PWHL announces order for 2026 draft
Better late than never.
On Monday, the Professional Women’s Hockey League released the draft order for the 2026 PWHL Draft.
This is set to be the largest draft in league history, aside from the inaugural event in 2023. Along with the four expansion teams – Detroit, Hamilton, Las Vegas, and San Jose – the PWHL is sticking with the six rounds that it had last year, meaning 72 players will hear their names called on Wednesday night at the historic Fox Theatre in Detroit.
The first pick this year belongs to the Vancouver Goldeneyes. One of the PWHL’s two expansion teams last season, the team struggled to find its footing for most of the year, hanging out near the bottom of the standings. However, the team picked up a couple of wins late in the season to earn enough draft order points to clinch the No. 1 spot this year, ending the New York Sirens’ back-to-back run of first-overall picks.
Picking second will be the Seattle Torrent, the other expansion team that also didn’t have a good time last year. The team finished with the worst record in the league, setting PWHL records for most regulation (16) and overall losses (21).
From there, the expansion teams will get to pick. Unlike last year, when Vancouver and Seattle flip-flopped spots across the draft, the spots 3-6 will remain locked for the entire night. The rest of the established franchises will fill out the rest of each round, capped off by the Walter Cup champion Montreal Victoire.
Here’s the order for the 2026 PWHL Draft:
1. Vancouver Goldeneyes
2. Seattle Torrent
3. PWHL Detroit
4. PWHL San Jose
5. PWHL Las Vegas
6. PWHL Hamilton
7. New York Sirens
8. Toronto Sceptres
9. Minnesota Frost
10. Boston Fleet
11. Ottawa Charge
12. Montreal Victoire
This is widely regarded as one of the deepest draft classes in PWHL history. On top of the immense talent coming from the collegiate ranks, there’s a large contingent of players coming over from Europe, including international stars Andrea Brandli and Petra Nieminen. The Wisconsin Badgers are expected to have a lot of players picked in the draft, including Caroline Harvey, Lacey Eden, Kirsten Simms and Laila Edwards. Harvey is the consensus No. 1 pick of this year’s class.
The draft will begin at 5 p.m. ET. The first two rounds will be broadcast live on TSN2 in Canada and the Scipps Sports Network in the United States. All six rounds will be streamed live on the PWHL YouTube channel with no blackouts.