The complex emotions attached to the end of the PWHL season were probably a bit more familiar for the Ottawa Charge this time around. Amid the disappointment of coming just shy of a Walter Cup once again, Charge players were coming to terms with how the team was playing its final hockey together.
Just a year after adding Vancouver and Seattle expansion teams to the league, the PWHL will now be adding four new teams ahead of next season as it enters the markets of Detroit, Hamilton, Las Vegas and San Jose. On May 27, the league formally announced what the process will look like as it expands from eight teams to 12, and long story short, the six-phase process is quite complex, and it starts immediately.
Pre-Phase 1: Negotiation Lists
The expansion process has already started, as the eight existing teams were asked to submit a negotiation list by Thursday at 3 p.m., with the names of 10 free agents, either from their own rosters or from other teams, that they’d be interested in signing in the first phase. We’ll never know which players are on these lists. The league says they’ll remain private “to ensure teams are able to operate competitively.” But it’s likely this list will include some combination of Ottawa’s 14 free agents, as well as some of the other top talent on expiring contracts across the league. Free agents on the Charge roster include names like Brianne Jenner, Jocelyne Larocque, Kateřina Mrázová, Brooke McQuigge and Alexa Vasko. The players on this list will be the only free agents a team is able to contact and sign during the first phase.
Phase 1: Free Agent Signings and Protection Lists
Fans will start to see the first movement as early as June 2 when Phase 1 officially begins, and free agents can be contacted and signed by existing teams. The first phase won’t yet involve the four expansion teams. While players can talk with the new teams, the new teams won’t begin the roster-building process until Phase 2. Similar to last year, each team will also build a list of the three players it will be protecting from expansion. This list is due on June 3 at 5 p.m., at the end of Phase 1. While Ottawa could, for example, sign a free agent like Minnesota’s Taylor Heise during Phase 1, it’s unlikely that we’ll see big signings between teams this early on. Instead, Phase 1 will likely just see some teams re-signing their own big free agents, as any signings in this phase will automatically count toward one of their three protection slots. On Ottawa’s side, it’s possible that we won’t see a lot of Phase 1 action, as many of the players that GM Mike Hirshfeld may wish to put on his protection list are still signed with the team.
Who Will Ottawa Protect?
While some teams have a relatively simple set of decisions to make about their protections, Ottawa once again has any number of directions it could go. The Charge must carefully consider which three players to shield from the expansion draft, balancing star power with depth. Key candidates for protection include standout goaltender Gwyneth Philips, who made a diving save during Game 3 of the PWHL semifinal against the Boston Fleet on May 8, 2026, at the Canadian Tire Centre, as well as top forwards and defensemen. The decisions made in these first two phases will set the stage for Ottawa’s competitiveness in the expanded league.
