Exactly five months ago, the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent made their Professional Women’s Hockey League debuts with lofty expectations.
Each roster was well stocked with talent, thanks to a player dispersion process that was designed to ensure the league’s first expansion teams were able to compete on Day 1. Seattle started the year with three of the PWHL’s most productive players of all time. Vancouver looked like the team to beat with a roster led by two of the sport’s top defenders, a superstar forward and some of the top league-wide free agents.
And yet, as the PWHL enters the final week of the 2025-26 season, Vancouver and Seattle are the only two teams that have been officially eliminated from playoff contention. Instead of competing for a Walter Cup — as most pundits predicted — each team will spend their final two games fighting for the No. 1 pick in the 2026 PWHL Draft.
How did a season of promise for two franchises go so sideways?
When The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyzyn first launched his PWHL data model, the Vancouver Goldeneyes had the deepest offensive roster in the league, with a 12.9 offensive rating — 10 full points more than the next-best team, the Montreal Victoire (2.2). Vancouver’s preseason expected win percentage (.560) was also among the highest in the league, but in reality has been nowhere close with a .381 percent win rate heading into its final two games of the season.
Those projections were based on each players’ production and five-on-five goal differentials from the previous two seasons, with 2024-25 being weighted more heavily.
Both expansion teams had several players who did not live up to preseason expectations, but let’s begin with Vancouver.
There are some wins here, perhaps none bigger than Izzy Daniel, who was a savvy pick by Vancouver general manager Cara Morey in the expansion draft. Daniel was just fine in her rookie year with the Toronto Sceptres, but took a significant step as a sophomore in Vancouver, scoring seven goals in 27 games – compared to just two last season. That Sarah Nurse only slightly underperformed, despite missing nearly two months of the season due to injury, stands out as a positive. Mannon McMahon and Anna Meixner, acquired via trade with Ottawa in January, have been solid as well.
But for the most part, players are in the red, including all three big-ticket free agent signings Hannah Miller, Tereza Vanisova and Michela Cava. Those three scored a combined 34 goals on their respective teams last season (Toronto, Ottawa and Minnesota respectively), but have only mustered 10 in Goldeneyes jerseys. Cava only scored one goal in 13 games before she was moved to Ottawa in the January blockbuster. And Miller has only recently come alive consistently, scoring four goals and eight points in her last six games.
It stands to reason that Vancouver’s poor goal differential (-15) collectively brings players’ net ratings down, including Sophie Jaques, who has paced the team in scoring from the blue line. She eats minutes (around 24 per night) and is among Vancouver’s top performers on the ice. But she takes a bit of a hit for scoring at a slower clip than last season (22 points in 25 games compared to 17 through 28) and has been on the ice for more goals against. Last season, Jaques was among the best in the league with a plus-12 rating; this year she’s minus-three.
Very few Goldeneyes players are on pace to match or improve upon their production from last season. So the question is: Why?
Gardner Morey has stood by the roster she built, saying she would not second-guess her lineup choices from the start of the season. So we could just chalk things up to expansion team growing pains. The entire roster had to move out west, adjust to life in Vancouver, learn new systems, and travel more than the league’s original six franchises. Teams in the league’s inaugural season took a while to truly gel, too. So there’s reason to believe a similar core could improve next season, even though it will likely get shuffled due to expansion.
But there should also be some scrutiny on the coach, Brian Idalski, who joined Vancouver from the NCAA’s St. Cloud State. Idalski talked a lot about wanting Vancouver to be difficult to play against with a strong on-ice identity, much like his college team did. But that style hasn’t really translated for Vancouver, which looks like it lacks direction at times.
The Seattle Torrent is a similar story. The team entered the season with an expected win percentage of 0.545 based on the roster Meghan Turner built. However, they’re sitting at a league-worst 0.321.
Turner’s big bet on Danielle Serdachny and Julia Gosling turning things around for their sophomore seasons has panned out well for the Torrent. And Theresa Schafzahl has been a nice addition to the group after being traded from the Boston Fleet in exchange for a struggling Jessie Eldridge, who was expected to be one of the Torrent’s top scoring forwards.
Alex Carpenter and Hilary Knight’s production has dipped from last season, with the latter missing several weeks on long-term injured reserve after winning gold at the 2026 Milan Olympics. Cayla Barnes and Anna Wilgren were one of Montreal’s top defense pairs last season, but are among Seattle’s underperformers.
In many ways, Seattle’s issues are a bit more clearly defined than Vancouver’s. The team is pretty top-heavy with just modest contributions from depth forwards, such as Mikyla Grant-Mentis and Lexie Adzija. And given the roster construction, if star players are even slightly off their game – or out of the lineup entirely – it’s going to hurt the mix.
Goaltending has also been an issue. Corinne Schroeder was one of Seattle’s initial signings back in June and was among the league’s best goalies. In Seattle, however, she’s put up a career-worst .910 save percentage, 2.67 goals against average and has only won five games. When Schroeder really struggled early in the season, rookie Hannah Murphy looked to be a solid back-up plan, winning her first three starts for the Torrent. She’s now lost all eight games she’s started since Dec. 28.
Injuries have also clearly been a factor with Knight and sophomore star Hannah Bilka missing time after the Olympics. Grant-Mentis and top defender Aneta Tejralová have also missed time.
In hindsight, both teams struggled in the 2025 entry draft. Vancouver selected 36-year-old Michelle Karvinen, which at the time looked like another savvy move by Gardner Morey to add a veteran to a roster built to win now.