Pending expansion could result in very dull PWHL Trade Deadline…again
The trade deadline season is supposed to be one of the most important periods of the hockey calendar.
The possibility of a contender taking a big swing to bolster the roster, or a lower team looking to offload contracts in hopes of acquiring assets for the future.
However, in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, rapid growth and tight rules might lead to another relatively boring couple of weeks before teams are forced to finalize their rosters for the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign.
The PWHL Trade Deadline is set for March 30, less than a month before the regular season comes to a close. It marks the third deadline in the league’s young history, giving the teams one last chance to add talent from elsewhere ahead of the Walter Cup Playoffs.
Yet, when looking at how deadline day has unraveled over the league’s first two seasons, we might see a rather dull news cycle to round out the month of March.
What’s the cause? Why aren’t general managers willing to make big moves?
The answer is simple: Expansion.
When you include the first two campaigns, a total of…three trades have been made on deadline day. In 2024, a couple of depth moves were made involving the Ottawa Charge: the team acquired Shiann Darkangelo and Tereza Vanisova, sending Amanda Boulier to Montreal, and Lexie Adzija and Caitrin Lonergan to the Boston Fleet.
While those trades paid off down the line, they weren’t necessarily the big-time transactions that we’re used to seeing in the NHL. We saw a similar story last March, when the only trade made right before the deadline was the Toronto Sceptres’ dealing Kaitlin Willoughby to the Montreal Victoire for Anna Kjellbin, another mediocre move for depth rather than adding star power.
Unlike in the league’s inaugural season, it was clear that the PWHL would add two teams for the 2025-26 season. However, no one knew how the additional teams would affect free agency, the PWHL Draft, and so on. That made GMs very apprehensive about acquiring players with term, fearing they would lose them for nothing during the expansion process.
On top of that, teams haven’t been allowed to trade draft picks. With the league’s arrival in 2023 and the expansion two years in, the PWHL has had three different draft formats, with the league brass not finalizing the rules until the spring. The only time teams have been allowed to move picks is on the draft floor (which has led to some excitement).
That leads us to what might (or might not) happen this month. Reports indicate that the PWHL is planning to add two to four teams for the 2026-27 campaign, meaning an even greater expansion is on the horizon. More players will be taken from the current eight franchises, and the PWHL Draft will be larger than ever before.
Even then, GMs around the league still won’t be able to sizeable trades using assets. Teams like the Fleet and Victoire, who are battling for first place, aren’t able to leverage high draft picks for top-end scorers or defenders to make them championship contenders. For others, like the expansion Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent, who are struggling to get out of the basement, they can’t sell off big contracts to other teams to acquire other assets that could lead to a brighter future. All because the unknown expansion plans limit what GMs are able to do in the trade market.
In talking to a couple of sources, there’s an expectation that GMs will be able to start trading draft picks at their own will in the near future, potentially meaning that the PWHL’s growth my stymie following next season, at least until the league finds stable ground with a 10-to-12-team operation.
Now, I’m not here to knock the PWHL’s desire to expand its footprint. Attention on the women’s game is at an all-time high, with much of the credit going to the thrilling conclusion of the 2026 Winter Olympics. The league’s getting a nice bump in popularity as well, and they certainly want to strike while the iron is hot.
That said, the uncertainty of what the offseason will look like has killed the mood for what should be one of the most exciting times of the year. I’m not saying trade talks will be quiet, but don’t expect any blockbuster moves given the current restrictions placed on PWHL team executives.
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