PWHL Announces Expansion to Detroit

On Wednesday, May 6, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) announced their next expansion team. Ahead of the 2025-26 season, the Vancouver Goldeneyes and the Seattle Torrent were the first two expansion teams after two seasons. Now, as the playoffs are underway in the 2025-26 season and preparations are being made for 2026-27, the league has announced their next expansion team will be in Detroit. 

The Detroit expansion team will play all of their home games at Little Caesars Arena, sharing the arena with the NHL team, the Detroit Red Wings. The team will train at Belfor Training Center. 

The team has not announced their name yet, but its colors will be black, white, and red. They will likely play under the name PWHL Detroit until it is announced. Both Vancouver and Seattle announced their names and logos ahead of the 2025-26 season, but they played with the city name on their jerseys, just like the inaugural six teams did in the 2024 season.

The PWHL also announced the 2026 Entry Draft will be held in Detroit at the Fox Theatre on June 17. This gives the city of Detroit even more of a reason to get excited for the PWHL team that will soon take to their city. 

There hasn’t been an announcement yet of how many teams the league will expand to for the 2026-27 season, but we now know that there will be at least nine in the league’s fourth season. Over the coming weeks, after the Walter Cup Finals, Detroit will soon begin assembling their team. 

What better city to expand to than Hockeytown? The excitement for PWHL Detroit continues to demonstrate the growth of women’s hockey.