PWHL Mailbag: PWHL Going West, Development, Larocque, Merch and More.

It's time for another PWHL mailbag. Thanks for submitting your questions. Here's a look at what fans were asking this week.

Could the strong sales of Seattle and sold out games in Vancouver and Edmonton push the PWHL to expand West faster than all of us first thought?

100%. The PWHL knows they need to become more national, and for that to happen, their reach needs to begin moving West. Seattle and Vancouver make a perfect pairing as teams could travel West and play each club, and even make a stop in Minnesota on the way there or back if it fit. One item we hear over and over online is people critiquing the possibility of Pacific expansion due to travel. Every pro league in North America makes that trip regularly, so to hold that as a limiting factor only for women's hockey or women's pro sport seems bizarre. If the fans are there, which they appear to be, the venues fit, and there are in-market sponsors and revenue opportunities, the PWHL won't be letting a plane ride dictate expansion. While Quebec City and Detroit may be obvious, Edmonton, Denver, Vancouver, Seattle, and places like Las Vegas and an eventual California team are the future.

Has Jocelyn Larocque fallen out of favour with Hockey Canada? Is there a world where she isn’t on the Olympic roster and who would take her place next to Fast on the first pairing?

No and yes. At 36, Hockey Canada will need to plan for a future without Larocque. To say she's fallen out of favor would be a stretch, but it's highly conceivable Larocque has played her last games with Canada's national team at a World Championship or Olympic Games. Canada's blueline at the 2024 Worlds included Erin Ambrose, Renata Fast, and Ella Shelton, who barring injury will all remain locks for the 2026 Olympics. Judging by Claire Thompson's early play in the PWHL, she's back as well. Thompson and Fast have a history playing together as well, and it's the likely scenario that Thompson takes this spot. That leaves a large group including Nicole Gosling, Jaime Bourbonnais, Ashton Bell, and Larocque who were all on the roster in 2024, as well as Chloe Primerano who made her national team debut at the Rivalry Series and was just named the December WCHA Defender of the Month as an underage blueliner, as well as PWHL ice-time leader Micah Zandee-Hart who was a long time national team member to fill out the roster. I wouldn't count out Emma Venusio or Kendall Cooper who were spectacular for Canada's Development Team this year either. The game is so fast and getting faster, and bringing youth into the mix makes a lot of sense. Canada will look at all options, and it would be no surprise if Larocque is not an Olympian in 2026.

In the wake of the Minnesota Frost's illness outbreak sweeping through the team, does the PWHL have an infectious disease protocol.

Very good question. It's probably not something the PWHL believed they needed as leagues across the globe formulated, relaxed, and then eventually erased infectious disease protocols during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak of COVID-19 globally persists and continues to kill vulnerable populations. This past summer the Paris Olympics saw early COVID worries. Waves of the virus infecting athletes and fans will not go away, even if leagues have lifted their protections. Illness hit Minnesota's locker room this month knocking Taylor Heise and Maddie Rooney out of the lineup, at a time the team was dealing with injuries to Sophie Jaques, Dominique Petrie, Grace Zumwinkle, and Nicole Hensley, and a suspension to Britta Curl-Salemme. Back to the original question, the league is getting back to me on this. It likely means there is no specific protocol written into their bylaws, but there is mention of sick leave in the CBA, so it's certainly something they monitor.

Why was not a word whispered about why Madeline Wethington was drafted then not signed?

We actually interviewed Wethington in the summer for an article that talked about her pro hockey dreams, but also her very clear desire to become a doctor and pursue a career in medicine. She wasn't the only player in this position this year, including Boston's Ilona Markova, and the number would have been much higher had turnover across the league not been as high (roughly a third of the league) as it was. Next year, unless there's immediate expansion, a large number of draft picks to go unsigned as the talent pool is maybe 20-24 players deep who could have any chance of making the league, and half that who can step in and contribute immediately. Wethington got stuck in a spot picked by a team who put a lot of focus on their blueline. She was likely offered a reserve spot, which would have resulted in her playing for the team already, but many players across the league turned down reserve offers. It's just not practice or feasible to ask a player from Minnesota with medical school waiting to quit everything for $15,000 a year with no housing stipend or medical benefits. In particular when the best case scenario results in her signing for the league minimum $36,050 prorated to whatever portion of the season she plays. Wethington could have gone to Europe or spent the season bouncing around reserve rosters, but this was a personal choice.

On PWHL Merchandise In Europe

I didn't have an answer on this last week, and I don't really have one now either, but the league did respond to my request on this one with a league representative stating "The PWHL is evaluating how to best support fans around the world and hope to have solutions in the near future."

What's up with the roster numbers?

This question has been asked in so many different ways as Lucy Morgan, Sam Isbell, and Kelly Babstock signed contracts this week without corresponding moves to injured reserve. According to the league, teams can sign players to 10-day contracts without needing to make another roster move, and the 23-player roster outlined in the CBA is a minimum, not a hard line number. This means that a team could conceivably sign several players to 10-day contracts simultaneously if needed. The only hard limit in the CBA is that teams cannot carry less than 23 players for any 24-hour period of time in the season. The confusion is that there is no communication from teams or the league regarding players who are injured or out of the lineup leaving people to guess who is replacing whom. Similarly, there is no verbiage in the CBA regarding how these 10-day contracted players impact salary caps. Without a development league, there will be times when teams must keep injured players on the active roster to ensure they're compliant with the CBA's roster rules.

Speaking of development leagues...

One reader asked if a development league is in the works. The PWHL has all efforts laser focused on evaluating markets for expansion, and until the league expands, there will certainly not be any work done on a development league. That doesn't mean teams and the league aren't looking at development pathways. Whether it's supporting competitions like the Women's Euro Hockey Tour, or teams forming unofficial affiliations with SDHL clubs, all options are being examined. One problem here remains the fact that player rights following the draft are only locked in for a maximum of two years, potentially less. Unless player rights can be held longer, and unless salaries climb to a point where this league can be a lifelong career enabling players to leave college early, development will remain in Europe. Strengthening the bonds in Europe to ensure North American players can go overseas and keep those leagues and nations moving forward, whether it's through development fees or transfer fees for players makes a lot more sense right now. Expansion first, development league much, much later.