The Professional Women’s Hockey League is poised to add San José as its fourth expansion franchise, a move that will deepen the league’s footprint in the western United States and bring a new team into the same arena that hosts the NHL’s Sharks.
The decision follows a wave of recent growth for the circuit, which welcomed clubs in Detroit and Hamilton, Ontario, over the past year and also saw Seattle and Vancouver join the league in 2025.
A Strategic Push for Geographic Balance
Executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer has emphasized that the league’s top priorities are expanding geographic diversity and trimming the amount of travel required to move between markets. “Our goal is to create a more sustainable schedule that respects the time and resources of our players and fans,” Scheer said in a recent interview.
The prospective San José franchise is expected to call the SAP Center its home, sharing the venue with the Sharks and leveraging the existing infrastructure to reduce startup costs.
League officials are also weighing the possibility of reorganizing the competition into two conferences or divisions, a restructuring that could affect scheduling, rivalries and the path to the championship.
The PWHL’s original six markets — Boston, New York, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Minnesota — remain the core of the league, but the addition of new cities reflects an ambition to broaden its national footprint and to showcase talent in emerging hockey hotspots.