PWHL removes coach’s challenge for 2025-26 season
A couple of notable changes for the Professional Women’s Hockey League heading into its third season, including how video reviews are conducted.
The league released the rule changes on Thursday, with the most notable adjustment to the rule book being that the Coach’s Challenge is no longer allowed. Instead, the PWHL Central Situation Room (CSR) and on-ice officials are the only ones allowed to initiate reviews for select circumstances.
In essence, a team can no longer request a review for a play that results in a goal, whether it is due to a missed stoppage or a potential case of goaltender interference. They have to either rely on a decision to come from the ones wearing the stripes on the ice or the CSR Official calling in to request that a review take place.
The PWHL will have an off-ice official in every arena for every game during the season who will play the role of Video Replay Judge.
Along with missed stoppages and potential missed calls of goaltender interference, the only other situation subject to a review is puck-over-glass delay of game calls. A review can only occur if the call on the ice is a penalty, with the video judge being permitted to erase a penalty only. A review can’t happen if a player is suspected of shooting the puck over the glass, but a penalty wasn’t called.
There was no clarification on the duration of video reviews. A constant criticism of the PWHL over its first two seasons was the excessive length of reviews, despite both on-ice and off-ice officials having clear access to video footage of the plays in question.
The other significant rule is that teams are now required to have three goaltenders signed to standard player agreements. In the past, most teams have had two netminders signed, with the team usually relying on a reserve to fill in the void in the case one of the team’s duo is injured.
The third goaltender will also be allowed to join the team on the bench immediately if another netminder is injured during the game.
However, that changes how teams can be structured. Instead of past years, when teams could have 21 skaters and two goaltenders, they are now limited to just 20 skaters signed at a time. As of now, the Vancouver Goldeneyes are the only team to have 20 skaters signed to standard contracts, with goaltenders Emerance Maschmeyer and Kristen Campbell locked for the coming year.
The 2025-26 season gets underway next Friday, Nov. 21. Check out Daily Faceoff’s PWHL preview hub for all eight team previews and predictions for the upcoming year.