Ashton Bell (21) will make the move from Ottawa to Vancouver for the 2025-26 PWHL season. She went first overall in the league's expansion draft on Monday .Chris Tanouye/The Canadian Press
Stars Ashton Bell, Julia Gosling and Jessie Eldridge are among the latest players who will move west after hearing their names called Monday night in the PWHL’s first-ever expansion draft.
The new franchises in Vancouver and Seattle each drafted seven players, plucked from the PWHL’s inaugural six teams, helping the expansion clubs take shape before they join the league for its third season this fall.
With the league using a snake-style draft, Vancouver won a lottery-ball draw and was made to choose between making the No.1 pick, or both No.2 and 3.
Vancouver took Option 1 and used the top pick on Bell, the Ottawa Charge star defender.
Seattle used the second pick on another Ottawa defender – Czechia’s Aneta Tejralová – then the third on Boston Fleet forward Hannah Bilka.
Later in the draft, Seattle added a pair of hot scorers, Eldridge from the Sirens and Gosling from the Sceptres. Then some young defenders: Anna Wilgren from the Montreal Victoire, Megan Carter of Toronto and Emily Brown of the Boston Fleet.
Vancouver added a bunch of forwards: Brooke McQuigge from the Minnesota Frost, Abby Boreen out of Montreal, Gabby Rosenthal from the Sirens, Czechia’s Denisa Křížová from Minnesota, and Izzy Daniel, the Patty Kazmaier winner who played her rookie season in Toronto. Vancouver finished with another defender, taking Sydney Bard away from the Fleet.
Monday’s expansion draft was the second phase for the two new teams to build their rosters. It followed a five-day pre-draft signing window that first allowed them to negotiate one-on-one with a pool of unprotected players from the original six PWHL teams and sign five players each.
Each of the six inaugural teams lost four players during the expansion process. The general managers of each of those clubs had to make the excruciating decision of which four players it would protect from expansion.
Now Seattle and Vancouver each have rosters of 12.
Hilary Knight, seen here in a 2023 game, has signed with the Seattle PWHL team. She was previously with the PWHL's Boston Fleet.Ross D. Franklin/The Associated Press
The next chance for all eight PWHL teams to add talent to their rosters will be at the entry draft, on June 24 in Ottawa. The league has not announced when its standard free agency period will begin.
In the initial signing window last week, Seattle signed U.S national team stars Hilary Knight from the Fleet and Alex Carpenter from the Sirens, plus rising young star defender Cayla Barnes from Montreal. Seattle also added New York starting goalie Corinne Schroeder and forward Danielle Serdachny, who Ottawa chose No.2 overall in last June’s PWHL draft.
Vancouver signed a handful of Canadian national team players during the window. The club snagged elite defenders from the Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost in Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques, star forwards Sarah Nurse from the Toronto Sceptres and Jennifer Gardiner from the Montreal Victoire, plus goalie Emerance Maschmeyer from the Ottawa Charge.
Nurse said leaving Toronto will be difficult. It’s her home. She was one of the first three players signed to the Sceptres in 2024. While she agrees the players Toronto protected are stellar, it stung to learn she wouldn’t get protection. But as a member of the PWHL’s player’s association, Nurse understands the sacrifices needed for the league to grow.
Nurse remembers sharing a long emotional hug with Sceptres general manager Gina Kingsbury after Toronto was knocked out of the playoffs, knowing she may be a player vulnerable to the expansion process.
“It was nerve-racking, but also so exciting because this is what we fought for so long, like, we wanted that level of professionalism, and this is what happens in professional sports, right?,” Nurse told The Globe and Mail.
“For the league to really grow, you have to expand, and there has to be player movement into different markets.”
Sarah Nurse, left, is embracing change as she moves to Vancouver's PWHL team. Goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer, right, will join Nurse in Vancouver after suiting up for Ottawa.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
So she embraced the signing process and when her agent said Vancouver GM Cara Gardner Morey wanted to speak to her personally, Nurse was excited. Gardner Morey had been the women’s hockey coach at Princeton University and once tried to recruit Nurse when she was a young teen star. Nurse liked reconnecting with Gardner Morey, and instantly felt she would make a great GM and build a strong team culture. Nurse agreed to sign in Vancouver.
“I’m excited for a new, fresh take on this whole professional hockey experience,” said Nurse.
She was thrilled to see Gardiner added to Vancouver’s roster – the youngster who just played on a line with Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey in Montreal.
“It’s cool to kind of think of Jen Gardiner, who had an incredible year,” said Nurse. “Oh, maybe I get to be on a line with her?”
Vancouver will play at Pacific Coliseum, former home of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants.
Seattle will play at Climate Pledge Arena, also home to the NHL’s Seattle Kraken and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.
Knight was one of the PWHL’s best goal scorers this season, tied for second most with 15. The U.S. Olympian had been one of the first players signed to Boston when the league launched two years ago, and one of the players who helped found the league.
“I’m more of a builder in many ways, and I’m extremely excited about the opportunity for pro hockey in Seattle. Ecstatic,” Knight added. “I really like how teams are supported out there, and I think we’re going to be in great company, which is awesome.”