On a gorgeous April morning, with the backdrop of Stanley Park and the North Shore mountains in the distance, history was made on Wednesday as Vancouver was named as the 7th city in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
The PWHL and Vancouver have been destined for one another for quite some time. From the moment the PWHL launched in 2024, Vancouver hockey fans have been clamouring for their own team on the West Coast, and why wouldn’t they? The Canucks boast one of the most diverse, well-rounded and most passionate fanbases in the NHL, and the women’s game has received equally warm welcomes to the city throughout the last quarter-century.
Now the PWHL is putting down roots in British Columbia, in what everyone believes will be a long and fruitful chapter in professional women’s hockey. The team will be owned by the Walter Group, under the same single-entity ownership that operates the league and its’ original six teams. The Walters, Mark and Kimbra, have made an impact across the sports landscape; they’re also part of the ownership group for the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers and Chelsea FC of the Premier League.
Things for PWHL Vancouver are already off to an incredibly hot start; premium membership deposits for season tickets have already sold out, with only general deposits left. But there’s still lots to sort out before games get underway at the Pacific Coliseum for the 2025-26 season. Here are some takeaways from Wednesday’s event.
Women’s hockey history runs through Vancouver
Starting with the official announcement being made by the U11 Vancouver Angels, a big emphasis of the press conference was put on highlighting Vancouver’s stamp on the history of the women’s game. A story that traces back over an entire century.
The Vancouver Amazons were the city’s first women’s team in the 1920s, sharing the Denman Arena with the Vancouver Millionaires. The Amazons won back-to-back West Coast Women’s championships in 1921 and 1922, considered then to be the biggest trophy in women’s hockey.
Among the attendees for Wednesday’s press conference was Patty Kaye, representing the family of former Amazons player Thelma Kaye. Kaye and the rest of the 1921-22 team was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2024.
In more recent years, Rogers Arena hosted the iconic gold medal game of the 2010 Winter Olympics, where Marie-Philip Poulin first became “Captain Clutch” with a pair of goals and Shannon Szabados pitched a 2-0 shutout to win gold on home soil. And last year’s Takeover Tour game, which brought a sellout crowd of 19,038, all but sealed the city’s need for its own PWHL franchise.
The new Vancouver team is also setting its sights on the future, promising to host clinics and camps around Vancouver and the province to grow the next crop of women’s hockey stars.
A Rink of Their Own
If there’s one massive advantage Vancouver will have out of the gate, it’s the Pacific Coliseum. And it’s a match made in heaven.
The Rink on Renfrew’s hockey history needs no introduction, hosting the Canucks from the 1970 to 1995, as well as Stanley Cup Finals and Memorial Cup championships. But no team has called the arena home since the Vancouver Giants left for Langley in 2016. Now a decade later, a new tenant finally arrives on the PNE grounds.
Outside of the occasional concert or event, the PWHL will have the Coliseum all to themselves, a big step forward for the three-year-old league. In each of the league’s other six homes, teams share the ice with an NHL, AHL, or junior team. At the Coliseum, the Vancouver team will have first dibs on scheduling.
According to Amy Scheer, the league’s EVP of Business Operations, the Coliseum also offers extra branding and sponsorship opportunities that the other teams won’t have.
“We’re coming here with a clean sheet of ice that we could sell, the Zamboni that we could sell, and so that primary tenant thing is huge,” Scheer said. “It provides us with ways that we could have our sponsors engage with us in ways that they really can’t in other arenas.”
The Coliseum will be recieving numerous upgrades in the technology and broadcast departments before the puck drops, including receiving a new scoreboard. All of these are aspects PWHL EVP of Hockey Operations Jayna Hefford is excited about.
“The opportunity we have to brand that building and make it our own and make it an ideal professional setup for the women in our league is something that was so appealing,” Hefford said. “The partnership with the folks at the PNE has just been fantastic, and they’re ready to grow the game with us.”
But wait, there’s more: the next door Agrodome will become the Vancouver team’s main practice facility, with both PNE arenas undergoing upgrades to the locker room and training areas before the team arrives.
This also means the PWHL franchise will have their own practice facility done before the Canucks, despite that process starting years before.
Scheduling
Another situation the Canucks are more than familiar with are the unique headaches of scheduling and travel. As of right now, Vancouver’s closest opponents are the Minnesota Frost, two time zones away. But the travel picture will likely clear up when the PWHL makes its next expansion announcement, which is rumoured to be Seattle.
Hefford refused to give away anything about a Seattle team, but also wasn’t worried about the logisitics of scheduling games for Vancouver.
“We’re rolling around the schedule right now and it’s going to depend on how many teams are in next season, and what that looks like,” Hefford said.
Scheer added that plans for next season’s Takeover Tour will likely be used to cushion any road trips to Vancouver as well. Games in Calgary, Edmonton, Colorado and Winnipeg are just a few of the example stops that could be added before or after matches at the Coliseum on the calendar.
“Not that every road trip for a team going east to west will stop somewhere in between, but we think we could have a series of trips that a Takeover Tour game will be a stopover either coming out or going back,” Scheer said. “So we feel that we can make the travel palatable for the players.”
Two months: so much to do, so little time
While puck drop for PWHL Vancouver won’t happen until autumn, the first big date on the calendar for the club is June 24, when the PWHL Draft takes place in Ottawa.
Aside from a temporary name and two official colours – Pacific Blue and Cream – the league still has a general manager and front office staff to find in two months, ahead of the planned expansion draft and June’s regular draft.
The expansion draft rules are still being finalized according to Hefford, but Vancouver’s new team will almost certainly get the chance to pluck a player from each of the Original Six teams. As will the expected Seattle team that Vancouver will share the stage with.
Whether PWHL Vancouver will be more focused on assembling a veteran laden roster, or building around players of the future, will be a philosophy chosen by the team’s inaugural GM. Who the Walter Group selects for that position will chart the franchise’s course for years into the future, but Hefford is confident that person can make the team into a Walter Cup contender right away.
“It’s a priority for us that every team in our league can compete for a championship,” Hefford said. “We’re excited about the opportunity to bring in some really talented hockey people into this market.”
