Seattle set to be the PWHL’s second expansion team

The GIST: The PWHL postseason push is fierce with just four regular-season games to go, but today’s breaking news is lighting the lamp no matter your rooting allegiance. That’s right, the league’s next expansion team is officially official.

PWHL Seattle named as league’s second expansion team: There’ll be a press conference today at 2 p.m. ET, but you heard it here first: Seattle will begin play as the PWHL’s eighth franchise next season.

• And just like the league’s seven other squads, they’ll operate under The Walter Group as per the PWHL’s single-entity ownership structure. All for one and one for all, indeed.

Why Seattle? Great question. There are three major reasons: fans, facilities, and a built-in foe.

• 📣 Nearly 13K fans showed up for Seattle’s Takeover Tour tilt in January, a testament to the city’s already electric women’s sports culture.

• ✨ The state-of-the-art facilities are second to none. Climate Pledge Arena, an 18K-seat, recently renovated, environmentally conscious venue, is already home to the NHL’s Seattle Kraken and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.

• 🌶️ A West Coast rivalry is already built in as the league extends its reach to the Pacific Northwest: Just 142 miles (229 kilometers) separate PWHL Seattle from the league’s other recent expansion team in Vancouver. Expect this budding feud to be icy and spicy.

Zooming out: The PWHL continues to set the bar for new leagues. It feels like just yesterday that they became the first women’s league to begin play with a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) already in place — and now? They’re already in expansion mode after less than two seasons. Iconic (and unprecedented) behavior.

• As for the teams themselves, both PWHL Vancouver and PWHL Seattle still need to assemble their rosters. The 2025 PWHL Draft is slated for June 24th, while information about an expansion draft will be shared in the coming weeks.