWHL Poulin and Knight were on the same team, the Canadiennes, for two seasons! That is something I don't think that they ever were later in the PWHPA (it looks like teams shuffled repeatedly for showcases in the 2019-20 year - I'm unsure of the details) or that they probably ever will be again.

The Alerts' jerseys are striking and are truly retro since they were playing over a century ago. It would also be interesting to learn more about the history of the Furies' and Canadiennes' jerseys. Their historical colors mainly align with the NHL teams, while I like Bachenheimer's designs with colors that are closer to the current PWHL teams.

Seattle Montreal about to start at 10 eastern on YouTube. Poulin vs Knight. Only if your Christmas tasks are done! Jk, f them tasks. Watch hockey