The Seattle Torrent re-signed forward Alex Carpenter to a 3-year PWHL Standard Player Agreement on June 2, keeping one of the franchise’s foundational pieces through 2028-29 and committing one of the team’s 3 protection slots under the league’s Expansion Roster Distribution Process (proper noun) ahead of 2026-27. If that sounded like word salad, it’s because the entire expansion process is word salad.
Carpenter signed as one of Seattle’s foundational players in June 2025 and played all 30 regular-season games of the inaugural season, serving as one of the first alternate captains in team history. The 32-year-old from North Reading, MA, tied Julia Gosling for the team scoring lead with 20 points, led the Torrent with 12 goals, and ranked second with 8 assists.
Carpenter came to Seattle after playing 2 seasons with the New York Sirens. She’s the third all-time leading scorer in PWHL history with 63 points (31, 36A) and she has 16 power play assists, the actual most in league history.
She’s also an Olympic medalists, having won gold in the 2026 Winter Games, and winning silver in Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014. (She was left off the
She represented the United States at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan and won her first gold after silver in Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014. (She was a shocking cut from the 2018 gold medal-winning Pyeongchang team, so Milan was her first Olympic gold). She has 18 Olympic points (11G, 7A), which is fifth all-time in U.S. Olympic women’s history.
The PWHL is adding four teams this season, and since so much of the league is not under contract, they can’t do a traditional expansion draft, so they have this byzantine six phase process that is…well, the video does a good job explaining it. But Carpenter is locked into one of the 3 protection slots available to teams during Phase 1. Teams have until today at 2pm to finalize their three protection slots before Phase 2: Expansion Team Foundational Signing Period. (No, seriously, that’s how it’s officially communicated by the PWHL. That is a proper noun.)
There’s going to be a lot of turmoil with the league expanding by 50% from 8 teams to 12 teams. In addition to all the roster turnover, the Torrent also fired head coach Steve O’Rourke. These first few years of expansion are real Wild West.