When she was playing hockey as a little kid, 16-year-old Emma McLeod said she and her teammates either wanted to play for Team Canada or break into the NHL.
“Now we can say, ‘I want to play in the professional women’s league,'” the Hamilton Hawks U18 defender told CBC News at Inch Park Arena Wednesday. “I just think that’s amazing.”
Also, “amazing,” McLeod said, is the news that a new PWHL team is coming to her city.
“Hamilton is such a hockey town,” the teen said. Her association boasts about 350 girls and women ages six to 22.
Those players have often had to look to Toronto for role models, McLeod said, and it’ll be nice to have some close by.
Emma McLeod plays defence for the Hamilton Hawks U18 team out of Inch Park Arena in Hamilton. (Robert Krbavac/CBC)
The pro women’s hockey league announced its expansion to Hamilton Wednesday, alongside an expansion to Las Vegas. On May 6, the league announced a new team in Detroit. The three-year-old league now has 11 teams, with a 12th expected soon.
This is the second new Hamilton pro hockey team announced this year, after the American Hockey League announced the Bridgeport Islanders would be moving to Hamilton in March.
Both the AHL and PWHL teams will play out of TD Coliseum, the downtown Hamilton arena, which underwent significant renovations before re-opening in November. The venue is offering deposits on season tickets for both teams and has said single-game AHL tickets will cost around $30. The league hasn’t released prices for single Hamilton PWHL games.
New team to train in Ancaster
The PWHL held a news conference at the arena Thursday morning. It announced that the team will train at the Morgan Firestone Arena in the Ancaster neighbourhood of Hamilton.
In a news release, the City of Hamilton said the arena will host “community-focused opportunities, including public and fan access, developmental clinics and youth engagement.” It said the five organizations that play there now will “continue to be accommodated.”
Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath told reporters that facility will receive some “minor renovations,” though not as extensive as those planned for Harry Howell Twin Pad Arena in Hamilton’s Waterdown area, where the AHL team will train.
There will be a news conference announcing that team’s new name on May 21.
WATCH | PWHL Hamilton expansion announcement:
PWHL Hamilton expansion announcement
The PWHL announced the addition of Hamilton, Ont., to its expanding league. Hamilton will join Detroit and Las Vegas as expansion teams that will compete in the 2026/2027 PWHL season.
Outside TD Coliseum on Wednesday, passersby told CBC News they were keen to root for a women’s team.
“Lots of people used to say, [hockey] was just a boy sport. And I’m really excited that it’s going to be a girl one in Hamilton too,” Emma Leblanc said.
“I think it’ll be great to get the community together and show girls and young women in Hamilton that they can do sports, just like guys,” Olive Flosetter said.
Seattle Torrent’s Lexie Adzija (78) celebrates a goal against the Toronto Sceptres during the PWHL game in Hamilton Jan. 3. (Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press)
In January, the Toronto Sceptres and Seattle Torrent played at TD Coliseum as part of the PWHL Takeover Tour, drawing a crowd of 16,012 fans, according to the league.
Of those fans, more than 70 per cent were buying their first PWHL ticket, the league said, meaning there’s an audience in the region that’s distinct from Toronto or Ottawa’s.
“Hamilton boasts one of the largest and most concentrated areas in the world for girls’ hockey participation, with a community that has rallied for a professional hockey team of their own for generations,” the PWHL said in a news release Wednesday.
It said further details about expansions, the process of building up new rosters and how expansion teams will fit into the 2026 draft “will be announced in the coming weeks.”
When the league expanded last year, it held a special draft to build teams in Seattle and Vancouver, but it’s doing something different this time. As CBC Sports previously reported, a memo the PWHL Players Association sent players indicates new teams will be built through a complicated, multi-phase process that could dramatically alter teams.
Similar to other new PWHL teams, Hamilton’s doesn’t have a new name or logo yet. However, the league picked the colours gold, maroon and cream to represent the team. It said maroon is to reference “aged steel” and gold pays homage to the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the former NHL Hamilton Tigers. The NHL killed the Tigers franchise 101 years ago when the players went on strike.
Jim Carrigan, a rep hockey liaison with the Hamilton Hawks, told CBC News he, his daughters and their teammates enjoyed going to the PWHL game in Hamilton. “It was packed. It was loud. Everybody had a great time.”
He said he’s seen women’s hockey grow since the league launched in 2023, and expects the new team will accelerate that trend.
“[Players] already look up to these girls in the PWHL, but to have a team that they can call their own is going to make them very happy,” he said.
There are several Hamilton-area players in the PWHL:
- Hamilton’s Sarah Nurse plays for the Vancouver Goldeneyes, Megan Warrener for the Montreal Victoire and Kayla Vespa for the New York Sirens.
- Renata Fast, Emma Maltais and Lauren Messier of Burlington, Ont., play for the Sceptres.
- Alexa Vasko from St. Catharines, Ont., and Emma Greco from Burlington, play for the Ottawa Charge.
The PWHL announced a Hamilton expansion team on May 13, holding a news conference at TD Coliseum the following day. (Justin Chandler/CBC)
Minister Neil Lumsden, Ontario Minister of Sport, spoke at the news conference Thursday, saying that as excited as he is for the new team, he’s also sad that his daughter — who he described as a gifted athlete — didn’t have the same chance to play sports that her brother did.
“I wish she’d had this opportunity,” he said.
Dozens of players from local girls teams were present Thursday, including the Hawks, Ancaster Avalanche, Stoney Creek Sabres and Flamborough Falcons.
McLeod spoke, alongside Brianne Graves from the Avalanche, Ivy Johnston with the Sabres and Elyse Tidridge of the Falcons. Each shared how excited they are about the new team.
Tessa Bonhomme, Olympic gold medalist and co-host of the PWHL podcast Jocks in Jills, told the news conference that in addition to building momentum for women’s hockey, the new team will also be an opportunity “for a wicked-awesome rivalry with that team up the road,” referring to the Sceptres.
After they spoke individually, McLeod, Graves, Johnston and Tidridge gathered at one mic and said: “To Toronto, bring it on.”
The Charge will face the Victoire in the PWHL finals Thursday, after the Victoire beat two-time Walter Cup champions Minnesota Frost in a series Tuesday night.
