The PWHL experienced a cataclysmic shift last year when it made the decision to add two additional teams for the 2025-26 season.
Not only did the league’s size increase from six to eight teams, but each of the original franchises underwent an upheaval that was always bound to throw a wrench in the dynamics. The aggressive expansion draft — wherein teams were only permitted to protect three players initially — coupled with a signing period that saw a few high-profile stars switch their allegiances meant that, for better or worse, the league was committed to setting its two newest franchises up for success.
Whether the inaugural season for the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent can indeed be classified as successful remains to be seen, but it’s fair to say that there have been a few bumps along the way — for both squads.
With the Toronto Sceptres, who lost two veterans and their top three 2024 draft picks to expansion and free agency and are struggling in their own right, visiting the Goldeneyes for the first time on Thursday (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT) now seems like an opportune time to do a temperature check on the PWHL’s two newest teams.
Here’s a by-the-numbers look at how the expansion teams and some of their most notable players are faring:
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2: Perhaps one of the most high-profile players on the move during the expansion signing period, Sarah Nurse likely did not envision her first year in a Goldeneyes uniform being spent mostly on the sidelines. An upper-body suffered in the first game of the season has limited Nurse to just two contests, but — in an ultimate testament to her abilities — she’s still managed to make an impact in her limited time on ice, scoring in both appearances and doing so in important moments.
Of course, it was Nurse who scored the franchise’s first-ever goal before her injury and it was kismet that she scored two months later in her return against her former team at Scotiabank Arena. Two big games and two big goals left the fanbase to wonder how different this season could have been if the two-time Olympic medallist had been a lineup mainstay.
It might be too late for the Goldeneyes to reverse course and make up the eight-point difference separating them from a playoff spot, but a healthy Nurse for the remaining 17 games, including another clash against her former team, will do loads to help Vancouver end its thus-far disappointing season with some optimism.
.925: Between their lacklustre road record — one win and seven losses, yikes — and a power play that’s operating at a league-low 9.4 per cent, there’s plenty to criticize about the Goldeneyes’ inaugural season. Not Emerance Maschmeyer, however, who has stepped up in net and performed like the Goldeneyes’ MVP this season.
When Vancouver has been floundering, the Team Canada netminder has been a steady force between the pipes, earning a .925 save percentage alongside a 2.32 goals-against average while playing the fifth-most of all PWHL goaltenders. In the past two games alone, Maschmeyer has recorded a .962 and a .955 save percentage, stopping 67 of 70 shots she faced, though both in losing efforts.
What’s perhaps more impressive is that the 31-year-old has upped her game this season despite going from a Walter Cup finalist in the Ottawa Charge to a basement-dwelling team. Prior to joining the Goldeneyes, Maschmeyer had a save percentage of .914 — respectable, to be sure, but with her on pace to, at the very least, match her appearances from last season, the Bruderheim, Alta., native is in fantastic position to put up a career year.
22: With Nurse, Jenn Gardiner and Hannah Martin rounding out the top end of the Goldeneyes’ forward group, you wouldn’t expect goal-scoring to be an issue. Yet an extended injury absence to Nurse and slow starts from Gardiner and Martin have the Goldeneyes smack at the bottom of the league with 22 goals. Most of Vancouver’s forward group has not lived up to the pre-season expectations and is being out-paced by the team’s blue-liners for the time being. Defender Sophie Jaques leads the team with four goals, while Claire Thompson — the only Goldeneye in the league’s top-20 leading scorers — has eight points.
Lack of offence is a team-wide problem — just five players have a shooting percentage in the double digits and Martin, who shot 16.9 and 17.9 per cent in her first two seasons in Toronto, is finding the back of the net on just 3.8 per cent of her shots, sitting with just one goal and five points in 13 contests. Other potential difference-makers have been stifled completely, including Tereza Vanišová — who had 15 goals last season in Ottawa — recording no goals and just five assists across all 13 games. No player on the Goldeneyes has registered 10 points yet.
PWHL goaltending has been above-average this season — especially amongst the league’s top teams (see Boston Fleet’s Aerin Frankel) — but when it comes down to it, you need to score to win, and the Goldeneyes are having trouble with both.
4: Even if the Torrent sit near the bottom of the PWHL standings (more on that later), there’s comfort in the fact that offence has not been as hard to come by as it has been for their expansion cousins. Seattle has four players that sit in the top 20 in league scoring and one, Julia Gosling, ranks eighth. Of course, this is what we’ve come to expect from Alex Carpenter and Hilary Knight, both U.S. national women’s team legends, but Gosling and fellow PWHL sophomore Hannah Bilka have proven themselves to be stars in their own right. Each 24, they’ve taken considerable strides on brand-new teams.
Gosling, who had four goals and 10 points in 30 games for the Sceptres last season, has breezed past that mark in her second year. In 12 games for the Torrent, she’s already potted six goals and 11 points, on pace to finish the season with 15 goals and 27 points. Bilka, meanwhile, has yet to surpass last season’s 11 points in 16 games, but is well on her way with nine points in 12 contests.
The Torrent may not be quite there with the top PWHL teams just yet, but seeing two of their youngsters take a considerable step forward, in addition to their veterans continuing to produce, should be reason for optimism down the stretch.
7 & 8: When the Vegas Golden Knights made the Stanley Cup Final in their first year in the NHL, they were the exception, not the rule. And despite the PWHL’s relentless attempt at parity, the Torrent and Goldeneyes are right where you expect expansion teams to be — in the league’s basement, at seventh and eighth overall, respectively. Growing pains are expected and even putting together a super-team on paper, as the Goldeneyes did, does not always translate into immediate success. Given more time to build chemistry and settle into surroundings, there’s no reason to believe that Seattle and Vancouver will be relegated to the basement for long.
What’s interesting, though, is how things might shift again given the league’s desire to continue adding to the fold. Once the beneficiaries of ruthless expansion, how might the Torrent and Goldeneyes be impacted once the PWHL makes good on its plan to add up to four more teams as early as next season? To what extent can teams plant roots and work on building a steady contender if they’re forced to part with a handful of impact players each off-season to support expansion? PWHLers, though understanding of the nature of business and growing the league, have expressed some frustration with last summer’s high-turnover rate.
The Goldeneyes and Torrent will be competitive — it should be a matter of when, not if. How much further expansion will get in the way of that… well, time will only tell.
