Torrent officially eliminated from 2026 PWHL playoff contention
The first season for one of the PWHL’s newest teams has gone far from plan, but now the franchise can turn its attention to the future.
Thanks to a 4-1 loss against the Vancouver Goldeneyes on Tuesday night at the Pacific Coliseum, the Seattle Torrent were officially eliminated from contention for the 2026 Walter Cup Playoffs. With the team’s overall 19th loss this year, the Torrent have set a new PWHL record for losses in a season, surpassing the New York Sirens’ previous mark of 18 defeats set last year.
Heading into Tuesday’s clash, the Torrent and Goldeneyes both needed a regulation win and the full set of three points to stay alive, meaning an overtime or shootout result would have eliminated both. For Seattle, the night ended as it commonly has this season, with a multi-goal loss.
Vancouver got things started quickly in front of the home crowd with a goal less than three minutes in from Sarah Nurse, before North Vancouver’s own Hannah Miller extended the lead early in the second period. Anna Meixner and Madison Samoskevich boosted the Goldeneyes’ lead even further, putting the home side up 4-0 by the end of 40 minutes.
Needing a miracle in the final frame, the Torrent only mustered a single goal off the stick of Mikyla Grant-Mentis, marking the veteran’s third goal of the season and final one in a playoff-impactful game for the Torrent’s inaugural campaign.
The besties at work 🤝 @MariahKeopple ➡️ @GrantMentis
With the loss, the Torrent can now start accumulating Gold Plan points in its final three games of the regular season.
The Gold Plan was introduced by the PWHL prior to its inaugural season. What it means is, once a team is mathematically unable to qualify for the postseason, it can start earning points in a separate standings – Gold Plan points (or draft-order points). The point system is the same as the rest of the teams, but now the eliminated squad is trying to earn as many points as possible, with the team that gets the most draft points being granted the first overall pick in that year’s PWHL Draft. The Sirens have “won” the No. 1 pick in each of the first two seasons, leading to the team selecting Sarah Fillier and Kristyna Kaltounkova in consecutive years.
There was a lot of excitement heading into the Torrent’s inaugural season. As one of the two expansion franchises, alongside the Goldeneyes, there was a lot of intrigue to see how the team from the Emerald City would perform, especially with big names like Alex Carpenter, Hannah Bilka and captain Hilary Knight coming into the fold.
Despite massive support and record-breaking crowds at Climate Pledge Arena, the team struggled from the get-go. Despite playing in a number of close games, mistakes here and there kept Seattle near the bottom of the standings for most of the year. The Torrent are also the worst team in the league, on the road. Following Wednesday night’s result, the team has lost all 13 true road games (i.e., non-Takeover Tour contests).
It hasn’t helped that the team has been bitten by the injury bug. Bilka and Knight both suffered injuries while representing the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Bilka was shut down for the season due to an upper-body injury, while Knight, who suffered an MCL tear in Milan, missed eight games coming out of the break.
Now with a slight head start in the Gold Plan, they will look to gain as many points as possible against Vancouver, the Minnesota Frost and Montreal Victoire to put themselves atop the draft order, with a chance to select likely one of Caroline Harvey, Abbey Murphy or Lailah Edwards, the three players widely considered to be the top available NCAA prospects.