The newly expanded PWHL launches its fourth season with all 12 teams competing during the first weekend of December, and will include women’s hockey replacing the NHL on CBC’s iconic “Hockey Night in Canada” broadcast, the league announced on Monday.
The season will begin with three games on Dec. 5, starting with the Seattle Torrent traveling to Vancouver to face the Goldeneyes in a repeat of last season’s opener between the PWHL’s two 2025 expansion teams.
The reigning champion Montreal Victoire will launch the PWHL’s new broadcasting agreement with CBC in a prime-time game hosting the yet-to-be-named expansion team in Hamilton. And fellow expansion team San Jose will round out the day hosting the Minnesota Frost.
The remaining six teams will open on Dec. 6, with Ottawa hosting Toronto, New York hosting Boston and an all-expansion matchup featuring Las Vegas hosting Detroit.
The PWHL also released its full schedule of home-openers, with the remainder of the slate to be revealed on Friday. The regular season is set to run through April, though the league has not yet revealed how many games each team will play following the addition of four expansion franchises.
PWHL takes over Hockey Night in Canada
As part of the announcement, the PWHL announced reaching an agreement with Canada’s national public broadcaster to air eight Saturday night games over the course of the season.
The PWHL will partially fill the slot left open after the CBC and Rogers Communications’ sub-licensing agreement expired at the end of the NHL playoffs in June. Though the public broadcaster maintained the rights to the "Hockey Night in Canada" brand name, the move to Rogers ended CBC’s run of airing NHL games that began in 1952.
"Our partnership with CBC has been instrumental in the accessibility and growth of the league," PWHL executive VP of business operations Amy Scheer said. "The opportunity to be part of this iconic brand represents another groundbreaking step for the PWHL to connect with our fans and forge new traditions."
