Expansion Class Roundup

Brick Wall Priorities

Phase 1 of the 2026 Expansion Process is complete as the current right teams made their protection lists as a lot of shocks were presented following them being made publicBut the big thing is once again the majority of the Purple Trio's selections were indeed protected although some teams really threw us off guard

Non Takeover Benefits

With Las Vegas & San Jose both landing expansion teams despite not being tested on the Takeover Tour I lead the debate on how giving markets that haven't bee on the tour a team as it helps wider the net when we're looking for future marketsAt the end of the day the PWHL never said the Takeover Tour was designed for expansion as it was designed to help grow our league into markets without a team and I think people need to be reminded of that

Let's Talk Conferences

With the league now expanded to twelve teams and even split in terms of teams on the East Coast & the West Coast the question now is do we go to a conference system or set up divisionsI personally would prefer to go down the conference route as the entire Purple Trio discuss the cons and the merits to adopting a conference system for our league

Walk The Plank

Out of all of the coaching hirings made last year Steve O'Rourke was the one the entire Purple Trio were least confident about so none of us are surprised that he has been let go in what feels like a similar situation we saw from New York in the inaugural seasonThe Torrent never seemed to be able to get things clicking and with the expansion process about to begin this could be a chance for a clean slate and rebuild quickly

Building Rosters

Today marks the start of the process to build the rosters for Detroit, Las Vegas, Hamilton and San Jose which will see each expansion team end up with 10 players after a six phase processThis is going to be a stressful few weeks as the current eight markets are most likely going to lose at least one star player from their rosterMy advice to you all is to please look after your mental health and let's not make the same mistakes we did as a community last year