What we know about potential PWHL expansion to Seattle
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - With the official announcement from the Professional Women’s Hockey League that the city of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada is getting a team and media members in the area getting an email about a special event at Climate Pledge Arena, it’s a perfect time to lay out the information that we know about the potential of a team coming to Seattle. Circling Seattle Sports was the first to fully confirm that Seattle is getting a team in this round of the leagues expansion, the first ever expansion in the history of the PWHL, and with the information that’s come out since our post last week it’s essentially just a matter of time before things become official. Here’s a collection of the information we know and that’s out in the world as we prepare for the league to make their announcement about the city of Seattle getting a PWHL expansion team, sometime in the very near future.
Sources made it known to Circling Seattle Sports that a team coming to Seattle was something that the PWHL had been looking into dating back to before this years Takeover Tour even started, and it makes a lot of sense given how strong of a sports city this is plus the already existing ecosystem of women’s sports in the area. The Storm and the Reign are obviously major in that ecosystem and were likely big factors for the league in trying to imagine how their team would be supported, but you must also look at teams such as the Tempest (Ultimate Frisbee), Majestics (Women’s tackle football), University of Washington athletics women’s programs, and growing minor league teams such as the new franchises in the area that will play in the USL W League. The league loved how Seattle showed up for the practices at the Kraken Community Iceplex and at the game itself, even if the total attendance number wasn’t the top for the tour.
We’ve known about the now official press conference happening at Climate Pledge Arena for the past week, as we were told that league officials were going to be present at the arena. Why else would league officials be at an arena in a city where they had a tour stop as they looking into expansion? A lot of instances in the build up to this team that’s all but official help, providing context clues as things became increasingly clear.
Sights and scenes from the PWHL Takeover Tour game between the Montreal Victoire and Boston Fleet on January 5th, 2025 at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo for Circling Seattle Sports)
One of the key elements of this team that fans want to know is where the team will play. Climate Pledge Arena is the most obvious choice, and sources informed CSS that negotiations with the arena were some of the final steps before things could be finalized so that this could all be made official. It’ll still be interesting to see if that means the new team will be playing all of their home games at CPA, if they’ll head a little North or South for games at the homes of the Seattle Thunderbirds or Everett Silvertips, and that’s information will more than likely find out at Wednesday’s press conference. But given how new the facilities are for the Kraken, whether it’s Climate Pledge Arena or the Kraken Community Iceplex, that’s certainly a positive check mark for a team coming here given they won’t have to worry about aging or run down buildings to host these athletes in. Regarding the CPA negotiations, there were reports from the Associated Press that an agreement has not been finalized in a report from April 23rd, which aligns with our sources that said negotiations were still taking place. If a deal wasn’t reached, the PWHL was said to potentially look into other markets such as Denver and Detroit, but it now obviously appears that negotiations went through well and the league is ready to make this official.
“Our set up is fantastic, they appreciated that and they appreciated all the fans showing up for practice. Kinda laughed, the crowd cheers for the first save of the warmups, last goal on the ice, first stepping on the ice. They felt the energy and the love for hockey here in Seattle.”
Introductions at Climate Pledge Arena before the PWHL Takeover Tour game between the Montreal Victoire and Boston Fleet on January 5th, 2025. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo for Circling Seattle Sports)
The Vancouver press conference provides a template
Considering that the teams are coming into the league together as part of the first round of expansion in PWHL history, we can take a few key points away from that press conference given they seemingly apply to Seattle’s team as well. Firstly, and as you’ll see below, the leaked logo for Vancouver was accurate. The Pacific Blue and cream colors shown on the basic “PWHL Vancouver” logo that will be a placeholder until the franchise gets branding is the exact same one from the leak seen on the PWHL shop, and the tree background in the leak was used as a screensaver before the announcement livestream started on the leagues YouTube channel.
The branding will obviously be a hot topic of discussion surrounding the two expansion teams, as fans were (fairly) impatient when it came to the branding of the leagues original six teams, even if the branding did turn out pretty good. It appears that Seattle and Vancouver may remain as “PWHL (insert city name) for their first year,” just as the PWHL original six did, as the league does their work to get the branding just right. It is somewhat interesting that Amy Scheer, EVP of hockey operations with the PWHL, said that the league is comfortable with Vancouver going into the season as “PWHL Vancouver” or if they get a new name, so the same can be pondered regarding Seattle’s team. After the PWHL Takeover Tour game here in Seattle, we asked forward Shane Wright and Jessica Campbell about the game as they both were in attendance for it, as well as inquiring on if they had ideas for team names. Wright and Campbell didn’t have specific names, but both agreed that sticking with the nautical theme as the Kraken have would be a great idea. Fans will likely be a bit annoyed by this, which is understandable, but I think given how well the branding for the original six teams turned out, waiting to get the branding and jerseys just right is a fair price to pay.
“The turnout was amazing... It was packed, it was loud, people really enjoyed the women’s game... It was pretty cool to see... It was a great game. Overall, there were a lot of chances, a little bit of back and forth. Entertaining game, that’s all you can ask for. I was definitely entertained.”
“I think the attendance speaks volumes for how much this city loves hockey, it’s a growing hockey market. Our fanbase is so diverse, it’s a special one. I think they’d really get behind the women’s game, women’s sports in general. You look at the Storm and their success. Yesterday afternoon’s game just spoke to that. The love to the Kraken, the love for hockey, and obviously the idea that expansion teams are a possibility, I think the West coast is being considered, maybe it’s in the cards. I believe it’d be a great fit. Whether it happens or not, it showed the players that there’s a fit, response, and facilities in this city.”
It was stated that Vancouver will begin play next season, with expansion draft details to come from the team sometime this summer. SVP of PWHL Hockey Operations Jayna Hefford said that the league is still finalizing details on what an expansion draft/player dispersal would look like, but she did say that the goal is for Vancouver (And ideally Seattle, imagining she meant the two expansion markets but obviously only Vancouver is official currently) to be a competitive team from day one as opposed to a slow build to success as traditionally expansion teams go. Hefford cited the parity and competitiveness within the league being one of the PWHL’s greatest assets, so it makes sense that they’d want to continue that trend with the two new teams joining them. The expansion dreams will also be participating in the upcoming entry draft this summer in Ottawa, and we have to imagine that both Vancouver and Seattle will end up getting high draft selections to help add to that immediate success belief for their rosters. Keep an eye out on details for the expansion draft in the coming weeks. The entry draft in Ottawa takes place on June 24th, and Hefford said that the details for expansion draft will come before that draft.
“Our GMs are aware of expansion. There have been numerous discussions around this over the last number of months. Nothing was a surprise to our GMs.”
In regards to the schedule and how many games our brand new team will play, EVP Amy Scheer said during a media availability following the Vancouver announcement that the PWHL will likely stick to their current 30-game schedule but did note that there will be challenges with the Olympics and the potential of Worlds taking place in-season as well. There will be continued discussion within the league about the schedule, but at least for now the word is that they’ll stay at 30 games.
Who will own the team? Currently, the original six teams in the PWHL are owned by The Walter Group, which has played a major factor in the league getting off the ground. Vancouver will also be owned by the group, and we have to imagine that the same will be said for Seattle’s new team. There could be opportunity down the road for outside ownership to buy in, but that isn’t a thing currently.
A lot of fans, specifically in Detroit, Colorado, Buffalo, and Philadelphia, were upset that their city was not picked as a new home for an expansion team in the PWHL. It’s understandable to be upset about that, but fans may not have to wait for long. Scheer said that Vancouver, and this round of expansion including Seattle, is just the first step in a several-year process to expand. She made it clear to those cities that welcomed the league in for the Takeover Tour that even though they weren’t picked for expansion this time around, it doesn’t mean they won’t be involved next time. Cities like Philadelphia that weren’t on this years tour could certainly be featured in another tour going forward, so that they can show the league what their city can do in terms of welcoming their own women’s sports franchise.
The logos of Seattle and Vancouver were leaked through the PWHL Shop
It’s hard to beat a source like the league itself for news such as this. As initially discovered by “vancouverisawesome,” a news website for Vancouver, the PWHL's store (in the "Shop" section of the PWHL website) contained a banner about the yet-to-be-announced Vancouver and Seattle teams. Clever folks of the internet were able to use the links for the PWHL Vancouver merch items and simply replace Vancouver with Seattle to find the merch images of the three items you see below. While obviously merchandise items don’t guarantee anything, it’s very fair to wonder why the hell the PWHL would have these items with the Seattle branding on it in the websites files if the league wasn’t going to actually expand to the city. You can find merch leaks for new logos, new teams, and generally other information about sports teams. Our Seattle Kraken had their 2024 Winter Classic jerseys leaked in some unique ways after all, in an odd roll out by the NHL, so you can find information on sports through merch leaks in a variation of ways. Consider this leak a fun way to add to the truth about a team coming to Seattle.
If you need a source that isn’t ours
Sure, it can be understandable that the person reading this has doubts regarding our sources on the PWHL expanding to Seattle. We get it, we’re a smaller outlet and you may not have heard of us yet. That’s fair and you can feel that way, but since we put out our report there’s been other clear indications that a team is coming to our city. Among that, there are other folks in hockey spaces that have put their belief into Seattle getting a PWHL expansion team, including Jeff Marek, and our friends over at Sound of Hockey.
What’s next?
After all the information you’ve just digested about the PWHL team coming to the city of Seattle, now we shift our attention to Wednesday’s press conference at Climate Pledge Arena. We’ll have full coverage of the event, obviously live tweeting what’s said at the press conference while it should be livestreamed just at the PWHL did for the Vancouver announcement. Expect that some Seattle city leaders will be there, and it would make a lot of sense to see some representation from other women’s sports teams (Storm, Reign, Tempest, and Majestics are the professional sports teams already in the city) hopefully including the University of Washington women’s club hockey team. It’s a thrilling time to be a sports fan in Seattle, especially a women’s sports fan, so you’ll want to be following Circling Seattle Sports on all platforms to ensure you get out coverage of the impending PWHL Seattle team and 43 others in the greater Seattle area. Keep an eye on our platforms, and make sure you’re subscribed to the PWHL YouTube channel to tune into the press conference. In addition to that, be ready to support this team from the jump. With the announcement of the team itself, Vancouver posted season ticket membership details and the city sold those out swiftly. Be ready for that, to buy the merch that comes out, and to engage with the teams social media. Buying merch, attending games, going to practices, and showing support online are all great entry level ways to support a brand new team. After all, fans in this city have done that and done it well on multiple occasions before.
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Check out our previous articles with writing by Charles Hamaker here.
Check out our previous articles with photos by Rio Giancarlo here, and his portfolio here.
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