The PWHL is starting its postseason on a high note. After the USA Women’s Hockey team took home gold in the Winter Olympics, the league rode a renewed wave of interest when many players returned home, with attendance surpassing one million fans for the first time in a single season.
As the top-seeded Victoire take on the Frost Thursday in the first game of the semi-finals series, the PWHL could be on the brink of a breakthrough. With significant growth providing a tailwind for the league, here are a few storylines to watch.
National TV Broadcast
The best-of-five Walter Cup finals will be aired on national TV for the first time in the United States, with all games being broadcast on ION. The network previously aired a matchup between the Sirens and Victoire on March 28, which was the PWHL’s first-ever live national broadcast in the United States.
ION, which is owned by Scripps Networks, has deals with the WNBA and NWSL and is available in 126 million households. Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor said in March that the network hopes to broadcast a larger batch of PWHL games during the 2026-27 season.
Currently, American viewers can watch the PWHL via YouTube livestream. The league broadcasts nationally in Canada on TSN, CBC, and Prime Video, while its four American teams all have agreements with regional networks.
Ottawa Arena Uncertainty
The Charge will be playing their playoff games at the Canadian Tire Centre, home of the NHL’s Senators who were just eliminated from their own playoffs on April 25. The arena seats over 18,000 people, a jump from the 8,500-seat TD Place Arena that the Charge typically play in. The Charge previously played a game at the Tire Centre on May 4.
The move comes after a March report that the Charge were working with the Senators to play at the NHL team’s arena long-term.
There are currently questions over the Charge’s future in Ottawa, after the Ottawa City Council agreed in November 2025 to demolish TD Place Arena and replace it with an arena that seats 5,850 as part of a $419 million renovation. PWHL VP of business operations Amy Scheer told FOS last November that they would “do everything [they] can” to remain in Ottawa, but not at the expense of playing in a smaller arena.
The Charge recorded an average attendance of 8,131 during the 2025-26 season, up 564 from last season.
Opportunity for Parity
The Frost won the last two Walter Cups and are the only PWHL team to have been crowned champions. And while they are in contention for a three-peat, the Charge, Fleet, and Victoire have an opportunity to win the title and increase the league’s parity on the highest level.
While the league’s games can be competitive across the board, there’s still more work to be done in terms of overall parity. The Frost and Victoire have taken up two of the four playoff spots three years in a row, while the Sirens have never made the playoffs.
Parity will become a bigger question with future expansion looming. The Torrent and Goldeneyes—expansion teams added ahead of the 2025-26 season—were beneficiaries of an expansion draft that prioritized competitive balance, but still ended up as the first two teams eliminated from the playoffs.
Gold Plan + Expansion
While the PWHL’s top four teams competed for playoff seeding, the bottom four teams fought for Gold Plan points in the race for the No. 1 overall pick in the PWHL draft. The Goldeneyes earned rights to the top pick after the Torrent fell to the Victoire on Saturday. Vancouver now has the opportunity to draft Wisconsin defender Caroline Harvey, the women’s hockey MVP of the 2026 Olympics and widely-projected first overall choice.
The Torrent and Goldeneyes were announced as expansion teams during the final week of April 2025. If that timeline holds for 2026, expansion news should be expected soon, with the league reportedly aiming to reach 12 teams down the line.
