Las Vegas is getting another professional hockey team.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League has announced that an expansion franchise has been granted to Las Vegas. Puck drop for the new team will be the 2026-27 season.
The franchise, like all PWHL franchises, will be operated by the league owner Mark Walter Group. A leadership group chosen by the PWHL league office will be based in Las Vegas including a general manager and coaching staff.
A name has not yet been announced, and the team will play most of its home games at T-Mobile Arena. America First Center in Henderson will be the practice facility for the team and business operations.
Players will live in the city during the season.
“For the Golden Knights organization, we have a chance to participate in something that will grow our sport to a place where most wouldn’t have imagined a few years ago,” said Golden Knights President of Business Operations John Penhollow. “The PWHL can decide where they want to go, so it’s a true testament to the work that’s been done here since day one. When Bill Foley decided to put an NHL franchise here, there were doubters, but the organization has helped build this sport up to a level where when a conversation was had with the PWHL, it wasn’t, ‘Could it work?’, instead it was, ‘how are we going to make this work?’ That’s a much different conversation. As an organization, we have the chance to support what is a really elite level of professional hockey. We can support professional women in their efforts to really grow and develop the game. For us, we have girls playing in the system right now that now have a chance to look out on the ice for practice or games and see that this is real. They probably wouldn’t have imagined that it could have been possible in this market. It’s pretty special that we could have some hand in making this happen.”
Girls’ hockey in Las Vegas has grown by 600 percent since the arrival of the Golden Knights. The recently launched NHL Girls Learn To Play program just experienced year-over-year growth of 147 percent.
One of Bill Foley’s pledges to Las Vegas when he brought the Golden Knights here was to grow the game. To that end, Foley has built three new high-end facilities; City National Arena, Lee’s Family Forum, and America First Center.
“We’re blessed to own and operate various facilities that could thrive with a PWHL franchise. The league wants to play in an arena for games that could be 10,000 seats or more. We’ve got that with T-Mobile Arena, while Lee’s Family Forum can accommodate a slightly smaller crowd of 6,000 for a game,” said Penhollow. “From a practice and training perspective, we have two great facilities that are unique in their own way. City National Arena in Summerlin and America First Center in Henderson both could work for PWHL purposes. The team will utilize America First Center because it offers us the greatest opportunity to make it a professional setting for the women as they train and develop, alongside the Henderson Silver Knights in the same venue, and then play their games just minutes away. We’re going to make a few modifications to America First Center in time for the start of the regular season.”
The Golden Knights will not have any ownership or management role with the new PWHL franchise, but they’ll be involved and are eager to help women’s hockey succeed in Las Vegas.
“The role that we’ll play as an organization is to certainly support in every way we can, as well as share some of the things that we have learned since we started our franchise,” said Penhollow. “We will share our insights regarding the families and kids who play the sport and follow our Golden Knights and Silver Knights. We’ll provide some guidance on what it’s like to be in this market and together, we’ll continue to grow the sport and provide great in-venue and community experiences for fans from around the world.”
The league is currently deep into its playoffs with the Ottawa Charge having booked a spot in the final while the Minnesota Frost and Montreal Victoire are tied 2-2 in their best-of-five semifinal.
The Walter Cup Final will be televised nationally on ION, a member of the Scripps Sports family.
About the PWHL (sourced from PWHL website):
League Point System
PWHL teams earn standings points with a 3-2-1-0 system, critically rewarding regulation-time wins to incentivize competitive play for a full 60 minutes every night:
- A regulation win earns a team 3 points towards the league standings
- An overtime or shootout win earns a team 2 points
- Overtime or shootout losses earn 1 point
- Regulation losses earn 0 points
At the end of the regular season, the four teams with the most total standings points compete in the PWHL Playoffs, which consist of two best-of-five semi-finals, and the winners advancing to the best-of-five PWHL Finals for the Walter Cup.
Safety & Gameplay Innovations
The PWHL emphasizes player safety and innovative gameplay through a number of initiatives:
- Player Safety: Major Penalty and Game Misconduct is assessed as a default penalty for all illegal checks to the head during play, and will automatically initiate a further review with the PWHL Central Situation Room.
- Jailbreak Goal: A player serving a minor penalty can “break out” of the penalty box if their team scores a short-handed goal.
- No Escape Rule: Players on a team assessed a penalty that leads to penalty time on the clock are not permitted to change and must remain on the ice until after the following face-off.
Playoffs and Draft Innovations
- Playoff Opponent Selection: The No. 1 seed in the final standings heading into the PWHL Playoffs gets to choose their semi-final opponent between the third and fourth seeds.
- Gold Plan: The Gold Plan is an innovative system used to encourage competitive play by all teams throughout the full regular season. Once a team is mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, the standings points earned (using the league’s 3-2-1-0 system) in their remaining regular-season games are classified as Draft Order Points. The non-playoff team with the most Draft Order Points earns the higher pick in the draft.
League Make-Up
The league’s largest pool of talent in three seasons lists 207 players on the 2025-26 opening rosters representing nine different countries: Canada (94), the United States (88), Czechia (8), Finland (4), Sweden (4), Russia (3), Austria (2), Germany (2), and Switzerland (2).
The league has reached new benchmarks with 25 international players and 62 incoming players with no prior PWHL experience, including 53 college graduates immediately turning pro. These figures reflect the league’s global ascent and development pipeline.
