Women's professional hockey is officially coming to Hockeytown. The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) announced Wednesday that Detroit will be the first of up to four expansion markets joining the league for next season—a major milestone for the sport and the city that breathes hockey.
Detroit's selection is no accident. The league has built a strong partnership with the Ilitch family, owners of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings, and the city has already proven it can pack the house. The PWHL hosted four neutral-site games at Little Caesars Arena, drawing a combined crowd of 53,626 fans. One of those games, played in March, marked the league's first-ever U.S. national TV broadcast and pulled in 15,938 passionate supporters.
"From the get-go, we have really felt the passion that this city and state have for hockey and the PWHL," said Amy Scheer, the league's executive vice president of business operations. "It's the perfect place for us to grow."
Detroit's first neutral-site game during the PWHL's inaugural 2024 season sparked the league's popular "Takeover Tour," a multicity road show that has now run for two years. That tour, Scheer said, was inspired directly by the energy Detroit brought from day one.
As a bonus, the PWHL also announced that Detroit will host the league's draft and awards ceremony in mid-June. The draft, set for June 17, features a highly anticipated class of prospects, including U.S. gold medal-winning Olympians Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards—the first Black female player to represent Team USA.
With Detroit on board, the PWHL now fields nine teams. That's up from the six that launched in 2024, and it follows last year's expansion into Seattle and Vancouver. And the league isn't done yet. Scheer confirmed that the PWHL plans to add between two and four more markets this spring, though she didn't specify which cities are next in line.
Denver is widely considered a front-runner, especially after a Takeover Tour game in January 2025 drew 14,018 fans who chanted "We want a team!" Las Vegas is also in the mix, with the NHL's Golden Knights having spent the past two years actively courting the league.
For Detroit, this expansion is more than just a new team. It's a homecoming for women's hockey in a city that has long defined the sport's identity. And for fans of the game—and the gear that goes with it—there's never been a better time to show your support.