Professional Women's Hockey League Announces First Expansion Team Is headed To Vancouver
The Professional Women's Hockey League is in just its second season, and it's prepared to move beyond its own Original Six and has announced the league's first expansion city.
That lucky town? Vancouver, British Columbia.
From its inception, the league has fielded six teams with clubs in Minnesota, Boston, New York, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. The league announced this week that the seventh PWHL franchise is headed to Western Canada.
"This is a historic day for our league, our fans, our athletes, and our sport," PWHL Executive Vice President of Business Operations Amy Scheer said in a statement.
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"Vancouver is a vibrant city with a deep love for the game — as we saw firsthand during the PWHL Takeover Tour earlier this season. Expanding to Vancouver reflects the growing momentum behind the league and the incredible passion of our fanbase since launching in January 2024. We’re proud to bring the PWHL to the West Coast and provide more fans with the opportunity to experience live the best women’s hockey players in the world."
The Professional Women's Hockey League announced this week that their first expansion team will be in Vancouver. (Getty Images)
The team will be known as PWHL Vancouver until a permanent name is chosen, which isn't a surprise since this is the same naming convention the other six teams used during the league's inaugural season.
Vancouver is a natural spot for the league as they held a tour earlier this year that included a game at Rogers Arena. That game drew a tour-high crowd of 19,038 fans.
But it's believed that the league is already in discussions to bring in an eighth team to the league, with all signs pointing to that club being based in Seattle.
Seattle TV station KING 5 reported that the announcement of a Seattle team was expected some time after the Vancouver announcement.
The Emerald City was another stop on the PWHL's tour and more than 12,000 fans showed up to Climate Pledge Arena, home of the NHL's Seattle Kraken, for the game.