2025 PWHL Draft
| 2025 PWHL Draft | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Date(s) | June 24, 2025 |
| Location | Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
| Overview | |
| 48 total selections in 6 rounds | |
| League | Professional Women's Hockey League |
| First selection | New York Sirens |
The 2025 PWHL Draft will be the third annual draft in Professional Women's Hockey League history, and will take place on June 24, 2025, at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Eligibility
[edit]The declaration period for the draft opened on March 1, 2024, and closed on May 8.[1] Undrafted players will become free agents; players must declare for the draft to reach free agency. Selected players may re-enter the draft if they are not signed to their draft club after two years. No player may declare for more than two drafts.[2] Players ineligible to play in the 2025–26 season are not eligible to be selected.
On May 15, 2025, the PWHL released the full list of eligible players. In total, 199 eligible players declared for the draft, of which 117 were forwards, 56 were defenders, and 26 were goaltenders.[3]
Top prospects
[edit]Top skaters
[edit]- Source: The Hockey News (June 1, 2025) ranking.[4]
| Ranking | Player | School/club team |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kristýna Kaltounková (C) | Colgate (NCAA) |
| 2 | Haley Winn (D) | Clarkson (NCAA) |
| 3 | Casey O'Brien (C) | Wisconsin (NCAA) |
| 4 | Nicole Gosling (D) | Clarkson (NCAA) |
| 5 | Natálie Mlýnková (LW) | Minnesota (NCAA) |
| 6 | Rory Guilday (D) | Cornell (NCAA) |
| 7 | Michelle Karvinen (LW) | Frölunda HC (SDHL) |
| 8 | Anne Cherkowski (C) | Clarkson (NCAA) |
| 9 | Kendall Cooper (D) | Quinnipiac (NCAA) |
| 10 | Jenna Buglioni (C) | Ohio State (NCAA) |
Top goaltenders
[edit]- Source: The Hockey News (June 1, 2025) ranking.[4]
| Ranking | Player | School/club team |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sanni Ahola | St. Cloud State (NCAA) |
| 2 | Hannah Murphy | Colgate (NCAA) |
| 3 | Ena Nystrøm | Brynäs IF (SDHL) |
Expansion
[edit]The PWHL established two new teams for the 2025–26 season in Seattle and Vancouver. In order to help these new teams fill their rosters, the league granted them an exclusive signing window from June 4–8, and held an expansion draft on June 9, 2025.
Protected lists and exclusive signing window
[edit]Before 5:00 pm on June 3, each current team submitted the names of three current players under contract for next season to the league to be protected from signing by the expansion teams. After a current team lost two players, they were then allowed to protect a fourth player. Once the protected lists were submitted, the Seattle and Vancouver teams had a five-day exclusive window, from June 4 through June 8, to sign up to five players each. Any player who was either unprotected, or on an expiring contract, could be signed by either expansion team.[5]
Protected players
[edit]Sources: [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
Signed players
[edit]| Round | Seattle | Vancouver | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Former team | Player | Former team | |
| 1 | Hilary Knight[14] | Boston Fleet | Claire Thompson[15] | Minnesota Frost |
| 2 | Danielle Serdachny[16] | Ottawa Charge | Sophie Jaques[17] | Minnesota Frost |
| 3 | Cayla Barnes[18] | Montreal Victoire | Sarah Nurse[19] | Toronto Sceptres |
| 4 | Alex Carpenter [20] | New York Sirens | Emerance Maschmeyer[19] | Ottawa Charge |
| 5 | Corinne Schroeder[21] | New York Sirens | Jennifer Gardiner[22] | Montreal Victoire |
Expansion draft
[edit]On June 9, the two expansion teams drafted at least seven additional players from the current PWHL teams, until they reached a 12-player roster. If one (or both) of the expansion teams signed fewer than five players during the exclusive signing window, they would receive more than seven picks in the expansion draft.[5] On June 6, 2025, PWHL Seattle announced that they had come to agreement with New York Sirens goaltender Corinne Schroeder, ensuring that both teams picked the minimum number of players (seven) in the expansion draft.[23]
Brooke McQuigge, Gabby Rosenthal, and Anna Wilgren are restricted free agents with their rights controlled by Vancouver or Seattle; they will technically not be members of those teams until they sign a contract in free agency.
| Number | Player | Position | PWHL team | Team drafted from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ashton Bell | D | PWHL Vancouver | Ottawa Charge |
| 2 | Aneta Tejralová | D | PWHL Seattle | Ottawa Charge |
| 3 | Hannah Bilka | F | PWHL Seattle | Boston Fleet |
| 4 | Brooke McQuigge | F | PWHL Vancouver | Minnesota Frost |
| 5 | Abigail Boreen | F | PWHL Vancouver | Montreal Victoire |
| 6 | Jessie Eldridge | F | PWHL Seattle | New York Sirens |
| 7 | Julia Gosling | F | PWHL Seattle | Toronto Sceptres |
| 8 | Izzy Daniel | F | PWHL Vancouver | Toronto Sceptres |
| 9 | Gabby Rosenthal | F | PWHL Vancouver | New York Sirens |
| 10 | Anna Wilgren | D | PWHL Seattle | Montreal Victoire |
| 11 | Megan Carter | D | PWHL Seattle | Toronto Sceptres |
| 12 | Denisa Křížová | F | PWHL Vancouver | Minnesota Frost |
| 13 | Sydney Bard | D | PWHL Vancouver | Boston Fleet |
| 14 | Emily Brown | D | PWHL Seattle | Boston Fleet |
Format
[edit]The eight teams will pick in each of six rounds for a total of 48 selections. The top selection in the draft was determined by the Gold Plan, where standings points accumulated by a team that can no longer make the playoffs count as draft order points, and the team with the most draft order points received the first overall selection.[5]. On June 13, the PWHL announced the order that all teams would pick for all six rounds of the draft.[24]
Selections by round
[edit]Round one
[edit]| # | Player | Nationality | PWHL team | School/club team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York Sirens | |||
| 2 | Boston Fleet | |||
| 3 | Toronto Sceptres | |||
| 4 | Montreal Victoire | |||
| 5 | Ottawa Charge | |||
| 6 | Minnesota Frost | |||
| 7 | PWHL Vancouver | |||
| 8 | PWHL Seattle |
References
[edit]- ^ Kennedy, Ian (March 2, 2025). "PWHL's Draft Declaration Period Is Officially Open". TheHockeyNews.com. The Hockey News. Retrieved June 2, 2025.
- ^ Kennedy, Ian (April 15, 2025). "Ottawa To Host 2025 PWHL Draft On June 24". TheHockeyNews.com. The Hockey News. Retrieved June 2, 2025.
- ^ "PWHL Releases 2025 Draft Eligibility List Featuring 199 Players Representing 15 Countries". Professional Women's Hockey League. May 15, 2025. Retrieved June 2, 2025.
- ^ a b Kennedy, Ian (June 1, 2025). "2025 PWHL Draft: Final Rankings". TheHockeyNews.com. The Hockey News. Retrieved June 2, 2025.
- ^ a b c Kennedy, Ian (May 19, 2025). "PWHL Unveils Expansion Draft Rules". TheHockeyNews.com. The Hockey News. Retrieved June 2, 2025.
- ^ "PWHL Announces Player Protection Lists For 2025 Expansion Roster Building Process". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 3, 2025. Retrieved June 3, 2025.
- ^ Kennedy, Ian (June 3, 2025). "The Picks Are In: Here's Who Each PWHL Team Protected And Left Exposed For Expansion". TheHockeyNews.com. The Hockey News. Retrieved June 3, 2025.
- ^ "Minnesota Frost Adds Britta Curl-Salemme To Protected List For 2025 PWHL Expansion Roster Building Process". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 4, 2025. Retrieved June 4, 2025.
- ^ "Ottawa Charge Adds Gabbie Hughes To Protected List For 2025 PWHL Expansion Roster Building Process". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 5, 2025. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
- ^ "Montréal Victoire Adds Erin Ambrose to Protected List For 2025 PWHL Expansion Roster Building Process". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 5, 2025. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
- ^ "New York Sirens Add Maja Nylén Persson To Protected List for 2025 PWHL Expansion Roster Building Process". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 6, 2025. Retrieved June 6, 2025.
- ^ "Boston Fleet Adds Shay Maloney To Protected List for 2025 PWHL Expansion Roster Building Process". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 9, 2025. Retrieved June 9, 2025.
- ^ "Toronto Sceptres Add Emma Maltais To Protected List for 2025 PWHL Expansion Roster Building Process". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 9, 2025. Retrieved June 9, 2025.
- ^ "PWHL Seattle Signs Hilary Knight to One-Year Contract". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 4, 2025. Retrieved June 4, 2025.
- ^ "PWHL Vancouver signs Claire Thompson to one-year contract". thepwhl.com. June 4, 2025. Retrieved June 4, 2025.
- ^ Kennedy, Ian (June 4, 2025). "Danielle Serdachny Heading To PWHL Seattle". TheHockeyNews.com. The Hockey News. Retrieved June 4, 2025.
- ^ "PWHL Vancouver signs Sophie Jaques to three-year contract". thepwhl.com. June 4, 2025. Retrieved June 4, 2025.
- ^ "PWHL Seattle signs Cayla Barnes to one-year contract". thepwhl.com. June 5, 2025. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
- ^ a b Kennedy, Ian (June 4, 2025). "PWHL Vancouver Reportedly Adding Sarah Nurse And Emerance Maschmeyer, Jaques Signs Extension". TheHockeyNews.com. The Hockey News. Retrieved June 4, 2025.
- ^ "PWHL Seattle signs Alex Carpenter to one-year contract". thepwhl.com. June 6, 2025. Retrieved June 6, 2025.
- ^ "PWHL Seattle Signs Corinne Schroeder to Two-Year Contract". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 6, 2025. Retrieved June 6, 2025.
- ^ "Jenn Gardiner Signs With Hometown PWHL Vancouver". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 5, 2025. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
Surrey, BC, native signs a one-year contract to become the fifth and final player to join the expansion team during the exclusive signing window
- ^ "2025 PWHL Expansion Draft Presented By Upper Deck". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 9, 2025. Retrieved June 9, 2025.
- ^ "PWHL Announces Broadcast Details and Order of Selection for 2025 Draft". ThePWHL.com. Professional Women's Hockey League. June 13, 2025. Retrieved June 13, 2025.