See, NBA commissioner Adam Silver? The PWHL has shown again that hockey knows Seattle and expansion DO go together.
Unlike the long-anticipated return of the Sonics, talk of pro women’s hockey coming to Seattle will officially became reality Wednesday when the league announces the city as its eighth franchise.
(Technically, the media advisory promises “a major announcement related to women’s sports in Seattle.”)
There were other tantalizing clues in recent days. VancouverIsAwesome.com was first to show the logo at left, briefly posted “on the PWHL’s online shop.” Vancouver got a little awesomer on April 23, when the league announced the city would host its seventh franchise.
It felt a little NBA-like when PWHL vice president Amy Scheer recently told the Associated Press, “While some might say Seattle is the obvious shoe to drop, that doesn’t mean that’s what we’re going to do. We’ll see what the following weeks or months bring.”
Weeks or months? That was playing with the heartstrings of Seattle fans, a situation the region’s hoop fans know all too well. With Wednesday’s announcement, whatever anxiety built up among women’s hockey fans will now become barely a footnote.
Get To Know The PWHL
The following PWHL primer is sourced from the league website.
Launched on Jan. 1, 2024, the PWHL has already surpassed one million fans all-time. In 2024-25, its second regular season (which runs through May 3), the PWHL includes 162 total players across six teams: Boston, Minnesota, Montréal, New York, Ottawa and Toronto.
Teams earn standings points with a 3-2-1-0 system, to incentivize competitive play for a full 60 minutes.
- Regulation wins are worth 3 points
- Overtime and shootout wins are woth 2 points
- Overtime and shootout losses are worth 1 point
- Regulation losses are worth 0 points
The four teams with the most standings points compete in the PWHL Playoffs, which consist of two best-of-five rounds for the Walter Cup. The No. 1 seed in the final standings gets to choose their semi-final opponent between the third and fourth seeds. (It’s possible both of these criteria may be altered once Seattle and Vancouver join the league.)
Once a team is mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, standings points earned in their remaining games are classified as Draft Order Points. The non-playoff team with the most Draft Order Points earns the higher pick in the draft.
PWHL rule initiatives:
- Major Penalty and Game Misconduct for all illegal checks to the head during play.
- A minor penalty ends if their team scores a short-handed goal.
- Players on a team assessed a penalty that leads to penalty time must remain on the ice until after the following face-off.