The six-phase PWHL expansion player distribution process is official underway, with existing teams finalizing their protection strategies and expansion General Managers preparing to make their foundational acquisitions. The league has released an overview of the process, as well as the complete rulebook and an explanatory video.
Overall, the premise is that certain windows give priority to either the existing teams or the expansion teams, and that teams are limited to engaging with specific sets of players at various phases, based on who was or was not included in the lists they submit at the onset. By the 2026 PWHL entry draft (scheduled for June 17, in Detroit), each expansion team will have 10 players under contract. Currently, the existing teams have anywhere between five and 11 players under contract for next season.
While the complex process has been described as foregoing a traditional expansion draft to prioritize player autonomy, the 14-page rulebook provides no guarantee that those ideals will be upheld.
They may be gaps, they may be loopholes, they might be entirely intentional – but there are elements of the rules with implications that could play out differently than many expect, and opportunities for expansion GMs to deploy unique strategies in building out their rosters.
The Process, In Brief
Phases 2 through 4 are analyzed in greater depth below, but the broad strokes of the process as a whole are as follows:
Phase 1: A limited free agency period for existing teams; existing teams protect three players at the end, including any players signed during this phase. Each existing team can lose a maximum of one out-of-contract player from its 2025-26 roster during this phase.
Phase 2: Expansion teams acquire their inaugural five players. To do so, each expansion team must first submit an Exclusive Negotiation Target List (ENTL), which is a list of 20 players, both under contract for the 2026-2027 season and out-of-contract, who they are interested in acquiring. Only players on a team's ENTL can be acquired by that expansion team during Phase 2 and Phase 3. These five inaugural players can be acquired via signing (any player who is not protected can be signed by an expansion team, even if they're already under contract for 2026-27), or, if five players aren't signed, the expansion team can simply select players whose rights are held by existing teams (including players under contract for 2026-27) until they reach five players. Players who are not under contract and whose rights are not held by an existing team can only be acquired via signing, not via selection. There are three ways to sign a player: via an Expansion Foundational Offer (EFO), a Foundational Player Offer (FPO), or a standard contract. During Phase 2, each existing team can lose a maximum of three players who are under contract for the 2026-2027 season.
Phase 3: Another limited free agency period, this time for all teams; existing teams protect three players at the end, including any players signed during this phase.
Phase 4: Expansion teams begin signing players they haven't previously targeted (once again, this can include any player who is not protected, even if they're already under contract for 2026-27). Expansion teams can no longer sign any out-of-contract player who was on their ENTL. To reach 10 players, each expansion team must acquire at least two, and up to five, players during this phase. If they do not sign enough players to reach a total of 10, they can select players whose rights are held by existing teams (including players under contract for 2026-27) until they reach 10 players. Existing teams can lose a maximum of four players under contract for 2026-27 during the entirety of the process up to and including this phase – a number which does not include the one player a team can lose during Phase 1, since a player lost in Phase 1 would not have been under contract for 2026-27.
Phase 5: Essentially, a re-signing period for existing teams, with the entry draft in between. If a team holds the rights to an out-of-contract player, those rights are only retained past this phase if a qualifying offer is made.
Phase 6: Free(ish) agency. Out-of-contract players can sign with any team, but there are some restrictions for players who were on a team's ENTL (in other words, who were eligible to be signed by an expansion team in Phases 2 and 3).
The full rulebook also includes details regarding contract terms and salary requirements, precise deadlines, orders of operation, and tie break procedures.
An Offer They Can't Refuse
During Phase 2, each expansion team is required to acquire five players. One player for each team may be signed to an EFO, which is a binding offer that the player must sign in order to remain in the league. The PWHL will manage the EFO process centrally, with teams providing ranked lists of out-of-contract players, and players either being assigned to the team that ranked them first or, if multiple teams ranked a player equally, assigned to negotiate with those teams and choose which offer to sign.
In exchange for the loss of autonomy, the player receives a fully guaranteed contract worth at least $100,000 and the right to unilaterally determine its term between one and four years, as well as a $20,000 upfront signing bonus if the deal is multi-year.
By Any Other Name
The other named offer format is the FPO, which is a label given automatically to any offer made by an expansion team to an out-of-contract player which has a contract length of two or more years and a salary of at least $80,000 in its first year and $82,500 in its second – roughly $20,000 above the CBA-mandated average salary. Unlike the EFO, an FPO is non-binding, meaning that the player isn't required to sign it. But the question in practice will be: does she really have a choice?
A player who receives, but does not sign, an FPO during Phase 2 can negotiate with all teams in the Phase 3 Preliminary Open Signing Period, but if she does not sign a contract worth at least $73,125 by the end of Phase 3, she is ineligible to sign during any subsequent phase and, as such, would effectively be barred from playing in the PWHL during the 2026-27 season.
At first glance, it may seem like a player who is skilled enough to be offered a contract meeting the FPO terms would be highly sought-after, and likely to receive compliant offers from other teams in Phase 3. But it's worth remembering that existing teams can only protect three additional players during Phase 3, and that number necessarily includes any player they've signed during that phase. It's plausible that existing teams may be focused on protecting already-rostered players with the limited spots available, or unwilling to offer the mandatory $73,125. There is no requirement that an expansion team which made an FPO in Phase 2 maintain that offer during Phase 3, which means that a talented player who declines to sign an FPO during Phase 2 could be left with no options in Phase 3 – and consequently, no place in the league.
Players' abilities to negotiate with other teams while considering an FPO is also highly limited: The Victory Press has confirmed that during Phase 2 when FPOs are being made, existing teams are only permitted to contact out-of-contract players who were on their own 2025-26 rosters, not those who played on other teams. In other words, unless it was preemptively discussed during Phase 1 negotiations, a player who receives an FPO will have no way of knowing whether other teams would be willing to offer her a contract meeting the minimum requirements in Phase 3, and will therefore be required to make her decision with huge risk attached. Creating that pressure to sign could incentivize teams to make offers which meet the FPO terms, even if they otherwise might have opted to offer less.
Finally, expansion teams can make offers to players already under contract with existing teams, so long as the proposed salary is equal to or greater than the average annual value (AAV) of the player's existing contract. Players who receive these offers are at liberty to decline, but they risk being selected during the Phase 2 Foundational Roster Completion instead, in which case their existing contract terms would carry over to the new team.
4D Chess
For expansion GMs, the rules also provide ample opportunity to strategize a player acquisition plan that falls outside of expected parametres, and perhaps reduces the competition they face to obtain targeted players.
While the majority of the rulebook addresses signing procedures, The Victory Press has confirmed that an expansion team is not required to make any minimum number of offers during any phase of the process. In other words, a GM could opt to focus on players already under contract or whose rights are held by existing teams, and acquire a majority of their players via selection rather than signings.
For a team, there are two key potential advantages to going this route: firstly, the possibility of acquiring a substantial balance of players on contracts with lower cap hits; and secondly, the ability to access a group of athletes in Phase 2 who, unlike out-of-contract players, are unavailable to seven existing teams (outside of a trade), and who may be less likely to feature on the ENTL of other expansion teams, should those prioritize of out-of-contract players.
If an expansion team runs out of available players on its ENTL during Phase 2, it can request that the league approve added players. But any additional players would not be eligible to receive an EFO, an FPO, or to be selected in Phase 2, so teams are incentivized to take a strategic approach to their ENTL. If expansion teams' lists overlap significantly, teams could risk running out of available players, with their only remaining option being to negotiate with unprotected players, or with out-of-contract players on offers that don't meet the FPO threshold – offers which may not be particularly compelling.
Because an expansion team is no longer permitted, from Phase 4 onwards, to sign any player on an expiring contract who had been listed on its ENTL, each expansion GM will want to strategize their approach and priorities for the process as a whole before submitting their list: it's not just who's on the list that matters, but also who isn't. Phase 4 is also the last chance for expansion teams to acquire players already under contract with existing teams (apart, of course, from a trade), so shrewdly determining which under-contract players to include on the ENTL and which to hope remain available in Phase 4 could be a game-changer.
