PWHL Notebook: Victoire, Charge to battle for Walter Cup

With the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s third season underway, NHL.com staff writer Anna Kulesa will be filing a biweekly notebook on all the happenings in the league. Today, a look at the 2026 Walter Cup matchup and the league’s expansion.

Victoire, Charge to battle for Walter Cup

The Montreal Victoire and Ottawa Charge are set to face off for the Walter Cup on Thursday. Game 1 of the best-of-5 series will be played at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec. 

Montreal punched its ticket to its first Walter Cup Final after by defeating the Minnesota Frost 2-1 in Game 5 of the semifinals on Tuesday. Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin notched the game-winner on the power play at 3:06 of the third period to eliminate the back-to-back champions. It was Poulin’s second game-winning goal of the series. The forward also scored the triple-overtime winner during Game 2 on May 5.

Ottawa upset the No. 2 seed Boston Fleet in four games during the semifinals. Charge forward Michela Cava scored the double-overtime winner in Game 4 to advance Ottawa to its second-straight Walter Cup Final appearance. Ottawa goalie Gwyneth Philips made 43 saves in the 4-3 win to earn the PWHL’s player of the week honors. Philips only allowed two goals total in Games 2 and 3 of the series.

Expansion, expansion, expansion!

The PWHL is expanding to three new cities next season ... and counting. The league announced it will be adding teams in Detroit, Las Vegas and Hamilton, Ontario for the 2026-27 season. As the League's ninth team, PWHL Detroit will play all home games at Little Caesars Arena, the home of the Detroit Red Wings. The arena has hosted four PWHL neutral site games in the past three seasons. Detroit’s primary colors will be black and silver with white and red accents as the secondary colors, an homage to the city's industrial spirit and a nod to the Red Wings.

PWHL Hamilton will play at TD Coliseum, which hosted its first PWHL Takeover Tour game this season. More than 15 percent of PWHL players are from the Hamilton, Ontario area. The team’s colors will be gold, maroon and cream. PWHL Las Vegas will play at T-Mobile Arena, also the home of the Vegas Golden Knights. Their colors will be green and gold, inspired by Southern Nevada’s natural tones. Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel welcomed the PWHL to Vegas in a video posted to social media.

A fourth expansion city, to bring the total number of PWHL teams to 12, is set to be announced in the coming days.

PWHL Draft date and location set

The 2026 PWHL Draft presented by Upper Deck will be held on Wednesday, June 17, at Fox Theatre in Detroit. A total of 235 eligible players declared for the Draft, the largest pool of prospects since the PWHL's inaugural season, including 128 forwards, 69 defenders and 38 goalies. Five Team USA gold medalists — Caroline Harvey, Laila Edwards, Kirsten Simms, Tessa Janecke and Abbey Murphy — headline a list of 23 draft-eligible players who competed at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. The league will also hold the 2026 PWHL Awards presented by Ally Financial at the same location on Tuesday, June 16.