PWHL Draft 2025 guide: How to watch, top prospects, selection order and more

OTTAWA – Last summer, with a strong class headlined by a star in Sarah Fillier, the entry draft was the highlight of the PWHL offseason. That hasn’t necessarily been the case so far in 2025, thanks to the chaos of the league’s first-ever expansion draft and a frenzy of free agent signings.

But the 2025 PWHL Draft is almost here and there’s elite talent ready to step into the league next season. The draft, which is being hosted at Ottawa’s new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, begins at 7 p.m. ET. The New York Sirens (once again) have the No. 1 pick in the draft and the chance to select (another) game-breaking talent.

Before the Sirens are on the clock, here’s everything you need to know about the 2025 PWHL Draft.

The top prospects

Unlike the last two years, with national team stars Taylor Heise and Fillier, the class of 2025 doesn’t quite have an undisputed No. 1 pick. Instead, the draft is led by a trio of elite college players: Patty Kazmaier Award-winning forward Casey O’Brien, U.S. defender Haley Winn and Czech national team forward Kristýna Kaltounková.

O’Brien was the No. 1 center on the best team in the NCAA last season and was “the best player in college hockey,” according to Wisconsin Badgers coach Mark Johnson. She led the NCAA in scoring with 88 points in 41 games, won her third national championship and is The Athletic’s No. 1 prospect in the 2025 draft class.

She is an excellent playmaker who reads the game at an advanced level and has phenomenal vision and hands as a passer — she had more assists last season (62) than most players in the country had points. O’Brien is defensively responsible, can play in all situations and was able to make an impact on every shift in college.

Winn is a dynamic offensive defender and the best at her position in the draft. She’s an excellent skater and really gifted with the puck when she makes plays on the offensive blue line. A top-10 finalist for the Kazmaier this season, she was named ECAC Player and Defender of the Year. Winn was the second-highest scoring defender in the nation (behind Wisconsin’s Caroline Harvey) and set career highs in goals (14) and assists (32) while leading the Clarkson Golden Knights in scoring with 46 points in 38 games.

Kaltounková is a physically dominant forward with the hardest shot in the draft. She was top-10 in goals in the NCAA this season and tied for the scoring lead for Czechia in her Women’s World Championship debut in April. Kaltounková finished her career at Colgate with program records in goals (111) and game-winning goals (19), and finished just six points shy of the record in points, which is held by Danielle Serdachny, drafted second overall last season.

There’s a small gap between the three, and one could reasonably make a case for each to go first. The team needs offense after losing both Alex Carpenter and Jessie Eldridge in expansion (O’Brien and Kaltounková), but also seems intent on building a superteam on the blue line (Winn).

Other top players include a pair of defenders in Canadian Nicole Gosling, a cerebral offensive defender, and American Rory Guilday, a 5-foot-11 shutdown defender.

Finnish star forward Michelle Karvinen highlights this year’s European contingent. Karvinen is one of the best European forwards of all time and will add a skilled veteran presence to a team’s top nine. She became Finland’s leading scorer at women’s worlds, ahead of Hockey Hall of Fame forward Riikka Sallinen, and remained highly productive in the SDHL with 21 goals and 35 points in 32 games this season.

The consensus around the league is that the draft starts to thin outside of the top two rounds. And while there’s certainly talent to be had deep into the draft, some late-round players might struggle to crack PWHL rosters this year – unless they’re selected by a team decimated by expansion and free agency, like the Ottawa Charge.

How many picks are in the PWHL Draft?

Across six rounds, 48 players will be selected out of a pool of nearly 200 players who declared for this year’s draft.

Not every player who is drafted will be signed and play for the team, considering the CBA-mandated roster limit (23) and teams already having several players under contract for next season. Teams will also invite free agents to training camp, which means there will be meaningful competition for roster spots heading into the 2025-26 season.

The PWHL does not have a secondary league — like the AHL or ECHL — for players should they not crack an active roster. Last season, each team carried three reserve players who could be activated to play on 10-day contracts or be signed full-time should a roster spot open due to injury or a player being cut from the team midseason. There’s also European leagues for players to go to, most notably the SDHL in Sweden.

Though no official partnership has been announced by the league, plenty of players have bounced between the two leagues over the last few seasons. For example, Savannah Norcross played for the New York Sirens in 2024, was cut last season, and will return to New York for 2025-26 after playing one year in the SDHL.

Being the “unofficial development league” for the PWHL is a role the SDHL has been open to taking on.

“If a player isn’t ready to be in the PWHL, we could be the league for players to come to,” Angelica Lindeberg, the SDHL’s chief commercial and chief operating officer told The Athletic in February.

Undrafted players will become free agents and can sign with any team after the draft or try out at training camp.

The 2025 PWHL Draft order

1.  New York Sirens
2. Boston Fleet
3. Toronto Sceptres
4. Montreal Victoire
5. Ottawa Charge
6. Minnesota Frost
7. PWHL Vancouver*
8. PWHL Seattle*

Note: Vancouver and Seattle will alternate positions in all subsequent rounds of the draft. For example, Seattle will have the seventh pick of Round 2 and eighth pick in Round 3. The six inaugural teams will maintain their order of selection.

How the draft order was determined

There are no ping-pong balls in the PWHL, at least not when it comes to determining which team gets the No. 1 pick like the NHL has done for years with its lottery. Instead, the PWHL has adopted the Gold Plan, which was created in 2012 by then-student Adam Gold, and determines the draft order based on the number of points each team earns after being eliminated from the playoffs.

New York won the first pick for a second straight year after being the first team eliminated from the playoffs and accumulating the most draft order points. The Boston Fleet were eliminated from the playoffs after an 8-1 loss against Minnesota in their regular season finale and were awarded the second pick.

Last season, the remainder of the draft order was based on the inverse order of the regular season standings, which meant that despite winning the Walter Cup, Minnesota had the No. 3 pick because it finished fourth heading into the postseason. This year, however, the draft order is the inverse order of the playoff results. The Toronto Sceptres, the lowest-ranked playoff semifinalist, will select third ahead of the Montreal Victoire, the other semifinalist, which finished the regular season on top of the standings. The runner-up Ottawa Charge will select fifth and champion Minnesota Frost will select sixth.

The league’s two newest franchises in Vancouver and Seattle received the final two draft slots. According to the league, a random draw determined the first-round order of selection between the two expansion teams.

Are trades permitted?

All eight PWHL teams are permitted to make trades — which may include 2025 draft picks — until the current signing period pauses on June 27 at 2 p.m. ET. That window will re-open on July 8 at 9 a.m. ET.

There have been blockbuster trades in the PWHL, like Toronto trading Olympic defender Jocelyne Larocque to Ottawa, but very few moves on draft day. Last year, Boston made a surprise trade to move up in the second round — up to seventh from 10th — to draft Czech defender Daniela Pejšová. But the PWHL Draft hasn’t quite been the breeding ground for hockey trades like the NHL, at least not yet.

How much will players make?

As The Athletic reported earlier this month, the PWHL Players Association voted to disclose salaries for the first time in the league’s two-season history. The PA won’t be making a public database with those salaries, but will provide the information upon request.

Contract details have not been made available to the media at this time, as the PA is focusing on supporting players through expansion, the draft and free agency, but we do have some publicly available figures.

Many of the league’s elite players signed three-year contracts paying them at least $80,000 with their chosen team before the league’s inaugural draft in September 2023. According to the collective bargaining agreement, the 2025-26 salary cap will be $1.34 million, with minimum salaries set at $37,131.50. Each team’s average salary will need to be $58,349.50 to be cap compliant.

Teams that lost some of their $80,000+ contracts through expansion might be able to pay top picks more than last year. Others that loaded up in free agency may not have as much cap space to work with.

How to watch

In Canada, TSN will broadcast the first three rounds of the draft on television and online (TSN.ca and the TSN app).

Full coverage of all six rounds will also be available on the network’s premium channel (TSN+) and globally on the PWHL’s YouTube channel.

(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; photos of Nicole Gosling, Haley Winn and Casey O’Brien: Chris Tanouye, Troy Parla, Gil Talbot / Getty Images)