Report: PWHL Las Vegas to sign Knight, trade to Detroit for first-round pick
One of the biggest names in sports is coming to the Motor City.
According to the Associated Press, PWHL Las Vegas is finalizing a deal to sign forward Hilary Knight to a foundational player offer before trading her to Detroit. Per the story, Las Vegas will be receiving the team’s first-round pick of the 2026 PWHL Draft.
The report states that the deal won’t become official until June 16, the day before the draft, and when draft picks are permitted to be traded.
While unofficial, Knight becomes the sixth player to join Detroit. She joins a stacked core that includes Daryl Watts, Hannah Bilka, Cayla Barnes, Jesse Compher and Britta Curl-Salemme.
This is the second year in a row that Knight will play for an expansion team. She signed a one-year contract with the Seattle Torrent, bringing some legitimacy to one of the PWHL’s two teams in the Pacific Northwest. Yet, things didn’t work out for the Idaho native and her new team. The Torrent couldn’t find any consistency, and their lack of offense led to them struggling to keep up with the top squads in the league. On top of that, Knight tore her MCL while representing the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, which kept her out for over a month from Seattle’s return from break.
While the Torrent finished with the worst record in the young history of the PWHL, the 36-year-old posted five goals and nine assists for 14 points in 22 games. It was a far cry from her performance with the Boston Fleet during the 2024-25 season, when she tied the New York Sirens rookie for the most points in the league with 29.
Knight wasn’t one of the three that Torrent general manager Meghan Turner protected, a decision that came to be mutually agreed upon. Seattle protected forward Alex Carpenter, defender Anna Wilgren and goaltender Hannah Murphy.
In 76 regular-season games in the PWHL, Knight has scored 26 goals and 28 assists for 54 points.
Knight’s Olympic career went out with a bang in Milan. Despite playing through injury, she was able to break the U.S. women’s Olympic goal and points record, helping her team win the gold medal for the third time in the country’s history, and second of her career.
With the signing, Detroit has used up all five permitted spots of its roster to fill during Phase 2, which ends on Monday. Hamilton, Las Vegas and San Jose still have a couple of more days to sign players from the 20-player negotiating lists.