West Coast, we’re in: Professional women’s hockey expands to Vancouver

The atmosphere was electric — people waving homemade signs, kids on their parents’ shoulders, chants echoing from every corner. 

It wasn’t a Canucks game. It was something even more rare and special — the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) Takeover Tour showcase.  

I remember looking around in awe and thinking, “This feels historic.” And now, it officially is.

Last week, the PWHL announced that Vancouver will become the league’s seventh team, set to hit the ice in the 2025-26 season. As someone who was in that sold-out crowd, the announcement feels less like a surprise and more like a full-circle moment.

The new team will play home games at the Pacific Coliseum, a venue that oozes old-school charm. If you’ve ever been inside, you’ll know it’s got that gritty, intimate energy that makes hockey feel like it belongs to the people. 

The team will also train just next door at the PNE Agrodome. Both spaces will see major upgrades ahead of the puck drop, including fresh locker rooms, improved training facilities, and updated tech for broadcasting, all while preserving what makes the coliseum, well, the coliseum.

Until the team unveils its official name and logo, it’ll operate under the placeholder PWHL Vancouver, donning the newly established Pacific blue and bream colours. It’s a subtle nod to the coast and a bold entrance into a league that’s only growing stronger.

Vancouver joins the PWHL’s founding six teams — Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto — as the first franchise on the West Coast. It’s a move that reflects not just geographic but cultural growth, too. 

The league is betting big on a city that’s long been a sleeping giant in the women’s hockey scene. This expansion also keeps with the league’s single-entity model, managed by the Mark Walter Group, ensuring stability and a shared vision for the sport’s future.

If you were at the Takeover Tour stop in January, you already know why Vancouver is promising. That night in Rogers Arena set the tone. It was the highest-attended game of the tour. People didn’t just show up — they roared, supported, and believed.

The bid to bring a team here was led by the PNE, and the city checked all the right boxes: rich hockey culture, available facilities, a major urban market, and a community ready to rally behind its athletes. 

That night, I wasn’t just a fan — I was part of something. And now that energy is about to be permanent.

An expansion draft is on the horizon, with more details coming soon. 

Vancouver will also have a seat at the table during the 2025 PWHL draft on June 24, where the building blocks of the roster will start to take shape.

The full season schedule will drop later this summer, but in the meantime, fans can place a time-stamped deposit to lock in priority access to season tickets. Given what I saw in January, those seats won’t stay open for long.

The PWHL isn’t just bringing pro hockey to Vancouver — it’s bringing opportunities. The league is planning to invest in grassroots programs, including camps, clinics, and community events that aim to grow the game from the ground up. If you’ve got young players in your life — especially girls dreaming of the big leagues — this team is going to matter.

When I left Rogers Arena that night, I was buzzing. Not just from the game, but from what it represented. For too long, women’s hockey has had to fight for a fraction of the space it deserves. 

But that’s changing. The league is expanding. The fanbase is showing up. And Vancouver — my new hockey home — is about to be right in the heart of it.

See you at the coliseum.