On April 26, less than 24 hours after the Seattle Torrent closed their inaugural season with a 2-1 shootout loss to the Montreal Victoire at a sold-out Climate Pledge Arena, players and staff gathered one final time to reflect on a year that often felt larger than the standings.
Seattle finished eighth in the PWHL at 8-1-5-16 and missed the Walter Cup Playoffs. Still, the tone around the Torrent carried remarkably little bitterness. Players and staff acknowledged the disappointment of finishing near the bottom of the standings, but throughout the final media interviews was a repeated sense that they established a foundation sturdy enough to build on in Year 2.
Seattle built a culture players want to protect
That confidence started with the culture Seattle created in its first season.
Alternate captain Emily Brown described the year as “one of the best things that could have happened to me.”
Brown told reporters she entered the season unsure what to expect from a nontraditional hockey market after growing up in Minnesota and spending the previous two seasons in Boston.
“Seattle’s just blown away every expectation and truly set a new precedent for hockey and fans and the culture,” Brown said. “[It’s] just been an awesome experience in the most unexpectedly best way.”
The word “culture” surfaced repeatedly throughout the afternoon. Brown credited captain Hilary Knight with setting the tone early, especially as the league’s newest franchise attempted to merge players from different systems, countries, and professional experiences into one room. Brown said Seattle’s leadership group intentionally discussed how they wanted the team to operate while also allowing relationships to develop organically.
“We’ve got a great group of leaders,” she said. “Whether they have a formal leadership position or not.”
Knight expanded on that, framing inclusivity as essential to the identity Seattle wanted to establish.
“You always want to have a very safe space,” Knight said. “Making sure that everyone feels comfortable and confident to be your authentic selves.” She added that players continued making plans to spend time together even after elimination, including a full-team Airbnb stay the next day, evidence of a locker room bond that survived a difficult inaugural season.
General manager Meghan Turner said that atmosphere mattered beyond morale. It became part of Seattle’s pitch to players around the league.
“We said at the beginning of the year that you can be a star here in Seattle,” Turner said. “Not just with clout or anything like that, but just a star within the community.”
Defensive structure remains Seattle’s biggest challenge
The interviews also made clear that the Torrent view their on-ice issues as identifiable, particularly defensively. Head coach Steve O’Rourke was direct when asked where the team fell short.
“Our defending is something that we have to get much better on,” he said. “The best teams, every league, defense is where it starts.”
Seattle allowed too many quality chances throughout the season and frequently struggled early in games. O’Rourke referenced the recurring problem of conceding within the opening minutes and admitted the team never fully developed the aggressive, physical identity he envisioned entering training camp.
“I don’t know if we ever got to the level of physical play I wanted to,” he said.
Those problems became magnified by the unusual structure of the 2025-26 season. Seattle began camp without several national team players, then navigated long road trips and an Olympic break that repeatedly interrupted continuity.
“I think, honestly, the hardest part of our season, just off the top of my head, would just be the travel,” Knight said, pointing specifically to road swings lasting more than two weeks.
The constant interruptions complicated the process of building chemistry for a first-year roster. O’Rourke described a team that often felt disconnected through no fault of the players themselves.
“We started without our top eight players to start training camp,” he said. “Those players left during rivalry break, then they go to Olympics.” Reintegrating players returning from national teams added another layer of difficulty.
Still, Seattle’s leadership group consistently pointed to the way the team improved over the course of the season. Alternate captain Alex Carpenter said the growth was visible “from the first time we stepped on the ice together to the last game.”
Brown echoed that sentiment when discussing Seattle’s defense corps: “We’ve learned to play with each other … that chemistry just continues to build game after game.”
Seattle’s fan support changed the tone of the season
Even as the Torrent remained outside the playoff picture, Climate Pledge Arena continued drawing record-breaking crowds. Knight said it was “no small feat” that the building was still selling out despite Seattle’s place in the standings. For the players, that support carried emotional weight during losing stretches.
“The fan base accepts you and your worth isn’t based just on your on-ice performance as a team,” Brown said. “I mean, we were selling out open practices, you know, at the end of the year … it’s incredible, and something I’ve never quite experienced.”
Similarly, Carpenter described Seattle fans as a major reason she hopes to return despite uncertainty surrounding expansion and free agency.
“Definitely would love to be back,” she said. “There’s a lot of unknowns.”
That uncertainty hovered over nearly every interview session.
With three new teams added ahead of the 2026-27 season, players and staff repeatedly acknowledged that Seattle’s roster may look very different next fall.
“We’re all at the mercy of this expansion,” Knight said. “I think for a lot of everybody wants to come back, and I think that’s gonna be a hard part, right, is figuring out what that looks like. But you know, I think for me, personally, I want to be here in Seattle, and hopefully I can find my way back here.”
Brown even said it was the easiest question of the day: “I love it here. It truly is just a special place.”
Turner declined to discuss specific roster protections before the league finalizes expansion rules, though she made clear the organization hopes to retain much of its core.
“I’d like to keep a lot of them here,” Turner said. “They’ve done a ton of great work in the community. They clearly showed up on the ice.”
What Seattle ultimately becomes may depend on whether the organization can preserve the culture players spent the season praising while also solving the structural issues that kept the Torrent from seriously contending for a playoff spot. The confidence inside the room suggests the team believes those two goals can coexist.
As Knight put it, “We will win here.”