On May 28th, the second PWHL expansion process officially began with the eight existing teams. They submitted their secret negotiation lists for the Phase One signing and protection period, which begins June 1st. These lists feature 10 players on expiring contracts from all teams. Starting June 2nd, players on expiring contracts can sign with any of the existing PWHL teams.
It’s important to remember two caveats here. First, teams can only protect three players in Phase One. Any players signed to new contracts have to be automatically protected.
The second caveat is that teams can only lose one player in this phase. For example, Toronto could only lose one of Watts or Fast to another team. They can’t lose both in Phase One. For a few teams, Phase One is going to act like a legal tampering period for 2027 free agency. These teams already have at least three players that match the quality of the free agents available to be picked up in Phase One.
Five Teams Starting Phase One Off Strong
The Boston Fleet are one of these teams. They already need to choose between Aerin Frankel, Megan Keller, Haley Winn, and Alina Müller for their three protection spots. That’s not even considering the fact that they have one of the best goal-scoring wingers in the league in Jessie Eldridge. Phase One isn’t realistically going to yield them someone better than Winn or Müller. That is, unless you believe Taylor Heise has been wanting to play in Boston her whole life.
Speaking of Heise, another team who will be looking at their own roster long before looking at the list of free agents for players to protect are the Minnesota Frost. They have Taylor Heise, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Grace Zumwinkle, and Lee Stecklein to figure out who they want to protect with the added complication there being all of them are on expiring contracts. I believe all four will re-sign with Minnesota. Other teams will be able to talk to these players, and they can’t protect all four. This is, of course, also leaving out the 2025/26 PWHL points and goal leader, Kelly Pannek. There’s no room for other signings in Phase One.
When it comes to the Montreal Victoire, well, that one is easy. Their general manager, Danièle Sauvageau, has already come out saying that Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, and Ann-Renée Desbiens will be the three protected players. The New York Sirens haven’t declared their three protections. However, it feels clear that they are going to be choosing between Sarah Fillier, Kristýna Kaltounková, Casey O’Brien, and Maja Nylén Persson. As with Boston, there’s just no realistic options in free agency that would make sense exposing both Casey O’Brien and Maja Nylén Persson.
Last but not least is the Seattle Torrent. Yes, they were arguably the worst team in PWHL history and need some kind of a shake up. They also really need to hold onto the very talented players they have. Alex Carpenter is a top 10 offensive producer in the league at the very least, can’t lose her. You have two young, offensively talented wingers in Hannah Bilka and Julia Gosling. Need to keep one. Then there’s Cayla Barnes who we know can be a top pair blueliner in the league and doesn’t have much depth behind her. Seattle has the top talent to win. They need to secure it and add more which Phase One won’t help with the latter.
Three Teams that Could Use Some Help
For those counting at home that’s five teams who most likely wouldn’t benefit from trying to sign the realistic options left of the expiring contracts in Phase One. That does mean there are three teams who should be taking full advantage of Phase One to see if they can improve their team with a signing of a player from another team. Those three teams are of course the Ottawa Charge, Toronto Sceptres, and Vancouver Goldeneyes.
For the Ottawa Charge, there are two easy protections to name. Gwyneth Philips saved their season and got them into the playoffs. She should be up for PWHL Regular Season MVP. The other protection is Ronja Savolainen. No one on the Ottawa blueline drives the play like her from the backend. I also don’t like their chances at being able to replace her either internally or externally. That leaves us with the third protection spot to be filled, which is where the ultimate potential of Phase One comes in.
That’s not to say Ottawa doesn’t have good players to protect in that third spot. Brianne Jenner, Rebecca Leslie, Emily Clark, Rory Guilday, and Fanuza Kadirova could all be that third protected player, with questions made about that decision. I don’t think that’d be the best use of that spot, though. Ottawa has a chance to improve their team for next season with a big free agent signing. General managers are going to look at their expiring contracts for Phase One by thinking about who is most at risk for an Expansion Foundational Offer (EFO).
An EFO can only be given to players on expiring deals, so someone like Savolainen can’t receive one if she were to be unprotected. That leaves Jenner and Kadirova as the only realistic EFO targets. Even then, that’s a stretch. Jenner had a good season; however, she is 35 years old and starting to slow down speed-wise, and you just don’t know when that aging curve part of her career is going to show up like a punch in the face. It’s too risky to offer her an EFO.
Kadirova came in and provided 10 goals for the Ottawa Charge, placing her 11th in the PWHL in goals. She also showed she’s not afraid to shoot the puck. You have to remember EFO’s are $100K+ contracts where the player chooses the length. Expansion teams will have to consider the fact that Kadirova shot at 20.8% this season. That won’t be repeated, meaning her goal total will most likely drop. It most likely won’t be a whole lot as she’ll get more minutes next season, but how many teams want to give their biggest contract to a goal-scoring forward who scores fewer than 10 goals and is the finisher on her line, not the playmaker? I’m going to guess it’s close to zero.
Ottawa is a team prime for negative regression and they need all the help they can get to avoid that. They’re picking somewhere between the seventh and 11th spots in each round of the draft. It might be hard to find a lot of help there. Plus, by the time we get to free agency post-draft, the best ones will have signed. This is where Ottawa needs to get creative and swing for the fences in Phase One.
Thankfully for Ottawa, there are two perfect candidates to make that swing for: Jessie Eldridge and Julia Gosling. Carla MacLeod and Michael Hirshfeld need to put on their best sell job of the Ottawa franchise that they’ve ever done. There are five players who have hit the 30-career goal mark in the PWHL and Eldridge is one of them. She had a big year this season, with 14 goals and shooting at 18.7%. Her previous two seasons, though, saw her with a combined 16 goals and 14 primary assists for eighth in PWHL career primary points (30). Eldridge is an offensive machine and makes effective use of her big body. She’s the perfect Ottawa Charge player.
Julia Gosling is perfect if you want Eldridge but before the career year. Gosling has been a shooting machine since coming into the PWHL. Her first season, she hit the +7 SOG/60 mark, then this season, the +10 SOG/60 mark. However, she hasn’t had a shooting percentage above 10%. Gosling has a great shot and she’s a very good playmaker as well. Her 23 primary points (10 goals, 13 primary assists) in her first two seasons are not that far behind Grace Zumwinkle’s first two seasons. Any time you get compared to a player who is a high-class EFO candidate, you’re doing ok.
Check out Part Two for who the other two teams should be looking to take advantage of, and why, during Phase One.