PWHL to announce Las Vegas expansion team Wednesday

Las Vegas’ professional sports portfolio is expected to grow again this week with the planned addition of a Professional Women’s Hockey League expansion franchise.

An official announcement about the expansion is expected to take place Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

There are eight active teams in the PWHL, with an expansion franchise announced this month for Detroit. Two more expansion teams could be announced to bring the top women’s professional hockey league to 12 members.

It is unclear where a PWHL team would play, but the two options would be T-Mobile Arena, where the NHL’s Golden Knights play, and Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, home to the American Hockey League Silver Knights.

The PWHL currently features the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montreal Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge, Seattle Torrent, Toronto Sceptres and Vancouver Goldeneyes. Each team includes 23 active roster spots.

The 2025-26 PWHL regular season ran from late November through this month and featured 120 games, up from 90 games and 72 games in the prior two seasons.

This season, four teams qualified for the playoffs, Boston, Ottawa, Minnesota and Montreal, which feature two rounds of a best-of-five series, with the champion winning the Walter Cup. The No. 1 seed gets to pick their semifinal opponent under PWHL rules. Overtime games in the playoffs don’t feature a shootout; it’s five on five until a goal is scored.

Ottawa beat Boston and is awaiting the winner of Game 5 of the Minnesota-Montreal series, which was postponed from Monday to Tuesday, due to illness affecting the Victoire.

The PWHL’s Board of Governors includes Billie Jean King, IIana Kloss, Stan Kasten and Royce Cohen.

The PWHL would be the latest in a long line of pro teams to call Las Vegas home in less than a decade. The Golden Knights began playing in Las Vegas in 2017 as an expansion team, followed by the WNBA’s Aces relocating from San Antonio, Texas, in 2018. The NFL’s Raiders followed suit in 2020. moving from Oakland, with the MLB’s Athletics building a $2 billion ballpark on the Strip and are scheduled to relocate from Sacramento to Las Vegas in 2028.

The NBA is exploring expansion to Las Vegas, with a decision on if that will move forward expected by the end of the year. A Las Vegas group also put in a bid with Major League Soccer to relocate the Vancouver Whitecaps to Las Vegas amid the team’s issue in landing a new stadium in Canada.

PWHL teams

In order of 2025-26 finish

1 Montréal Victoire

2 Boston Fleet

3 Minnesota Frost

4 Ottawa Charge

5 Toronto Sceptres

6 Vancouver Goldeneyes

7 New York Sirens

8 Seattle Torrent

x-Detroit

x-Las Vegas

x —Expansion franchises