The PWHL “will not have a traditional expansion draft” when it adds new teams this offseason as the process instead will include multiple signing windows, which will “give players more autonomy through the process,” according to Hailey Salvian of THE ATHLETIC. The PWHL Players Association on Sunday sent its members a guide to the expansion roster-building process that “assumes the league will add four teams for 2026-27.” The expansion process includes “five different phases, the first of which is tentatively set to begin May 28.” While the league is “steadfast” on expansion ahead of the 2026-27 season, it has yet to announce any final decisions on the number of teams or the cities where they will be located. Should the league add fewer than four teams, the process outlined in Sunday’s document “could change.” The PWHL in a statement said, “Nothing is finalized at this time.” PWHLPA Exec Dir Malaika Underwood in an email sent to players on Friday said that the league is switching things up this year in an effort “to protect as much player choice as possible throughout the process.” The new process, Underwood wrote Sunday in a subsequent email, “is a significant change that gives players more opportunity to participate in the process through negotiation and choice” (THE ATHLETIC, 5/3).
IN THE MOTOR CITY: In Detroit, Jalen Williams wrote it is “not fully clear yet” if Detroit will land a PWHL team, but the buzz for the city to get a team “very soon is real.” Ilitch Enterprises President Denise Ilitch “predicted the PWHL was coming to Detroit earlier this year.” Reports from The Athletic and The Hockey News “indicate that Detroit may be next in line for an expansion team,” after the league added two teams last month in Seattle and Vancouver. Some fans hope that if Detroit landed a PWHL team, it “could push” the Univ. of Michigan and Michigan State Univ. to “eventually add Division I women’s hockey programs” (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 5/2).
