Four years after the arrival of the Seattle Kraken, the city will be adding an additional member to its hockey family. The Professional Women’s Hockey League announced Thursday that Seattle and Vancouver will be awarded the league’s first two expansion teams, bringing the PWHL to eight teams heading into its third season.
Before the arrival of the PWHL, women’s hockey went by a few different names. There was the Canadian Women’s Hockey League which folded back in 2019 before the Premier Hockey Federation formed, which was acquired by the PWHL in 2023. With the acquisition, many players considered it the beginning of real professional women’s hockey.
“I feel like we’ve been everywhere, had our hand [in] a whole bunch of different pots,” Olympic gold medalist and PWHL superstar Sarah Nurse said in 2023. “But I think it’s been pretty exciting, and I’m so happy that we’re finally at this point.”
The PWHL started back in 2024 and is currently in its second season of existence. The inaugural eight teams included the Montreal Victoire, the Toronto Sceptres, the Boston Fleet, the Ottawa Charge, the Minnesota Frost and the New York Sirens.
Minnesota was the league’s first champion in the 2024 postseason, being the inaugural team to hoist the Walter Cup. They took Boston to the final game of the five-game championship series, winning 3-0 and cementing themselves in women’s hockey history.
The 2024-2025 season is still underway with Montreal and Toronto both already punching their tickets to the postseason. With the current six-team setup, four teams make the postseason every year. Boston and Ottawa, who sit at third and fourth place, respectively, will be looking to clinch their spots in the coming days.
Whether the arrival of Seattle and Vancouver will alter the playoff structure is yet to be seen, but the two towns were well-fitted for women’s hockey.
Climate Pledge Arena, the home of the Kraken of the National Hockey League, hosted a matchup between Montreal and Boston during their Takeover Tour on Jan. 5. Seattle also has a fast-growing youth hockey community following the Kraken’s arrival in 2021. To cap it all off, the city has a large fan base for women’s sports, ranging from the OL Reign soccer team and the Seattle Storm basketball team.
Vancouver is also a notorious hockey town, including a tense NHL rivalry between the Canucks and the Kraken. With their additions to the league, the PWHL hopes to spark a Pacific Northwest rivalry and finally expand into the West Coast market.
The league announced that Seattle’s primary jersey color will be “Emerald Green” and their secondary color will be “Cream”. Their team name has yet to be announced, and details about the Expansion Draft and how the teams will be integrated will be announced on June 24.
