Source: 2025-26 PWHL season set to begin Nov. 21 weekend
We have a general idea when the third Professional Women’s Hockey League season will get underway.
Sources tell Daily Faceoff that the 2025-26 season will begin the weekend of Nov. 21-23, the earliest start in the league’s history. Training camps are said to be opening up on Nov. 7.
The official schedule has not yet been released, nor has there been information on whether teams will play 30 games, as they did last year, or more.
The beginning of training camps across the league falls at a strange time, as the 2025 edition of the Rivalry Series is set to take place that same weekend, as the United States will host Canada in Cleveland on Nov. 6, before finishing up the American portion of the series in Buffalo two days later. Last year, the first window of the Rivalry Series took place before PWHL camps opened in mid-November.
With the regular season scheduled to begin before American Thanksgiving, that means the Rivalry Series will once again interrupt the PWHL season. The last two games of the series will take place in Canada, though dates and locations have yet to be determined. After the last two series have led to crucial injuries to the likes of Sarah Nurse, Hannah Bilka and Taylor Heise, many have wondered whether the Rivalry Series will continue with the PWHL preferring to keep its players at a full bill of health for its product.
The Rivalry Series is one of at least two international breaks the PWHL will for sure be taking this season. The league is expected to take an extended break in February as the best players in the world head to Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics. There is still the question regarding when (and where) the 2026 IIHF Women’s World Championship will take place. Traditionally, the women’s tournament has taken place in April prior to the men’s tournament. It has caused the PWHL to break with just a handful of games remaining before the playoffs.
There are ongoing discussions between the PWHL and IIHF to move the WWC. There were whispers that there was some talk about the event moving to the fall, which will clearly not be the case. An option to move the tournament to the summer is also on the table, after the Men’s Worlds and PWHL Playoffs wrap up.
The 2025-26 PWHL season promises to be an exciting one, as it will mark the league’s first campaign on the West Coast. Vancouver and Seattle took a lot of great talent from the original six franchises, and are expected to fare well in their first seasons in action.