PWHL expansion proof Vegas remains a hockey market first
Gary Bettman certainly hasn’t batted a thousand as the NHL’s commissioner, but his decision to expand to Las Vegas has been an outright hit. The Vegas Golden Knights have made the playoffs in eight of their nine seasons, and won the Stanley Cup in 2023. They have consistently gotten strong attendance and support, and is one of the greatest expansion success stories in professional sports.
Las Vegas has shown itself to be such a strong supporter of the game, that they’re now getting another pro hockey team. On Wednesday, the PWHL announced that they’ll be expanding into Las Vegas for the 2026-27 season. Detroit and Hamilton, Ontario will also be getting PWHL teams next season, but the fact that a non-traditional hockey market like Las Vegas has garnered a professional women’s team shows how well and how quickly the city has taken to the game.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed what Las Vegas getting a PWHL team means about the health of the sport in the city.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Expansion is booming in the PWHL, and I’m fascinated. The Vegas team is going to play out of T-Mobile Arena. That city, and I know when the NHL expanded there, there people that were like “Ah, yes, that city loves their Golden Knights, but you wait until they get the NFL and the NBA and all this stuff.” And listen, the NFL has come to Vegas in the form of the Raiders. When you go to Vegas, it is one hundred percent still a Golden Knights town. The locals there do not have the same love for the football team as they do for their hockey team, because it’s theirs, it was born in Vegas. I know that’s a slogan they run with. I really do think the PWHL in Vegas could really, really work.
Carter Hutton: Yeah, it would be exciting, too. I think the league is in a good place, too. There’s an exciting final coming up. Michela Cava, Thunder Bay girls, gets the overtime winning goal to send her team there. It’s exciting times. I think the sport is growing, there’s new cities getting involved. That’s the main goal here. I think going into this everybody was a little bit unsure, but the support across the game, whether it’s NHL or PWHL, is in a very, very good place.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Wednesday’s episode here…