The basics of the guidelines have just been released for the upcoming PWHL expansion draft, and it’s pretty interesting, differing from what is typically seen in pro sports leagues. From draft structure, to shockingly low allowed protections, to the number of rounds, here’s a quick summary of everything you need to know about the upcoming PWHL expansion draft.
PWHL Expansion Draft: Player Protections
The PWHL has announced that only 3 players from each existing PWHL franchise can be protected. From now until June 3 at noon, each of the 6 existing PWHL teams must decide on which 3 players they wish to protect. In order to be protected, a player must be under contract through 2025-26. This means that teams cannot protect free agents.
There is a stipulation here, which is that once a team has relinquished two players to the expansion teams (either through the expansion window or the draft), they are allowed to protect one more player. This should slightly help teams which are more top heavy from getting their cores absolutely decimated, and help even distribution from all teams.
PWHL Expansion Draft: Exclusive Signing Window
Starting on June 4 at 9am and ending on June 8 at 5pm, the two new expansion teams (PWHL Vancouver and PWHL Seattle) will have an opportunity to sign free agents to their teams ahead of the PWHL expansion draft itself. During this time, a maximum of 5 players can be signed by both of these teams. Those able to be signed include any player left unprotected by the other 6 teams, as well as any player on an expiring contract.
During the signing window, there is no required minimum number of players that each new team must sign. If PWHL Seattle, for example, wants to obtain all their players through the expansion draft, they are allowed to do so.
PWHL Expansion Draft Date and Rules
The PWHL expansion draft will take place on June 9 at 8:30pm. PWHL Vancouver and PWHL Seattle will take turns selecting players until each team has reached a 12-player roster. If the teams exit the signing window with the same amount of players, they will have the same amount of picks in the draft. But if one of the two teams has less players going into the draft, they will have more picks to compensate.
All unprotected players will be eligible to be selected in the draft, including players who’s draft rights are held through the 2025-26 season.
Public Reaction to the Rules of the PWHL Expansion Draft
The reaction to the PWHL expansion draft has been quite mixed, with many fans taking the opinion that there are far too few protections for each of the inaugural teams. The argument here is that with only 3-4 protections, inaugural teams will almost certainly give a ton of their core talent to the brand new expansion teams.
Think of a team like the Frost: Schofield, Jaques, Heise, Cava, Thompson, Hensley, and Rooney have all been crucial to the team’s success. Under these draft rules, though, it’s likely that only 3-5 of these 7 will be on the team come the start of the next season, which would decimate the core of the Frost.
With this also comes a fear that the brand new PWHL Seattle and Vancouver teams will be far too strong. Though they will be unlikely to land one of the league’s top-tier stars ahead of next season, they’ll both have some of the strongest depth in the entire league.
PWHL Expansion Draft Predictions
Here are my predictions for which four players each team will protect. They’re ordered from most likely to least likely, so given the rules, there is a chance that the fourth player isn’t protected for some of these teams.
- Boston Fleet: Hilary Knight, Hannah Bilka, Aerin Frankel, Megan Keller
- Minnesota Frost: Taylor Heise, Sophie Jaques, Claire Thompson, Dominique Petrie
- Montréal Victoire: Marie-Philip Poulin, Ann-Renée Desbiens, Laura Stacy, Jennifer Gardiner
- New York Sirens: Sarah Fillier, Jessie Eldridge, Ella Shelton, Alex Carpenter
- Ottawa Charge: Gwyneth Philips, Tereza Vanišová, Ronja Savolainen, Emerance Maschmeyer
- Toronto Sceptres: Renata Fast, Daryl Watts, Hannah Miller, Natalie Spooner
